What's Your Story?

In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace which he has freely given us in the One he loves. - Ephesians 1:12

Once upon a time, in a land no longer far away, a child was born.  Naked, bloody and helpless it was thrown into the wilderness to die.  Before wild beasts could devour it, the Master of the sun – and everything under it – rescued the child because it was his.  He made a covenant he would always keep, and loved it with a Love too powerful to comprehend.

Like most children, this child’s gratitude was conditional, and its memory short.  Over time a pattern emerged that grieved the father’s heart.  When the child misbehaved, the father rescued, warned and forgave.  After a period of remorse, the child rebelled again, and again the father rescued, warned and forgave.  The child continued to ignore its father’s warnings, behaving more detestably than the wickedest children in the world!  

Many years passed and the child forgot Who, where, and what condition it was in when rescued.  At his wit’s end – and in an effort to ultimately save the child’s life – the father did something he had never done before.  He withdrew his favor.  His punishment is reputed to have equaled the severity of the child’s depravity.  It also proved the depth of the father’s love.  

As the story goes, the father kept all his covenant promises to the child, eventually extending those promises to his adopted children as well.    

And the rest, they say, is history.

You may recognize this story.  It’s my sophomoric attempt to summarize a portion of the prophet Ezekiel’s graphic, sometimes pornographic, message to the children of Israel (see Ezekiel 5).  

Paul began his letter to the Christians in Ephesus by reminding them of the spiritual blessings they enjoy because God adopted them and treated them like his own flesh and blood.  

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There is properly no history, only biography.”  From the beginning of time our “biography” has been part of God’s plan.  It not only reminds us of our past, but reveals our future as well.

Awesome Father, you rescued us when we were too rebellious to know we needed rescuing.  Your love is so great it breaks our hardened hearts.  Fill us with your presence so our lives can be a praise to your glorious grace.  Through Christ we pray, amen.

Sandra Milholland

Abilene, Texas

Thank You, Shirley

“Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13:7-8

Some people we meet while on our journey through this life stand out like a neon sign on a dark night. The light that shines from within them beams across our path and shows us where the next steps need to fall.  Her name is Shirley Eubank and the light glowing from within her made a lasting impression on me and served as a welcome guide for a portion of my journey.

When I was still fairly young in my faith, with few scrapes or bruises, I came to know Shirley. She was the wife of an elder, the mother of three, and a rock in the faith. Shirley had leukemia. Many times she would come to worship feeling nauseous or so exhausted from treatments that she could barely stand. Yet she always brought a smile with her and an encouraging word. Though she was nearly twenty-five years my senior she treated me as a close friend. She loved and encouraged me and my husband, Randy, frequently commenting on what a good lesson he preached or how blessed she was to know us. I felt warmth and love every time I was in her presence. Though it would be a few years before I experienced difficult struggles – the kind that rock your faith – I learned something from Shirley about trials that I never forgot. We were talking one day about the story of Job. Shirely had been reading the book of Job for her daily study. I knew the story of Job but Shirley had traveled inside the story of Job. One day she was talking about her illness and I was startled by something she said. She said, “Why NOT me?”

At the time, I was so impressed by her faith. It wasn’t until years later and miles traveled through life that I truly understood what she was saying.

Struggles and trials of one kind or another will fall upon all of us. Our journey is not without its share of potholes and roadblocks. The ways we see our struggle, or maybe the way we see God, can serve to strengthen or destroy our faith in God and His purposes.

During those stretches of road when I couldn’t see around the next bend and wasn’t sure I would survive the trip I had to stop and think why? Then I remembered Shirley. And so many others. I thought of Joseph and David whose lives were turned upside down by people with questionable motives. I thought about the woman at the well and the woman with the issue of blood. So many people mentioned in scripture who survived the struggle, grew in their faith, and serve as a reminder to me that my struggle may serve a greater purpose of which I’m totally unaware. For David it was to prepare him to lead a nation and leave us the beautiful prayers and songs of the Psalms. For Joseph it was to save a nation and his family. Our trials may not have such grand purposes. Or maybe they do. Perhaps the experience is to strengthen our own faith that we might endure to the end and receive the crown. Maybe it is so a loved one, friend, or even an enemy might see God.

Shirley was a simple and beautiful Christian woman living in a small west Texas town. Her strength and grace in trial helped light the path on my journey so that I might see God and His purposes.

Father, make our hearts open and willing to receive whatever comes our way knowing that you care for us and that you can see around the bend in the road. Help our hearts and minds to trust and believe you. Give us the desire to be part of your purposes here on the earth. Keep our eyes fixed on you. Amen

Heidi Daugherty
Stephenville, Texas

Answer Envy

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV)

Do you ever envy God’s answers to someone else’s prayers?

I remember almost choking on the words, “I am so happy for you!” in response to the breaking news that friends of ours from North Carolina had sold their house after it had been on the market for twenty days.  To them it had been a long twenty days. Houses were normally snatched up quickly in their area. In our shaky West Texas economy, however, it takes a bit longer. In fact, on the day she announced that her home now had a “sold” sign in the front yard, we turned another page on our calendar — marking how long our house had been for sale. Not twenty days, but twenty months to be exact.

Although I was genuinely thrilled for my friend, I was also a tad green with jealousy.  I call this answer envy. It is that “poor me” mentality that creeps into my heart when God answers someone else’s prayers more quickly than mine. Or when He responds to them with a “yes” but His answer seems to be a “no” for me, or at least a “not right now.”

I’ve had my fair share of answer envy outbreaks over the years, at all stages of life.  Over the years I have discovered that the cure for answer envy is not always easy because I must play an active role in my own healing.  What I need is a shift in perspective. When I “call to God” as encouraged in the verse above, I must trust that He will keep His word. He will tell me “great and unsearchable things” that I do not know. Sometimes those things are the answers to my request. However, do you know what those great and unsearchable things more often are? They are the reasons He seems not to be answering my original request!

So, instead of only begging God to “sell my house” or “take away my pain” or “fix my kid,” I need also to ask myself some questions. Questions like – “What is my Creator trying to teach me that I might never learn if He were to suddenly pluck me out of this situation?” Or -  “What character qualities is He trying to grow in me? Patience, trust, compassion, contentment?”
Not available in quick microwave form, the cure for answer envy must be cultivated moment by moment.  We must believe that God will answer. He will clearly say “yes,” “no,” or “not right now.” He is able, ready and willing to answer our prayers — here is the catch — as He sees fit and to grow us to be more like His Son in the process.

It took two years until our “for sale” sign was finally replaced with a “sold” banner. It was a long stay in God’s waiting room. However, I now know this to be true: I must not merely seek the answer to my prayer. Instead, I must seek a deeper relationship with the answer Giver.

Dear Lord, thank You for Your perfect plans… Your perfect timing… and the perfect way Your development happens in my times of waiting. Grant us patience and understanding.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Casey Dacus
Graham, TX

Don't Quit!

Text:  Hebrews 4:14-16

My master’s thesis was on crisis management.  What is a crisis? There are many definitions, but most people define it as when bad news strikes hurting the image of a company.  Sometimes, crises come from nature.  However defined, crises usually come out of nowhere, and they usually hurt one or more people.

Have you ever felt like your crisis was too much to handle? Or that you had dug yourself too deep a hole?

As we look at Hebrews 4:14-16, read a couple of verses before and notice that the writer has just reminded the Hebrew audience of their checkered past with God and declaring that God knows every man’s faith and works.  That touches us, too, because our past is also checkered.  But it helps us because we know he also knows our hearts. 14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.

The author references Christ in verse 14 as a High Priest – in the 1200-year lineage of Aaron.  The High Priest was set to enter the Holy of Holies to sacrifice on behalf of the people, and verse 14 tells us that sacrifice has been made for us, thanks to the High Preist.  Therefore, we should be even more diligent in our grip of hope and faith. As we hold onto that faith, we still struggle. 

Sometimes we feel like we can’t recover from our sins and the decisions we make.  Surely God doesn’t understand my troubles right?  15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.  That’s right. He walked on this earth.  Suffered. Hurt. Was questioned. And no one can say to God, “But, you are God, you surely don’t know what this is like!” He knows exactly what it was like. 

Isaiah said: He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. (Isaiah 53:3-4)  It was our sin that held Him there, not His:   But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.  (Isaiah 53:5-6)

But here’s the thing. The reason we “Don’t Quit”?  He did it for us. Yes, He carried the sins of the world on his shoulders, for us. But he did it for us.  Do you understand that?  He didn’t just die so we didn’t have to – no, He died so we don’t have to.  The Bible tells us He was separated from the Father.  He went through that. He suffered that.  He did that – so we don’t have to. Praise be to Jesus, our Savior! 

And it’s because of that we can truly get verse 16: 16 So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Don’t crawl. Don’t slowly approach His throne.  Run. Stand boldly before Him.  Perhaps it’s our attitude that keeps us from the presence of God.  We see sometimes see God as a judge waiting to slam down a gavel because we have failed Him. But, while God is a just being who will have His way with people – if we who claim to follow God and keep His commandments to the best of our ability will come boldly, confidently, quickly, to the throne of God’s grace – He will be merciful.  He is patient, slow to anger and full of grace.   I recently read that perhaps if we approach God’s thrown in this way, we honor Him.  We are to have no fear of judgment because of what His Son did for us.  He has already bought us. He’s paid the ultimate price, and he awaits our coming.  

Whatever your crisis is – whatever trouble you are in; whatever your problems – Jesus knows them.  And He already paid the price for those setbacks.   And we are called to the throne of grace to receive His mercy. He wants us to lift our head, shake off our strife and look to the High Priest who has already entered the Holy of Holies to pave a way to the Promised Land.  He has guaranteed rest for us if we will only accept it.  He wants us to come before Him with confidence so that He can wrap us in the same arms that brought us redemption and surround us with grace.  

Father God, we ask for you to strengthen our resolve so that we may come before your presence with confidence that we are Yours.  May we have the faith to run to You and the hope that Your mercy will cleanse us from our transgressions.  Thank you for Your Son, and all that his sacrifice means to us.  Through Him we pray, Amen.

Joey Roberts

Abilene, Texas

Don't Quit

I am a wanna-be runner. I will train and run and begin to almost feel like a runner, and life, illness, or an injury will set me back. But for whatever reason, I am determined. I will not release the thought of being a runner, so it’s back on the track... so to speak. At least it’s back to the training plan.

Lately it has been a little easier to get back to my plan as I have a very patient running partner. She is consistently ready for me to get back to it, yet understands my need for a break when illness or injury call for it. She won’t let me get away with “I’m just not feeling it today...” because she knows what my ultimate goal is: to be a runner, with maybe a distance race completed eventually.

Hebrews calls me to the same single-minded dedication to the hope I have:

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” (Hebrews 10:19-24)

Yes, He who promised is faithful, but there are days that I might lose my grip on my hope. These verses give me two remedies for that. First, “draw near to God with a sincere heart.” That is truly some of the best news in the New Testament -- that we don’t have to take our petitions to God through a priest. These scriptures remind us that Christ gave us the confidence to enter the Most Holy Place, cleansed by his very blood. Nothing can prevent us from doing that on a daily, even hourly, basis.

Sometimes I just don’t have it in me to do that, though.  When the unemployment seems to drag on longer than I ever dreamed, or the news from the doctor wasn’t what I hoped it would be, when family news is disappointing or hurtful, sometimes my heart is too broken, too fragile, or too wounded to approach the throne of grace.

That’s when I look to my running partner... or those that “spur me on toward love and good deeds.” God placed us here to be in community so that we may do just that. When I have the strength and energy, it is my time to spur others on toward love and good deeds. Other times, I let those that run this race with me encourage me to simply put one foot in front of the other, to approach the throne of grace.

Let’s run victoriously today.

Sarah Stirman

McKinney, Texas

Don't Quit

Text:  Hebrews 11:13-16

The text for today is such a touching one to me!  One of the things I’ve enjoyed doing in my “advanced years” is attempting to write hymns.  And one of the earliest ones I was blessed to write have to do with this theme of ‘looking for a better country…a heavenly one.”  Or in the words of a verse found in the closing chapter of Hebrews, 13:15, “for here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”  

All the followers of God referred to in this great chapter of Hebrews 11 were commended for sticking with God throughout the experiences of their lives, because they believed strongly in His promises.  They accepted, by faith, that God is sovereign, His promises reliable, and that this life on earth was not about “them” but about “Him!”  This had to be a choice on their part, just as it has to be a choice today on the part of everyone who comes to Him.  A person must choose to believe what the word of God reveals about Him and His gracious plan of redemption.   As in Romans 1:17 we are told “For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last.  Just as it is written, ‘the righteous will live by faith.”

A study of “faith” sometimes sounds prosaic and overdone to members of the Lords body!  What a shame!  If our young people could be impressed with the convicting truthes taught in the Bible about the faith-walk, the importance of consciously choosing to believe, feeding that faith on the Word daily, praying with developing, increasing faith and trust, and conscientiously choosing friendships that will bolster their faith and be mutually up-building, what a strengthening we would see of the Body of Christ!  Like it is said of Moses here, it would begin to be said more of all of us that “we persevere because we see Him who is invisible!” (Heb. 11:28)

There is the greatest evidence for God and His creation and redemption story than for anything else on earth!  It results in good things in peoples lives, never bad things or evil!  Gal. 5:22 testifies that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control!  There is no law against these things!  Christianity produces folks whose lives are transformed into caring, serving, loving human beings who are eager to do good!

Choosing to have faith in God and His plan of saving us from death through Christ has the following wonderful results:

           1) Turning us from darkness to light….being forgiven of our sins! (Acts 26:17-18, 1 John 1:5-7)

           2) A redemptive life!  Making a difference in others lives around us as a result of Jesus being in our lives!  (Col. 4:5,6; Eph. 5:15)

           3) A life with a blessed hope!  Read Titus 2:11-14 for one of the summations of the Christian faith-walk that is the best to be found in the New Testament! I challenge us all to memorize this important passage, and let it ever remind us all: live this rewarding life in faith, claim the hope, and don’t quit!

Oh Father, please bless your children who are struggling with their faith and their commitment to you!  Strengthen them to stay the course!  Help them resolve never to quit!   Help them, like Joshua, to choose to serve You, the living God, through the great sacrifice of Jesus, your son!  Help us all to seek the city that is to come until the day you take us from this earthly walk!   In Jesus name we pray…amen!

Jan McCoy

Merkel, Texas

Don't Quit!

God is Able to Save Completely

Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

…because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood.

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.          Hebrews 7:22-25

As a high school teacher, I often find myself providing encouragement to my students to help keep them working and giving their best effort.  Life’s distractions or disappointments might be causing them to have a lack of focus or poor self esteem.  Despair may have grown in the student where the student never expects to successfully accomplish any worthwhile goals.  This persistent negative attitude, unfortunately, is the ripe condition for a student to quit trying.  Giving up feels like the logical solution, since best efforts appear useless and long-term goals appear hopeless.  Some of us may be tempted to use this same line of reasoning with our faith. 

A better hope is introduced through Jesus.  We desire to be near to God and to know the assurance of our salvation.  However, there is the persistent distraction of the law.  The law was provided to make us aware of God’s expectations and to lead us in His righteousness.  Our sins expose the weak and useless nature of the law.  Regular sacrifices were needed to atone for our transgressions.  A perfect priest was sent to replace the imperfect and to set aside the former regulations.

Jesus conquered death and lives forever.  His perfect sacrifice is sufficient to cover over our sins, altogether and forever.  We no longer need to ask, “Am I good enough?”  Of course, the answer is no.  That’s the significance of the “the better covenant.”  We no longer need to carry the burden of imperfection and weakness.  The new covenant changes our perspective.  We have a great high priest speaking to God on our behalf.  He guarantees salvation.  God is able to save completely.

Prayer

Dear Lord, we come to you through our great high priest, Jesus, the one who saves us, intercedes for us and guarantees our promised salvation.  We know the law was weak and useless for making anything perfect.  By faith, we believe Jesus offered himself as the perfect sacrifice once for all.  Thank you, God, for your mercy.  In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

Carl Smith

Stephenville, Texas