Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped Us

May our priceless Jesus be ever more real to you, ever more your Help and Guide and Encourager. In this coming year. may we all cling to Christ, abide in Christ, cherish Him as our all in all.

We have had a lovely, quiet Christmas, and we do hope each one of you has been awed, undone, and filled to overflowing with the realization of what our Savior Jesus has done for us and continues to complete in each one of us.  This has been a challenging and painful year to some of you whom we love so much, and we do pray that God's comfort and perfect ordinances will surround you with peace and joy amidst the heart's sorrows.  I drove home alone, a couple of hours on the road in the dark of early morning, today, praying for the many people I love and treasure--some of you will be reading this, and please know you were brought before the Throne this morning with much love--and stepped out of the car to a flush of pink painted in the still-dark eastern sky.  A feast of beauty for several moments standing out in the freezing air, and I've been reflecting on this year past and all that God has planned for us in the year ahead.  This much we do know, He loves us more than we can imagine in our wildest heart-thoughts; He knows our path, and He is able to keep and sustain us.  He has given us many great and precious promises, filled with gospel power.  May we saturate ourselves in them this coming year, that we may know resurrection power, and that we may bring glory to our magnificent Creator and Lord-above-all.

May God's blessings surround you as you enter this new year, you whom I know and love who read here and the many whom I do not now know, from all corners of the world, but who will one day be met and embraced on the other Shore as we begin the Reality, the Home-life, for which we were made.

Today I am posting my favorite entry in the priceless Streams in the Desert by Mrs. Lettie Cowman, and I've read it many a New Years' Eve as we count down the last days of the year.  When I was 14, my closest friend and I began a tradition of praying from the last ten or so minutes of the old year into the first minutes of the new year.  We did this for 5 years until she married. Though we are rarely together now on New Years' Eve, we have carried on this tradition every year since then, regardless of where we are or who we are with.  Who knows all that has been wrought as a result of those prayers!--but it has been a very special way to welcome in a new year, for 33 unbroken years.

"Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (I Sam. 7:12).

The word "hitherto" seems like a hand pointing in the direction of the past. Twenty years or seventy, and yet "hitherto hath the Lord helped us!" Through poverty, through wealth, through sickness, through health; at home, abroad, on the land, on the sea; in honor, in dishonor, in perplexity, in joy, in trial, in triumph, in prayer, in temptation--"hitherto hath the Lord helped!"

We delight to look down a long avenue of trees. It is delightful to gaze from one end of the long vista, a sort of verdant temple, with its branching pillars and its arches of leaves. Even so look down the long aisles of your years, at the green boughs of mercy overhead, and the strong pillars of lovingkindness and faithfulness which bear up your joys.

Are there no birds in yonder branches singing? Surely, there must be many, and they all sing of mercy received "hitherto."

But the word also points forward. For when a man gets up to a certain mark, and writes "hitherto," he is not yet at the end; there are still distances to be traversed. More trials, more joys; more temptations, more triumphs; more prayers, more answers; more toils, more strength; more fights, more victories; and then come sickness, old age, disease, death.

Is it over now? No! there is more yet--awakening in Jesus' likeness, thrones, harps, songs, psalms, white raiment the face of Jesus, the society of saints, the glory of God, the fullness of eternity, the infinity of bliss. Oh, be of good courage, believer, and with grateful confidence raise thy "Ebenezer," for,

"He who hath helped thee hitherto
Will help thee all thy journey through."

When read in Heaven's light, how glorious and marvelous a prospect will thy "hitherto" unfold to thy grateful eye. --C. H. Spurgeon

The Alpine shepherds have a beautiful custom of ending the day by singing to one another an evening farewell. The air is so crystalline that the song will carry long distances. As the dusk begins to fall, they gather their flocks and begin to lead them down the mountain paths, singing, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Let us praise His name!"

And at last with a sweet courtesy, they sing to one another the friendly farewell: "Goodnight! Goodnight!" The words are taken up by the echoes, and from side to side the song goes reverberating sweetly and softly until the music dies away in the distance.

So let us call out to one another through the darkness, till the gloom becomes vocal with many voices, encouraging the pilgrim host. Let the echoes gather till a very storm of Hallelujahs break in thundering waves around the sapphire throne, and then as the morning breaks we shall find ourselves at the margin of the sea of glass, crying, with the redeemed host, "Blessing and honor and glory be unto him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever!"

"This my song through endless ages,
Jesus led me all the way."

all photos Geneva, Switzerland

Unwanted Gifts

a wonderful word from Danielle DuRant, RZIM, today:

There’s an amusing commercial airing in Atlanta this Christmas season. Five friends gather around a fireplace to exchange gifts. When one recipient opens her package, she exclaims with a fake beauty contestant smile, “Oh, a kitty book! Now everyone will know I’m still single! Yeah!” Another chimes in enthusiastically about his unwanted gift, “Oh man! This is gonna go straight in the trash!” No one is subtle about their jovial dislike of what they receive, and so the narrator advises, “Give a better gift this year.”


Besides the obvious humor, the advertisement’s appeal highlights our own cognitive dissonance. While we may share similar feelings about certain gifts, few of us would blurt out, “What were you thinking?!” And yet, sometimes we may not hesitate to say such words to God.


I am reminded of the story of Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, which Luke records in the first chapter of his Gospel. Elizabeth is barren and they are both well advanced in years. Unlike Abraham and Sarah—and even Simeon—as far as we know, Zechariah and Elizabeth have not been given any promise of a child. They are living in a period of silence, as some Bible scholars call it: it has been over 400 years since God spoke of a coming Redeemer and his forerunner through the prophet Malachi. Nevertheless, Zechariah and Elizabeth hold onto God; as Luke tells us, “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly” (Luke 1:6).


Year after year faithful Zechariah serves in the temple, and one day the lots fall to him to perform the evening offering—a once in a lifetime privilege. He is alone at the altar of incense when suddenly the angel Gabriel appears. “When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear,” writes Luke. “But the angel said to him: ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord’” (Luke 1:11-15a). Gabriel adds that John will go before the Lord to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (verse 17).


The name John is significant because none of Zechariah’s relatives share this name and, as it is still today, it was customary to name a firstborn son after his father.(1)John is a Greek form of the Hebrew phrase Yohanan, meaning “God is gracious.” Hebrew scholar Skip Moen offers this insight about the word gracious:

This single word describes an elaborate picture. It creates an image of two parties; one who has a gift to give and the other who is in desperate need of the gift. However, the imagery does not convey the idea that the giver patronizes the recipient with the needed gift. There is no suggestion of condescension here. Rather, the picture is one of a deep, heartfelt concern on the part of the giver so that the gift is granted not from anything that the recipient may negotiate or earn but out of compelling mercy. When the Old Testament uses this verb of God, it conveys the idea of God’s unmerited but nevertheless unlimited love for His children. God willingly favors us with His love and blessings entirely because He chooses to pour His mercy upon us.(2)


Strangely, Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah that God has answered his prayer is met with distrust: “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Indeed, Zechariah rejects the very gift he has longed for because he is completely focused on wanting tangible proof of this promise. Perhaps this is because he and his wife have lived for decades with disappointment and heartache—barrenness in their culture symbolized shame, scorn, and God’s supposed disapproval. Whatever his reason, he is struck dumb until Elizabeth gives birth and they bring the child to the temple where Zechariah encountered Gabriel. There Zechariah acknowledges God’s gracious gift and “to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, ‘His name is John.’Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began to speak, praising God.”

The Christmas season and namely, the asking for and receiving of gifts, often taps into our deepest hopes and fears. Maybe you can sympathize with Zechariah’s initial refusal to receive the good that God offers him. You have known disappointment and loss. You may be grateful for untold blessings but still wonder why God doesn’t answer a particular prayer. Or, you may be hesitant or even resistant to hope in a God who is unpredictable.


In such places, the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth—or of Abraham, Hannah, and Joseph—can speak intimately into our lives. And then there are those around us, like quadriplegic Joni Eareckson Tada, who sees her wheelchair and recent cancer as a gift, for they have “pushed her deeper into [God's] embrace…convincing her that she’d rather be in her chair knowing Him, than on her feet without Him.”(3) Those are sobering words and a gift few of us would want to receive. But perhaps, as we consider the Christmas story, we might discover gifts shining with the brightness and magnitude of a God who,

has come to his people and redeemed them…
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of [his] tender mercy…
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.(4)

 photos from Thistledown Cards

Danielle DuRant is director of research and writing at RZIM.



(1) See Luke 1:59-61.
(2) http://skipmoen.com/tag/gracious/
(3) See Joni speaking about her life at http://www.joniandfriends.org/television/id-rather-be-wheelchair-knowing-him/. Regarding her cancer, see Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013).
(4) Luke 1:68, 77-79.

God Our Refuge

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Psalm 46:1

"A help that is not present when we need it is of small value.  The anchor which is left at home is of no use to the seamen in the hour of storm; the money which he used to have is of no worth to the debtor when a writ is out against him.  Very few earthly helps could be called ‘very present’: they are usually far in the seeking, far in the using, and father still when once used.  But as for the Lord our God, He is present when we seek Him, present when we need Him, and present when we have already enjoyed His aid.

"He is more than ‘present’, he is very present.  More present than the nearest friend can be, for He is in us in our trouble; more present than we are to ourselves, for sometimes we lack presence of mind.  He is always present, effectually present, sympathetically present, altogether present.  He is present now if this is a gloomy season.  Let us rest ourselves upon Him.  He is our refuge, let us hide in Him; He is our strength, let us array ourselves with Him; He is our help, let us lean upon Him;  He is our very present help. Let us repose in Him now.  We need not have a moment’s care, or an instant’s fear.  ‘The Lord of Hosts is with us: the God of Jacob is our refuge.’"  --CH Spurgeon

Our Shield and Glory

"For the Lord is present with us; and whenever we are attacked by any severe contest, let us learn to look to Him; for if we hesitate and look hither and thither, we shall never enjoy peace of mind. When He calls Himself our God, He not only mentions His power, but gives proof of His goodness, which He intends to exercise towards us; for it would not be enough to be convinced of the power of God, if we were not equally certain of His love; and even when we are terrified by the mention of His power alone, His goodness is well fitted to give us peace.”  from Calvin’s Commentary on Isaiah 41

“I, even I, am He who comforts you…I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea whose waves roared—I have covered you with the shadow of My hand…”Isaiah 51:12, 15, 16

“My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord who has mercy on you. Isaiah 54:10

“…You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the Lord with my voice, and He heard from His holy hill.” Ps 3:3-4

photo by Thistledown Cards

13 Lessons #9: Feed Their Soul

Last week we watched Dicken’s Hard Times.  One of our party found it terribly dark and depressing in an overwhelming way.  But profound truths do come to light in this movie, imperfect as it is. We are each human souls, replete with overflowing hopes, dreams, unique personalities reflecting some aspect of who God Himself is; with differing callings and loves and passions and interests directing our attentions and gifts across the spectrum of humanity and the world in which we find ourselves.  We also have idiosyncrasies, strengths and weaknesses, and various traits we bring to every relationship that can be helpful or hurtful, but that we need to understand and refine and bring under the Lordship of our Relational Christ, who understands us best of all.  Immersing ourselves in the rich soul food of Creation all around us, whether in admiring a person we love or in watching raindrops diamond-pivoting off pine needles, -- whether relational, art, music, story, nature--it  feeds longings put there by the Creator of all these good things:  the Artist of all Artists, the Musician supreme above all, the One who first conceived of humanities’ need for one another.  And He looked at all He had made and beheld that it was very good.

This week we read, “Schools in America are to drop classic books… in favor of informational texts… American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014. A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will make it compulsory for at least 70 per cent of books studied to be non-fiction, in an effort to ready pupils for the workplace.…

“ Jamie Highfill, a teacher at Woodland Junior High School in Arkansas, told the Times that the directive was bad for a well-rounded education.

"I'm afraid we are taking out all imaginative reading and creativity in our English classes.

"In the end, education has to be about more than simply ensuring that kids can get a job. Isn't it supposed to be about making well-rounded citizens?"

"Supporters of the directive argue that it will help pupils to develop the ability to write concisely and factually, which will be more useful in the workplace than a knowledge of Shakespeare.”

Brilliant cultural critic  George Grant twittered, “Gradgrind would be proud.  US public schools adopt the Victorian utilitarianism Dickens skewered in Hard Times.” 

We should feel a cold chill.  Ultimately this kind of thinking will remove the soul of a people, mechanistically making them fit only for the “factory work” of existence.  They say they do this so that students will have jobs someday.  Does not something ring eerily diabolic about causing a person to be prepared only to do a job, but not to live a life?  I am sure they would stutter that this is not what they mean to do at all.  Alas, it is what will be accomplished, and it is the diabolic vision for the rabble, the masses.  Dangerous for them to think, to imagine wild dreams, for then they cannot be controlled. 

We understand ourselves and one another through Story; yes, sometimes through the diverse and colorful medium of the classics and their study of human nature, of who God meant for us to be individually and in community.  Scripture itself is largely made up of Story, from which we decipher and discern many things about ourselves and others, about sin, redemption, grace, love; and indeed there is nothing new under the sun.

Weaving Scripture masterfully, colorfully in and out of who our young people are becoming, and the world they inhabit; weaving rich parable and quiet understandings from fiction and non-fiction alike as they begin to discern themselves and others, and the times in which they live; weaving a love for all things beautiful and praiseworthy through their weeks like so many cedar garlands strung with lights and ribbon along the archways of our homes; weaving talks and warm eye contact and hugs into hard discussions and decision-making and growing times, with a felt understanding and camaraderie in the basic business of being human and navigating relationships;  these things feed souls.  Do we know each of them in our home well enough to know what is meaningful to them?  What reaches them?  Are we helping them to read their brothers and sisters, others in their church community, to really know them, so they will know how to bless those around them in ways meaningful to them?

And as we read the writings of the western canon of literature, are we teaching them that any good can be had apart from Christ?  Common grace gives us much, to be sure, but to rely on virtue without godliness is to deny the Cross.  To rely on change by our own power and devices is to build a legalist, not a man or woman dependent on the only source of true change,  Jesus Christ.  What is story doing for us?  Helping us understand who we are before an Almighty God, in need of Christ’s finished work on our behalf?  Or building up our own sense of self-worth and self-reliance, while all the while killing truth and goodness, beauty and joy?

The Soul of the Christ Life

“It is much easier to convince a human soul of its natural impurity, than to convince it of its natural hardness and utter destitution of heavenly and Divine tenderness.  The very essence of the gospel is Divine tenderness and sweetness of spirit.  Even among intensely religious people, nothing is rarer to find than a continuous and all-pervading spirit of tenderness.

“Tenderness of spirit is not the tenderness of mind and manner which result from high culture and a beautiful social training, though these are valuable in life.  No, it is a supernatural work throughout the whole spiritual being.  It is an exquisite interior fountain of God’s own sweetness and tenderness of nature, opened up in the inner spirit to such a degree that it completely inundates the soul, overflowing all the mental faculties and saturating with its sweet waters the manners, expressions, words, and tones of the voice; mellowing the will, softening the judgment, melting the affections, refining the manners, and molding the whole being after the image of Him who was infinitely meek and lowly in heart.

“Tenderness of spirit cannot be borrowed or put on for special occasions; it is emphatically supernatural, and must flow out incessantly from the inner fountains of life.

“Deep tenderness of spirit is the very soul and marrow of the Christ life.  What specific gravity is to the planet, what beauty is to the rainbow, what perfume is to the rose, what marrow is to the bone, what rhythm is to poetry, what the pulse is to the heart, what harmony is to music, what heat is to the human body—all this, and much more, is tenderness of spirit to religion.  It is possible to be very religious and staunch, and persevering in all Christian duties; possible, even, to be sanctified, to be a brave defender and preacher of holiness, to be mathematically orthodox and blameless in outward life, and very zealous in good works, and yet to be greatly lacking in tenderness of spirit—that all-subduing, all-melting love, which is the very cream and quintessence of heaven, and which incessantly streamed out from the voice and eyes of the blessed Jesus.”   --Lettie Cowman

I would that I could be

A wound-dresser

Of souls—

Reaching the aching heart,

The tortured mind, calming them as the night

Calms tired bodies

When she drops the mantle of sleep

Over the world.

As each cold, glittering star

So might I stand in mine,

But with the warmth of a smile

On my face,

And in my eyes

An image of the Soul Divine.

-L.C.

When Men Perceive No Ways

"God has determined to protect and guard His church…He describes Himself as armed with terrible power for the defence of his people…but [also] in proportion to the weakness of any one sheep He shows His carefulness in watching, His gentleness in handling, and His patience in leading it…

"God has no need of outward and natural means for aiding His church, but has at His command secret and wonderful methods, by which He can relieve their necessities, contrary to all hope and outward appearance.  When no means of relief are seen, we quickly fall into despair, and scarcely venture to entertain any hope, but so far as outward aids are presented to our eyes.  Deprived of these, we cannot rest on the Lord.  But the Prophet states that at that time especially they ought to trust, because at that time the Lord has more abundant opportunities of displaying His power, when men perceive no ways or methods, and everything appears to be utterly desperate.  Contrary, then, to the hope and belief of all men, the Lord will assist His people, that we may not suffer ourselves to be driven hither and thither by doubt and hesitation."

John Calvin, Commentary on Isaiah 40 

13 Lessons #8 Privation and Preparation Providences

Oh, the days that fly south like so many in a flock of geese!

Thanksgiving Day, several years ago,  our company cancelled from sickness and unexpectedly we were outside playing tennis (attempting to, anyway—and yes it was cold and wet), when a huge flock of geese flew overhead honking and calling.  A majestic sight, perfect formation headed for warmer climates and chattering all the way.  We were charmed.  Amazingly, in the time we were there, 11 huge flocks flew overhead in the exact same path, long after the previous flock had passed out of sight.  It was wonder-ful!  All around us, so many things pass by our days that are full-of-wonder.  GK Chesterton, in his inimitable way, struck profound when he said “Alice must grow small if she is to be Alice in Wonderland”.  The smaller we grow, the more wonder creeps up all around us, overwhelms us, stalks our joys and sorrows.

One wonder-filled aspect of life is how God weaves the tapestry of our experiences for his purposes and our callings.  We see, so many times, how the very thing that seemed so lacking, was the thing He used to bring about His perfect providence.

When we consider our children and all that we want for them: all we want them to learn, to grow in, to understand, to be wise about, we are apt to wrap the lifetimes of several people around them in smothering expectation.  But God has a perfect purpose for them, a purpose unfolding inexorably every day.  If we lean hard into Christ and lay our petitions before the Throne with expectation of His doing wondrous things, we truly will be amazed at what He fashions out of the poor offerings we can craft for these young lives growing into maturity. 

Home schooling mothers so often feel the weight of all that they are not doing; all that their strength could not afford, all that didn’t happen in a year, all that one child got but another has not had opportunity; all that was distracted when another child was unwell in body or soul and took away the parents’ attention, or the mother was disabled for a time.  The list goes on and on, as long as there are unique and varied stories amongst us all. 

And, we as mothers are apt to put together an aggregate of all the women we know and admire, and then expect to be that aggregate in its perfect, radiant totality.  Especially if we home school.  Last night, one of the most lovely “older woman” examples I know, was mentioning a hard thing and she said she felt God encouraging her with this thought:  “You need to be who I have called you to be.”  (I will clarify that this is a far cry, in fact, quite opposite the prevailing crippling sentiment of “That’s just who I am and I’m not going to/can’t change”).  God’s calling on our personality, skills, strengths and weaknesses, have been given as His gift to our children as just what they need.  They have been put in our household for specific reasons, specific preparations, specific providences unfolding.

Lettie Cowman, in her marvelous biography of her husband Charles, which I quoted at length in the two previous posts ages ago (last week), points again and again to how God used both privation providences and preparation providences richly in the young life of her husband to prepare him specifically for an intense and fruitful ministry in Japan.  He ended up leading thousands in studying God’s Word, submitting to His Lordship, and raising up training facilities, during a time that Japan opened up tremendously to the gospel prior to the world wars. 

I remind myself time and again that the things which come into the lives of our children are meant, first and foremost, for their good and for His glory.  But also, they are specifically the means by which God is preparing them for the work that He has for them to do, the calling they are meant to fulfill and He lovingly weaves this with His own Hand, on which He has said He has engraved their names and remembers them more closely than a mother remembers her needy babe.  He is kind and good, and He knows all that they need far greater than even we whose attentions and love is constantly being lavished on them.  Surely we can trust Him to prepare them perfectly, especially if and when their hearts are submitted to Him and they themselves are seeking His utmost best with all their soul.  This tenderness of their hearts to Him, therefore, is the greatest need of the hour as they struggle with future decisions and present pressures.

One more thing I simply must point out.  Those geese we saw, by the hundreds, just merely knew they had to catch the wind current, flap their wings, and keep the pace between their comrades.  But unbeknownst to them they were following ancient instinct in perfect rhythm and perfect formation according to the plan God had set down for them at Creation.  Sometimes our “doing the next thing” simply, humbly, accomplishes far more than we expect it does, in keeping in us in rhythm and formation and heading for the destination God has planned for us since Creation, when He first knew our name and fashioned our days and those of our children.

**God mentions how He clothes the flowers of the field, and that His eye is on the sparrow.  The details of birds and blossoms continually show His infinite creative hand in details of crafting beauty unbelievably exquisite. How much more His infinite creative Hand in crafting His beauty into the lives of our--His--children when they love and trust Him.

*flower pics from Thistledown Cards

His Purposes Meet Without a Shade of Variation Part II

Every child of God may find and enter into God’s plan for His life; and along with the God-planned life is divine providence.  It is interwoven with every page of the Holy Scriptures and every part of our Christian life.  The God of the Bible is a Father and a Friend, concerned in everything concerning us, touching with a hand of love and power all the ordinary affairs of life, and directing and governing the whole universe, from the minutest insect that floats in summer air to the mightiest star that rolls in immensity.

In the story of Eliezer and Rebekah, we have the finest illustration of God’s particular providence.  The servant goes forth to find a bride for Isaac, watching every indication of the will of God as he treads his unknown way; and as the maiden meets him at the well and every circumstance seems to point in the one direction, he recognizes the hand of divine guidance and utters that sentence which is the very embodiment of the whole philosophy of divine providence: “I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”

Still more wonderful is the story of Joseph.  It begins with a vision for his future, and then with dramatic vividness everything is blotted out in the bitter trials and disappointments that blight the fair promise of his youth; but the hand of love leads unerringly through it all, and the day comes when every one of these sorrows is overruled for his good and he can say to his cruel brethren, “Be ye not grieved or sorry that ye sold me into Egypt.  As for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

Charles Cowman’s lifetime throughout was just one series of providences, and often when asked why he had chosen to become a missionary he would reply, “I did not choose.  It was God’s choice for me.”  How can a man “choose” a “calling”?  If a man is called he does not choose.  It is the One who calls that does the choosing.  “Ye have not chosen ME, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that you should go and bear fruit, “ says our Lord.  Men act as though God threw down before them an assortment of plans from which they might choose what pleases them, even as the shopkeeper tosses out a dozen skeins of silk to a lady purchaser, from which she might select that which strikes her fancy.  But this is not true.  It is God’s right to choose.  It is simply ours to ascertain and obey.  For next in its eternal moment to the salvation of a soul is the guidance of the life of a child of God.  And God claims both as His supreme prerogative.

--taken from Charles E. Cowman, Missionary—Warrior, by Lettie Cowman

His Purposes Meet Without a Shade of Variation Part I

“If the Holy Spirit dwells in us there will be a strange accordance with God’s working in the world around us.  There is a divine harmony between the Spirit and Providence.  There is a double presence of the Lord for the consecrated believer.  He is present in the heart, and is mightily present in the events of life.

“How marvelously,” wrote one, “God can fit things together and His purposes meet without a shade of variation.  Look at that beautiful scene in the temple when the infant Jesus was brought in to be presented before the Lord.  Just at the right moment old Simeon was there to receive Him by the intimation of the Holy Ghost; and we read further still that, at the same instant, the aged Anna, also coming in, recognized her coming Savior and joined in the welcome testimony.

“Look at Peter and Cornelius.  Just the moment Peter had been prepared for the commission, messengers were waiting at the door to take him to Joppa. God had it all arranged and He had but to carry out the plan.

“The Acts of the Apostles is the book of providences under the control of the Holy Ghost.  We see in that wonderful book how everything moves at the bidding of the ascended Christ and the Holy Spirit.

“Look at Philip and the eunuch of Ethiopia.  In the height of his work in Samaria, the evangelist is called away by the voice of God to go down into the desert.  Everything looked the other way.  The work seems to require him there, and yet he obeys and leaves thousands of seeking souls and a whole city moved to its depth by the Holy Ghost, to go down into a desert.  So God sometimes calls us from the most useful position to what seems a waste of time.  But God has stepped before Him.  This Ethiopian prince has been up to Jerusalem, seeking after the truth and has not found the need of his heart.  They meet on the way, but for a few moments, perhaps, or a passing hour; but in that hour an eternity has been decided for that man, and not for him alone, but perhaps for the whole nation to which he was to return with the strange and glorious tidings of salvation.

“Look at Paul’s wondrous life.  What a romance of providence, culminating in the marvelous voyage to Rome, which is a sort of picture in miniature of the whole church in her perilous journey through the seas of time.  Everything tried to baffle and hinder, but through everything God led him, and used the very things that seemed to be against him for the furtherance of the gospel, making all things work together for good to him and for the glory of His own great name.”

Everything is included in the plan of God.  Not only all things in general, but everything in particular.  The theologians love to call it the particular providence of God.  That means his plan in reference to the minutest details of human life, and the most significant things that happen…”

Part II to come…

Excerpted from Charles E. Cowman, Missionary-Warrior, by Lettie Cowman

Your Crown of Glory

The greatest things are always hedged about by the hardest things, and we, too, shall find mountains and forests and chariots of iron.  Hardship is the price of coronation.  Triumphal arches are not woven out of rose blossoms and silken cords, but of hard blows and bloody scars.  The very hardships that you are enduring in your life today are given by the Master for the explicit purpose of enabling you to win your crown….do not wait for some ideal situation, some romantic difficulty, some far-away emergency; but rise to meet the actual conditions which the providence of God has laced around you today.  Your crown of glory lies embedded in the very heart of those things—those hardships and trials that are pressing you this very hour, week and month of your life.  The hardest things are not those that the world knows of.  Down in your secret soul unseen and unknown by any but Jesus, there is a little trial that you would not dare to mention, that is harder for you to bear than martyrdom.  There, beloved, lies your crown.  God help you to overcome, and sometime wear it.  --Unknown

You shall also be a crown of glory In the hand of the LORD, And a royal diadem In the hand of your God.  Isaiah 62:3

...And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.  I Peter 5:4

Scattered Jewels

Beware in your prayers, above everything, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what he can do.  Expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think.  Each time you intercede, be quiet first and worship God in His glory.  Think of what He can do, of how He delights to hear Christ, of your place in Christ; and expect great things.  –Andrew Murray

The capacity for knowing God enlarges as we are brought by Him into circumstances which oblige us to exercise faith; so, when difficulties beset our path let us thank God that He is taking trouble with us, and lean hard upon Him.  
–L.  Cowman

No calamity can be to us an unmixed evil if we carry it in direct and fervent prayer to God, for even as one taking shelter from the rain beneath a tree may find on its branches fruit which he looked not for, so we in fleeing for refuge beneath the shadow of God’s wing, will always find more in God than we had seen or known before.  It is thus through our trials and afflictions that God gives us fresh revelations of Himself; and the Jabbock ford leads us to Peniel, where, as the result of our wrestling, we “see God face to face”,” and our lives are preserved.  Take this to thyself, O captive, and He will give Thee “songs in the night,” and turn for thee “the shadow of death into the morning.”  --William Taylor

God takes the most eminent and choicest of His servants for the choicest and most eminent afflictions.  They who have received most grace from God are able to bear most afflictions from God.  Affliction does not hit the saint by chance, but by direction.  God does not draw His bow at a venture.  Every one of His arrows goes upon a special errand and touches no breast but his against whom it was sent. It is not only the grace, but the glory of a believer when we can stand and take affliction quietly.  –Joseph Carlyl

O my soul, thou hast not one single promise only, like Abraham, but a thousand promises, and many patterns of faithful believers before thee; it behooves, thee, therefore, to rely with confidence upon the Word of God.  And though He delayeth His help, and the evil seemeth to grow worse and worse, be not weak but rather strong, and rejoice, since the most glorious promises of God are generally fulfilled in such a wondrous manner that He steps forth to save us at a time when there is the least appearance of it….He commonly brings His help in our greatest extremity, that His finger may plainly appear in our deliverance.  And this method He chooses that we may not trust upon anything that we see or feel, as we are always apt to do, but only upon His bare Word, which we may depend upon in every state. 
–CH Von Bogatzky

Remember, it is the very time for faith to work when sight ceases.  The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith; as long as there remains certain natural prospects, faith does not get on even as easily as where natural prospects fail.  
–George Mueller

photo from Thistledown Cards

"Pressed Out of Measure"

"Pressed out of measure" (2 Cor. 1:8).

"That the power of Christ may rest upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9).

God allowed the crisis to close around Jacob on the night when he bowed at Peniel in supplication, to bring him to the place where he could take hold of God as he never would have done; and from that narrow pass of peril, Jacob became enlarged in his faith and knowledge of God, and in the power of a new and victorious life.

God had to compel David, by a long and painful discipline of years, to learn the almighty power and faithfulness of his God, and grow up into the established principles of faith and godliness, which were indispensable for his glorious career as the king of Israel.

Nothing but the extremities in which Paul was constantly placed could ever have taught him, and taught the Church through him, the full meaning of the great promise he so learned to claim, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

And nothing but our trials and perils would ever have led some of us to know Him as we do, to trust Him as we have, and to draw from Him the measures of grace which our very extremities made indispensable.

Difficulties and obstacles are God's challenges to faith. When hindrances confront us in the path of duty, we are to recognize them as vessels for faith to fill with the fullness and all-sufficiency of Jesus; and as we go forward, simply and fully trusting Him, we may be tested, we may have to wait and let patience have her perfect work; but we shall surely find at last the stone rolled away, and the Lord waiting to render unto us double for our time of testing.

 --A. B. Simpson

13 Lessons #7 No Greater Joy Part III

It is one thing to become adept at defining or observing a problem.  It’s quite another to gather a basket of transforming thoughts.  We see that many of our youth are not captivated by Christ, drawing deeply from the well of His refreshing waters, pursuing the Christ-walk in their daily life and in their sense of future calling.  Is the environment we create permeated with the following perspectives I’ve excerpted?  I have been challenged and convicted by John Piper’s When I Don’t Desire God; How to Fight for Joy.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.  Here are some quotes that I believe have everything to do with how we speak of, live, wear the gospel, and the value that our children come to place on it as a result of a million decisions of the heart and of daily life (ours and theirs):

“Love darkness, or love light.  That is the crisis of the soul.  But what is love for darkness?  It’s preferring darkness, liking darkness, wanting darkness, running to darkness, being glad with darkness.  But all of that is what Jesus demands for Himself.  “Prefer my light, like my fellowship, want my wisdom, run to my refuge, be glad in my grace.  Above all, delight in me as a Person.”  Look around on all that the world can give; then say with the apostle Paul, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better”. (Phil 1:23)  That is what it means to love Christ.  And to have no love for Him is to be accursed. 

“Surely then this is worth fighting for.  It may seem strange at first, but when we see what is at stake, no battle will seem more important.  Loving Christ involves delight in His Person.  Without this love no one goes to heaven.  Therefore there is no more important struggle in the universe than the struggle to see and savor Christ above all things – the fight for joy…

“One of the reasons that today in the Western church our joy is so fragile and thin is that this truth is so little understood—the truth, namely, that eternal life is laid hold of only by a persevering fight for the joy of faith.  Joy will not be rugged and durable and deep through suffering where there is not resolve to fight for it.  But today, by and large, there is a devil-may-care, cavalier, and superficial attitude toward the ongoing, daily intensity of personal joy in Christ, because people do not believe that their eternal life depends on it.

“The last two hundred years has seen an almost incredible devaluation of the fight for joy.  We have moved a hundred miles from Pilgrim’s Progress where Christian labors and struggles and fights all his life “for the joy that was set before him” (Heb 12:2) in the Celestial City.  Oh, how different is the biblical view of the Christian life than the one prevalent in the Western church.  It is an earnest warfare from beginning to end, and the war is to defend and strengthen the fruit-bearing fields of joy in God…”

“I do not minimize the joy of seeing the works of the Lord.  But His works are great because the Lord is great.  And they will become idols of delight unless they point us to the Lord Himself as our highest delight.  The faith that honors Christ is the faith that sees and savors His glory in all His works, especially the gospel…”

(My thoughts interrupting here--Esoteric theology ends and this gets very personal when we see and savor His glory in all His works as the answer and the antidote to the wailing “Why?” of some painful circumstance in our own lives, sometimes seeming as the very last thing that ought to have happened in good Providence, or sometimes seeming as the last thing we can personally bear.)

“Maintaining joy in God takes “work”; that is, it’s a fight against every impulse for alien joys and every obstacle in the way to seeing and savoring Christ…”

“We embrace the truth that not only our joy in God, but also the fight for joy itself is a gift of God.  In other words, God works in us to enable us to fight.  Embracing this truth prevents us from thinking that the joy we fight for is ultimately our achievement.  Joy remains a gift and continues to be spontaneous even though we ourselves are engaged in its cause.

“The evidence for this point is found in numerous biblical texts.  For example, in I Corinthians 15:10 Paul says, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”  Paul worked hard.  He did not say that God’s grace made his work possible.  He worked, but it was “not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”  So the fight for joy is our fight, and we are responsible to do it.  But when we have fought for joy with all our might, we say with the apostle Paul, “it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”  It was a gift.”

flower pic courtesy of thistledown Cards

13 Lessons #7 No Greater Joy Part II

At this most faith-encouraging conference we attended last weekend, comprised mostly of leaders in the broader church community, one speaker spent the last 20 minutes telling his story of their daughter’s turning from the Lord at age 16 and living a nightmarish rebellion for several years until the Lord answered their prayers and brought her back to Himself.  He then did something unprecedented.  He gave an altar call--not for those desiring salvation, for everyone there was involved in some aspect of ministry or was heavily supporting ministry—but for the parents and grandparents of those whose hearts were heavy over a child in overt rebellion against the faith.  A few immediately left their seats, and my heart began to sink as I had this fleeting thought, what if more than just this few came forward on this?  What would be the sadness and the profound generational implications of a number of people gathering up front – each one a story, each one showcasing a heart that at some point had seeds of doubt, apathy, temptation, worldliness, rebellion, planted, and in those secret places there was no one there to see it?  Did no one pull the first seedling weeds, did no one heed the veiled eyes, the defiant look, the undertone of answer, the dust on the Bible once so hopefully supplied, the turning of the mind to things distracting and defiling?  And then the long slide, the moments of decision strung together until the choking necklace of servitude to the evil one claimed its prize and the son of daughter turned to his parents and said, “Not your way, but mine.  Not your God, but my god, myself, and my desires”, not knowing indeed it was but an idol after all, and an infinite slide into the abyss. 

My worst fears were confirmed and then they kept coming.  A man seated nearby groaned in prayer, and I felt my own spirit groan within me—Oh, God, have mercy.  They just keep coming.  Over half of the 400+ people were standing at the front.  Constellations of grief, refracted sorrows.  The speaker prayed over them and I felt frozen with sorrow.  How is it that these numbers of our youth are being lost?  Shall we not spend considerable time praying and fasting about why we are not cultivating willing and ready soil to take up the mantle of the next generation?  We are all too busy, too distracted, and we do not recognize that the soil is tended early—oh, so early.  

Another speaker mentioned that now, by 12 and 13, youth have experienced much of the world and sin and are already becoming cynical and lost, in a way that used to attribute more to late teens/early twenties.  I perceive that the ages of 8-9 are hugely pivotal in discipling hearts, and the ages of 5-7 in cultivating appetites in antithesis to the culture of the world around us.  Under 5, habits of the heart and an allegiance to, a longing after, obedience.

At breakfast we sat with a family and asked one of the girls, 15, what she’d most enjoyed about the weekend.  “Dinner last night”.   “Oh, the mother filled in, “they’re just hanging out in their room and at the pool.  They would say the sessions at Universal Studios and DisneyWorld were their favorite ‘sessions’.  They came in last night the last twenty minutes when R-- was speaking and they said they couldn’t understand a word he was saying.”  (I just have to add here that the man who was speaking at this time is one of the most interesting and lucid, heart-reaching, culturally astute speakers/story-tellers I’ve had the privilege of hearing.  Our hearts burn within us…)  Cultivate the soil—early.  Their ‘hearing’ can be trained to take in godly counsel with joy and understanding, and a healthy stretching toward deep matters of life.

When they are very young it is a bit of a different matter than a few years later. What goes into their mental basket dictates what begins to forge and form appetites even before they really have the ability to begin the process of discernment. If their imagination is already captivated by worldly things, it is what will define their thoughts and desires in pre-teen years, creating noise that will crowd out a quiet spirit and a deep desire for Christ. If their imagination is cultivated in the areas that allow them to focus on that which is good, true, pure, lovely, then when they come to an age of understanding, of being able to make certain connections, then those good things can take root and grow and be nourished because there exists an appetite for them, and soil uncrowded and undistracted.

But when they come to this age and thereafter, it ceases to be the critical, main thing that they be shielded from each soiling influence, but rather that they have such a love developing in their hearts for their Savior, profound gratitude for what He has done for them, that they love to learn more of Him; and they are mortified at the idea of doing that which would displease Him or run contrary the set-apart life He asks of them.

This change is easy to miss and hard to navigate. It’s a trajectory from one to the next, always we as parents looking ahead to the emerging of their loyalty to Christ, their unshakable love for him and gratitude for His work in their lives, His powerful presence in them, hearts alive with understanding. They still may not have all the discernment built up, practiced, that they would need, and they are always thinking they are stronger than they are to resist temptation, to see clearly, to discern rightly. But it no longer is the primary need to keep them from each pitfall. It is the primary need for them to Love Christ and His Ways. So easy to let the protection be all about prevention and not about preparation.  But the Words We Speak are signposts to them, directing them in one Path or another path.

At all times this discipling is a matter of prayer.  At all times it should be a captivating transference of the immensity of God’s character, Christ’s gift to us in the Cross, and His Presence in us, His temples.  If we ourselves are not just daily undone with this reality, we hardly will create wonder in their hearts over it.  Sometimes it is making sure we ask after the state of their heart.  So many times, it seems, parents don’t feel they have the right to ask probing questions, to pry towards the inner thoughts, to direct them to a life-saving dependence on Christ, to illumine again, and again, the beauty and awe of the gospel.

Oh, it is the passion of my heart that we would desire the winsome glory of youth be invested wholly in glorifying our Lord and Christ.  And when any of us see good fruit being borne in them may we in gratitude say it is grace upon grace from His storehouse, undeserved.  The hand tool, the hammer and the chisel, can hardly look at Michelangelo’s masterpieces and say “I did this!”