Rivers of Shadows

Flying this morning early over mountain ranges—at one point the glories of Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and Mt. Rainier were all gathered together in one panorama of unspeakable beauty in the morning sunrise, with layers upon layers of amethyst ranges gathered into the distant horizon—I was struck most by the rivers of shadows.  There lay one side of sun-touched trees or brilliant snow, bound on its other half by darkness, no form or seeming substance, weaving bold lines of demarcation yet one piece of a thing still.  Not unlike our lives, it seemed to me, as we experience the shadowed side of the mountain yet with the Rock underneath us and the Light shining on the other side.  The intricacies are lost in the darkness and we do not see the pattern, nor do we know when the sun crosses over, but this we know—the sun, it always crosses over, and sooner or later the other side is always illuminated.  The sun never fails to shine on the mountain side that has been in the dark and shapeless shadows. 

Truth is, wherever light falls, there is shadow.  It signifies the very presence of light; and for us as believers it signifies the very Presence of Light, in which here on this earth inevitable shadows exist as part of the landscape.  The beauty is not lessened but ethereally enhanced, defined, the contours of our life given shape and richness of tone.

What are we to see when there is nothing to see in the dark?  Yes, His very great and precious promises.

“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.”  2 Peter 1:4

"When a shipwright builds a vessel, does he build it to keep it upon the stocks?  Nay, he builds it for the sea and the storm.  When he was making it, he thought of tempests and hurricanes; if he did not, he was a poor shipbuilder.

"When God made thee a believer, he meant to try thee; and when He gave thee promises and bade thee trust them, He gave such promises as are suitable for times of tempest and tossing.  Dost thou think that God makes shams like some that have made belts for swimming, which were good to exhibit in a shop, but of no use in the sea?

"We have all heard of swords that were useless in war; and even of shoes which were made to sell but were never meant to walk in.  God’s shoes are made of iron and brass, and you can walk to Heaven in them without their ever wearing out; and His lifebelts, you may swim a thousand Atlantics upon them, and there will be no fear of your sinking.  His word of promise is meant to be tried and proved.

"…Covenant blessings are not meant to be looked at only, but to be appropriated.  Even our Lord Jesus is given to us for our present use.  Thou dost not make use of Christ as thou oughtest to do.

"O man, I beseech you do not treat God’s promises as if they were curiosities for a museum; but use them as everyday sources of comfort.  Trust the Lord whenever your time of need comes on."

–C.H.Spurgeon

Love Gladdens

“The grace of final perseverance is that quality of patience which is always equal to the pressure of the passing moment, because it is rooted in that eternal order over which the passing moment has no power.

“We have an Indian fern whose frond changes as it grows. As the forces of life play upon it and work within it, each little pinna divides and subdivides till, in the end, the frond is a fan of delicate lace, a feathery fan.

“What has been the effect upon him of all the trouble?” We ask a guest who has been telling us of her father, and of how he suffered from injustice.  “It has left him unable to think an unkind thought of anyone,”  she answered.  The frond of that fern had been perfected.

“”If the wear and tear of life on a soul does not make for beauty, the process of the fern is reversed.  The multitude of insignificant, trying things that are sure to come fret it into a ragged selfishness; and rough blows coarsen its texture.  Or if it be otherwise fashioned it reacts to the touch like a jarred sea anemone, gathering itself within itself.  Then (unlike the anemone, which, if left in peace, opens again) the jarred soul gradually closes completely, and hardens, till it acquires the power to jar others even as it was jarred.  So there is loss.  Fellow [friends], who were meant to meet, pass each other coldly.  They do not even recognize each other as members of one family.  Each is frozen in his own ice.  But the love of God shed abroad in our hearts (not filtered through various screens) can melt us and love us out of fretfulness, and out of hardness.  It was said of one who lived in this life, “Love gladdened him.  Love quickened him.  Love set him free.”  Love sets us free to love.  And having been set free it is impossible to be bound any more.”  --Amy Carmichael

Vignette of a loving heart, taken from a description of Elisabeth Prentiss, whose anniversary of passing from this life into the presence of the Divine Lover is this very weekend:

“That was, perhaps, her chiefest charm: a keen eye to see and a true heart to sympathize and love.  She was absolutely sincere, and no one could help feeling that she was so.  We felt ourselves fairly imaged when standing before her, as in a clear mirror.  There were no distorted lines caused by her own imperfections; for although she considered herself "compassed with infirmity”, no one else could take such a view of her, but only saw the abundant charity which could cover and forgive a multitude of failings in others.  We felt that if there was any good in us, she knew it, and even when she saw us with all our faults she loved us still, and loved to do us good.”  --More Love to Thee, Life and Letters

Would it be so that in my lifetime I would be the frond of fern that divides and subdivides a heart into love upon love that touches with encouragement and beautifying power, each person my life touches.  How often I feel the human tug of will; yet Christ in me is all power to transform and to touch and delight others.  I need not love in my weak power.  I can love others in His power—what a thought!

He Has Laid Down the Gold of His Heart

I wonder if people feel reserved about spending time with those who have given their very all for the sake of the gospel going out to the ends of the earth.  It always seems to me that gatherings around missionary couples/singles/families should be a time of special fellowship.  Each time we’ve had someone in our home we have been blessed infinitely more than we blessed them with hospitality, for the Spirit flows freely in those who’ve offered up the ultimate sacrifice to Him.

Our children and I will never forget the Kenyan who got up from the breakfast table to dance in our living room to He Reigns – we Americans couldn’t quite get the groove.  He trains up hundreds in their young culture to go out and proclaim Christ, to be leaders, to strive for purity.  He hid on a rooftop in town for several  days in order to escape with his life while his town was burned and pillaged and many men murdered.

It’s the song of the redeemed
Rising from the African plain
It’s the song of the forgiven
Drowning out the Amazon rain
The song of Asian believers
Filled with God’s holy fire
It’s every tribe, every tongue, every nation
A love song born of a grateful choir

It’s all God’s children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns...
Let it rise about the four winds

Caught up in the heavenly sound
Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals
To the faithful gathered underground
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this

And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they’ve just heard
‘Cause all the powers of darkness
Can’t drown out a single word

When all God’s children sing out
Glory, glory, hallelujah
He reigns, He reigns...

 --Newsboys

Last week we had the privilege of hearing some current stories about more of such people; Samson, who has several university degrees, but travels to remote villages over dozens of uncomfortable hours by bus, boat, motorcycle, to set up literacy training facilities so that lowest caste India families can learn to read the Bible.  Old and young alike, large numbers in the towns participate; fifty percent generally become true believers and are discipled.  The least of these my brothers…

And there is the man who spent thirteen years in prison: “Even in prison, I knew that God was with me and I knew what He had done for me on the cross.  It is greater than what I had been through in prison.  Than you to my brothers and sisters in America and many other countries for your faithful prayers.  [are they?!] I know that I am still alive today because of your faithful prayer.  I am now sharing my testimony because of your powerful prayers.  Please pray for my country, Laos.  Pray that everyone accepts Jesus Christ, because I know that nothing is worthy in this life except becoming a Christian and following Jesus Christ.  I know how hard life is, but I want to encourage believers in America to be strong in their faith…”   He hasn’t been in our home, but Christ went two thousand years ago to prepare a home for him in the same eternal city we will inhabit, just some short hours from now.

Let us not think for a moment that our prayers, feeling so obscure for sufferers around the world, do not matter, or can be foregone because we can’t quite get to it.  Remembering them when we sit down to thank the Lord for a full plate of food puts our abundance in perspective.  And next time there is an opportunity to be with one of these, or with one who is telling about them, run to the chance.  It changes the lives of our children; and as adults, crystalizes a clearer perspective.

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”  1 Corinthians  6:19-20

“The Christian who truly enters into these two verses has solved some of the deepest problems of life  Those who recognize God’s absolute proprietorship of their bodies are not long in doubt as to where they should go, or what they should do.  Consecration is simply a matter of letting God have what He has paid for, or returning stolen property.

“Ye are bought with a price.”  It was an infinite price that God paid.  It was something more than silver and gold—the precious Blood of His only begotten Son.  God emphasizes the tremendous cost of redemption as an appeal to the heart of the redeemed.  The price He has paid measures His estimate of us.  He does not give a life so dear to Him for a soul that is worth nothing to Him.  He has laid down the gold of His heart – even Jesus Christ.  If we would go and stand on Calvary’s hill, and consider what it has cost heaven to purchase our salvation, we could not long withhold from Him what He rightfully owns—the full service of spirit, soul and body.  Yet how many are satisfied to say, “Jesus is mine,” who never go on to say, “I am his.”  One who takes this higher ground is bound to be careful what he does with property which belongs to another.

“When the thought of His proprietorship becomes uppermost, then we will simultaneously recognize the fact that being His, we are temples of the Holy Spirit.  Conscious of God’s ownership, and thoughtful of our Divine guest—the Holy Spirit—it is only natural that we should glorify God in our bodies and in our spirits which are His.  To glorify Him thus, is simply to exhibit the power and character of God in that which is His.

The Christian’s greatest joy is found in letting God possess His own property.”

--Mrs. Charles Cowman

Silver Wedding Anniversary

We skipped the morning bike ride and breakfast together for our anniversary because duty called; we’ll have a few days together soon.  So we sat wound together out on the deck with morning coffee and tea and Gospel Intimacy to spend the first few minutes of our 25^th anniversary enjoying just being home, quiet, enjoying the morning air.  Out pops one of our people to say good morning and have a chat and, well, we didn’t want to chase him away but finally he left us to our romantic reverie.  For all of 1.5 minutes before another head pops around the corner and she settles in with us on the lounge chair as if she’s going to stay, until number three reminds her it’s our anniversary and we are trying to have some romantic moments.  Finally the guilt trip prevails and she pulls herself away.  Somehow, before half a page was read, all three of them are standing around us conversing about this and that and generally socializing for the rest of our available few moments.  When at last they left, in time for us to get up and on with our day, I said “Well, it will be soon enough that they won’t be here to interrupt us on our anniversary morning”, and indeed, we didn’t mind in the least. 

Today I echo the words Elisabeth Prentiss wrote on her silver wedding anniversary, 1870:

“My thoughts have been busy the past week with reviewing the years through which I have travelled, hand in hand, with my dear husband; years full of sin, full of suffering, full of joy; brimful of the lovingkindness and tender mercy that smote often and smote surely.  Your last letter confirms what I already knew, but am never tired of hearing, repeated, the faithfulness of God to those whom He afflicts…magnify Him who took such pains with me, and is carrying on just such work in thousands of hearts and lives…there is nothing like the influence of one living soul on another. Then why should we not naturally speak to everybody who will listen, of what fills our thoughts: our Saviour, his beauty, His goodness, his faithfulness, His wisdom!  I don’t believe a full heart can help running over!” –More Love to Thee

Praising God this day for His faithful gifts, His working all things to good, and His making all things beautiful in His time. 

Here's to celebrating 50 together!  or 60? Will this be us in 40 years?

Gospel Power in Marriage

Tomorrow my man and I celebrate 25 years of marriage.  God has been merciful and very kind: “…through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come…’tis grace has brought us safe this far, and grace will lead us home”.  We are still learning much about Love, about Grace – God’s magnificent love to us, and our love for one another.  He’s blessed us in walking with us, teaching us; we celebrate this milestone with hearts full of joy and gratitude, knowing how little we deserve His lavish grace.

The amazing children-gifts He’s lent to us for these brief years threw a !stunning !best-ever! surprise 25^th anniversary dinner for us on Saturday evening, blessing beyond description, moment in time through which God’s blessings flowed unbounded.

culmination of days and days of creative labors and hard work, dearest daughters!

these musicians are amazing! (and helped serve, also, thus the apron)

delighted, overwhelmed: joyful evening

dear parents and lifelong friends

 bouquets done beautifully by our younger daughter

Surely we all are aware of how deeply marriage is under attack from every aspect of the matrix of our global culture.  We are reading aloud Gospel Intimacy by Alan Dunn (highly recommend) and I cannot help but quote at length.  It’s a bit of effort to dig below familiar or theologically loaded words and climb inside the Wonder of what is being said, but when we realize the Gospel Power that is ours to preserve marriage, to overcome difficulty and conflict, and to experience the unity of spirit to which we are called, that effort is well rewarded.  Ultimately, shall we subdue our determined hearts and seek first the glory of God and His righteousness?  Yes, then all these things shall be added unto you…

“John defines love theologically:  God is Love.  Here we have the light of our first guiding star shining on the subject.  God shows love by sending His Son as the propitiation for our sins, as the sacrifice which appeased divine wrath and averted divine judgment.  In the sacrificial death of Jesus we have atonement for our sin.  He assumed the punishment which we rightly deserve.  By His obedient self-sacrifice, He paid the penalty for our sin.  By His death, He defeated death by satisfying the demands of God’s justice.  By His resurrection He triumphs in new life, the life of eternity, the life of love.  Here then is love.  Love works to promote life.  Love seeks to solve the problem of death caused by sin.  Love mends sin’s separations.  Love brings life and unity.  Sin brings death.  Only gospel love can overcome sin and bring life to what would otherwise die.  This is the love we are to give one another in marriage.  We are to love each other with the love that God has for us in Christ.  John holds God’s gospel love before us and appeals to us to love each other in the same manner as god loves us.  Love each other with a love that addresses sin, that overcomes death, and that unifies what sin would otherwise separate.  Take the love that God has given to you in the gospel of Jesus Christ and give that same love to each other.

“Gospel love…is a love that originates in God and is expressed and defined by the gospel.  Gospel love is received from the Father in Christ Jesus by a living faith engendered within us by the Holy Spirit.  We receive gospel love from God and then give His love, gospel love, to our spouse.  We sometimes wonder whether we are capable of loving.  Are we not limited by our sin, determined by our genes, conditioned by our parents, habituated by our past?  If any man is in Christ, He is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come.  (2 Corinthians 5:17)  We are born of the Spirit and are new men [and women] in Christ.  He has liberated us in love that we might live in love.”  

--Alan Dunn

Meditating on this, this past week, I would add Philippians 3:13,16: “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ…let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind…”

The call of the hour is to begin living in the reality that is ours: we are one with Christ, sons and daughters of the King Eternal, and we have access to all His storerooms of power and blessing.

If He Will Bless It

The Olympics are captivating our household, usually later at night when it is time to head on to bed.  But as a pattern for a mindset of pursuing  victory, I thought the following was a better reminder than the stories of success and defeat we are seeing played out during these epic Games:

“[In feeding the five thousand, Jesus could have] simply swept His hand over the horizon, turned all the stones into loaves of bread, and sent everyone out with instructions to pick one up for himself.  But the Lord obviously wanted to feed this hungry assembly by using His disciples to do it.  He wanted to begin with what they had, or could find, and then make much more of that.  That is how He intended to bless the ministry and the lives of His disciples.

“All of us at one point or another feel He asks us to do more than we can do.  But He is not asking us to do anything by ourselves, by our own devices, or in our own strength.  In giving us commands, He is telling us what He will do with the little we have…

“Many times a day you and I do not do what the Lord calls us to do because it does not occur to us to think that we can.  He asks too much; we have too little, whatever it is we have too little of: courage, brains, faith, love, self-control, money, gifts—whatever it is we have too little of it with which to do what the Lord has asked of us.  We can’t love our enemy with the five loaves and two fishes worth of humility and tenderness and sympathy and Christlikeness that we have.  We can’t conquer lust, or put to death a sinful desire with the five loaves’ worth of hatred of sin, love of holiness, zeal or he Lord’s name, and self control that we have.

“But he Lord never intended his disciples to feed the multitude with only five loaves and two fish.  He took that amount – which was all they had—and made much of it, much more, sufficient to do the job and then some.  And so it will be with every disciple who answers the Lord’s summons in the confidence that the Lord is able and willing to provide what we do not have.

“He did not simply have the disciples break the loaves and the fish and send the food around.  He took what they had from them, gave thanks, and then broke it.  Then and only then did He give it to His disciples for them to distribute…

“We all have some measure of power and ability.  And we find it very easy to think that whether it is in succeeding at work or in raising our children, in making friends or in winning others to Christ, or in doing some other difficult work or Christian service we have accomplished it with what is ours: our talent, our fortitude, our perseverance, our good sense, even our faith.  But Jesus told His disciples and then showed them that, in everything that really matters, “without Me you can do nothing”…at every point when they forgot it, they foundered and He had to teach it to them again…

“The Lord will use what we have but He must bless it; His blessing is the key…whether your work is teaching or parenting or putting on godliness or bearing witness to an unbeliever or loving others: what you have is enough if only Christ will bless it and use it.  No matter your limitations, if Christ blesses your efforts you can accomplish great things…

“Jesus “gave the bread to the disciples to set before the crowd”: the tense of the verb gave is actually the imperfect, the past tense of continuous action—“He kept giving them to the disciples to set before the crowd”—the impression of the grammar, very clearly, is that every time the disciples came back to the Lord for more, there was more to give them, but not until then…however it multiplied it did so over time as the disciples came back empty ready for more.

“What a perfect picture of the manner in which we are called to serve the Lord in our lives…we struggle against the notion that every time we find ourselves in need we have to return to the Lord once again for more, to get what, once again, isn’t there until we receive it from His hand.

“We would prefer to learn all our lessons at once, to resolve all our problems at once, and then need nothing more.  Our constant need is an offense to our pride, our self-sufficiency, and our internal fortitude.  But it is not our Savior’s way and surely He knows best what suits our holiness and the world’s salvation.”   
--Rev. R. Rayburn

Satisfy Thy Soul in Drought

Recently I’ve been thinking about how many of us as women aspire to the goal of being an oasis for others: for our husbands, our children, our friends and those whose lives we touch—“the garden which it has created around its base”, yes?  Are we always seeking to be encouraged, or is it a desire that drives us, to be an encouragement to others along their path?  This picture came timely:

“Travelers are enthusiastic over a species of palm tree which grows in South America.  They call it the rain tree.   This tree has a remarkable power of attracting, in a wondrous degree, atmospheric moisture, which it and drops on the earth in refreshing dew.  It grows straight up in the parched and arid desert and daily distributes its refreshing showers, with the result that around it an oasis of luxuriant vegetation soon springs up.  The floodgates of heaven refuse to open, the fountains cease to flow, the rivers evaporate—all true, but the rain tree getting its moisture from above, renews the garden which it has created around its base, and gives the weary traveler shade and fruit, a new life and a delightful rest!

God would have us to be like the rain tree growing along side the desert highways of the world—sources of new spiritual life.  God HIMSELF is our atmosphere, and we carry our atmosphere with us wherever we go.  This atmosphere is proof against all infection, and to breathe it is constant health.

Christ’s power was in His separateness.  He did not withdraw Himself from the world, but lived in the very midst of it.  No man ever came into such close external contact with the devil.  Jesus was not a recluse.  He was social—mingling with men; yet He kept intact His separateness from the world.  He was Jesus!  Men felt this!  This was His power!

In the secret of Christ’s power we see the secret of our power.  If we are to have any power in the world we must become partakers of His holiness; we must be separated with Him; and be kept separated and set apart to the same great life.”   --Lettie Cowman

The Lord shall…satisfy thy soul in drought…and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.  Isaiah 58:11