A Grand Highway RJD October, 2012

 

 

“Every valley shall be filled. . .” Luke 3:5 (NIV)

 

January 3, 1998

{Devotional Book: Morning and Evening, by Charles Spurgeon}

A valley, we know, is a low place between two or more higher places. As Christians we experience spiritual valleys. Some of us go through emotional valleys. Pastor Mike, a pastor we had for seven years, sang “God of the mountain is still God in the valley,” a comforting statement for me during this time.

Luke tells me every valley shall be filled. All, each one of them will be leveled out and we will go forth with our lives, with our families, and especially with Jesus.

 

I had some very trying times during my life. But the comfort I received from the Lord brought me through each of them. I learned from a dear saint of God that when I was “in a valley” I was the most teachable because being brought down made me look up to God. Sometimes I could find comfort only through prayer, Bible study, devotional reading, and journaling.

Back in 2000, when a relative emailed me that her son-in-law was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer, I suggested she purchase a spiral-bound notebook and just write about her feelings. I also mentioned she could write a letter to Cancer. Telling it what she thought of it. (She wasn’t a Christian at the time; I told her she could use explicit words, if she felt she had to.) I don’t know if she did but I tried to give her an outlet for her emotions.

As I sit here trying to sort through some essays, I find myself in frequent fervent prayer for a family who has been faced with the serious illness of a loved one. All I can do is pray and write about God’s presence when we face trials and tribulation.

 Linking up to http://beneaththesurface-dawn.

Help and Hope

“Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God.”

 Psalm 146: 5 NIV)

 

From time to time in our lives, we find ourselves in circumstances that we can’t do anything about. All we can do is lean on the Lord to bring us through the trial. We come through the time of hardship, no matter how long, with a new outlook about the foibles of life.

Around the middle of last month, I tried to call a friend of mine twice one day. The first time I reached her answering machine. I left a short message. The second time, I reached the answering machine again and decided not to leave a message. The next morning, her husband called me to let me know that she was in the hospital. It sounded serious and the complications started again. This was her third time in the hospital in recent memory. One of her doctors chose to transfer her to ICU; three days later they had to put her on a ventilator. Her daughters and anyone who knew the situation were scared. I found myself mentally down because of what I knew and what we all feared.

I finally went to my journal and wrote. I asked God a series of questions, then tried to answer them as best I could.  What I went through caused me to change my blog topic for this month to “trust”. I needed to explore this term in depth.

At the end of last month, my friend had to go to a nursing home to receive therapy to help her regain her mobility.

Book Review: Grace-by Max Lucado

 

 

In his latest book, Grace-more than we deserve, greater than we imagine Max Lucado teaches of the deep quality of unmerited love. In twelve chapters, he gives special new meaning to the presence of God in our lives.

This book saturated with scripture and examples of grace in our daily lives, Max brings freshness to Bible reading and study.

The book held my interest. It inspired me to show more grace to others in my life. At the end of this book Max Lucado includes a study guide. This feature is a plus for me. I intend to re-read this work and spend time studying grace.

Max always holds my attention. (I have read several of his works over the years.) He uses metaphors of modern life to allow the reader to identify with the topic. This style of writing quickly draws the reader into the ‘discussion’, making him or her feel at ease.

Max conveys Biblical truth in a way that the concept stays with the reader. He includes scripture throughout this book. The study guide, written by Kate Etue, follows a form for each in-depth chapter study, one section of which is a scripture review. Each of these sections is saturated with scripture readings and or questions to ponder.

I would highly recommend this book to believers wanting to grow in their faith. There is a participant’s guide available for small group use. The publisher has made this book available in DVD form for small group. It comes in an unabridged audiobook, as well as e-book forms.

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I was given a free copy of this book by Thomas Nelson through Booksneeze. In return, I was asked to give an unbiased and honest review.

The Unseen Follower

 

 

As I read Shirley Corder’s blog post, Cyber Visitors, she referred to the day she noticed she had a reader whose location was cyberspace- probably a satellite provider. She began thinking of an unknown reader of a different sort, the One who reads our every thought. She reminded me of the fact that we gain some knowledge of our followers and a bit about their location and maybe their families.

Another blogging friend, Gina Burgess, at refreshmentrefuge. wrote a paper-blogging-is-new-town- for her college class that pointed out that all bloggers really don’t know who will read their essays. A lot of bloggers have what we call followers- readers who are interested in our blog. These readers return to our blog pages regularly.

I have the same thought about my weekly online column. I know of one person who told me he has read my thoughts on God’s Words for US. www.liveasif.org(Link to Live As If.org). You can imagine my surprise as I heard my pastor say something complimentary about an article I had written.

Shirley’s words set me to thinking about that Follower that every Christian believer has. Yes, our Leader can also be our Follower. When we follow Him, He guides us through the difficulties of life. When He follows us, He gives strength when we need it. You know His name- His name is Jesus.

Jesus follows us throughout each day. He sits with us in the ICU waiting room as we sit with a friend’s family. He accompanies us as we pay respects to a family that is in grief. Our Lord listens in as we hear the report from the surgeon. (Christ Jesus traveled with our family when we took our son to all those check-ups at the children’s hospital over the years.)

I have a friend who recently asked a doctor who was going to do a procedure on her if he believed in prayer. His answer was “Yes I do, I pray before I work on every patient.” God had orchestrated for her to have a doctor who believed in the power of prayer

I am more convinced than ever that we should be more mindful of our unseen Follower as we go through our days. How do you feel about knowing that Jesus is following you and me around as we gp through life?

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God Guides the Ones Who Obey

 

 

“Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.” Psalm 73:23, 24 (NIV)

This is a psalm of Asaph, a Gershonite Levite choir leader. Twelve of the Psalms have been assigned to him. Gershon was a son of Levi. Asaph had gotten discouraged by the wicked people always prospering. As he enters God’s sanctuary, he repents of his ‘attitude’ and makes the statement that is our focus passage.

“. . . I am always with you. . . “Asaph was truly committed to God. Can we say the same thing?

” . . . you hold me by my right hand.” When young people are dating, they sometimes hold hands. When an older person is unsteady on their feet, a companion will hold their hand while walking. God holds us by our hand as we go through difficult circumstances of life. When we follow God’s direction through the valleys of life, we gain wisdom and strength.

“. . . afterward you will take me into glory.” This is Asaph’s statement of faith. He knows God will do as He has said.  As 21st Century disciples, we need to remember that our final destination is with God in heaven.

“You guide me with your counsel. . .” God speaks to Asaph and imparts wisdom to him. With Asaph being a worker in the house of the Lord, I believe he and God had many occasions in which God talked and Asaph listened. Even today, we have times where we seek his counsel and, in order to hear what God tells us, we have to listen.

What the Lord Asks

 

 

“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and to observe the LORD’S command and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.?” Deut. 10:12-13 (NIV)

 Have you ever wondered what you were supposed to do when faced with a dire situation? I have several times in my life.

One time, I chose to follow the WWJD way of dealing with a sticky situation only to get burned by two tenants in one of the rental units I was managing because my dad was in a nursing home. Had I been able to talk to them early on, I may have handled the issue better. For a while, the action I took with dealing with these women was one of my regrets.

 I found this scripture as I looked for another one. It spoke to my heart. I re-learned some of the basic concepts of Christianity from what this passage says.

“Fear the LORD your God . . . . “ We are to respect God. Revere His word. Hold Him in high esteem.

 “. . . to walk in all his ways. . . “Whatever we do, we are to do as if He were beside us-because He is. Brother Andrew wrote of this exercise in his book, Practicing the Presence of God. I remember hearing and then seeing this pithy statement on a church signboard: “Do you feel away from God? Guess who moved?”

” . . . to love him. . . .” When we love another person we try to be patient with them. We try to understand his or her position with certain issues. When we love God we adore Him, obey His commands.

” . . . to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. . . “We are to be His hands and feet, consider the other person’s viewpoint, their loss, or their circumstance. We are to put our complete selves into the service of the LORD.

 

Remain in His Love

 

 

“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s command and remain in his love.” John 15:10 (NIV)

As small children, we may have been guilty of telling an adult, “I don’t have to do that, you aren’t my mom or dad.” I remember coming home from work and going into a babysitter’s home to pick up my son. She’d had an incident with him. She had told one of her older girls to watch him. The older girl corrected him on something and he told her he didn’t have to mind her.  When I heard what he had said, I got his attention and let him know that if the lady told one of her girls to watch over him that he was to do as he was told. I never came home to a problem again. Had I not dealt with the issue as I did, I believe to this day I would have lost a babysitter.

When we obey another person’s wishes, things are more pleasant, less strained for all involved. When we follow God’s guidance, we don’t have as many regrets, ‘what if’ thoughts, or ‘why didn’t I’ notions. God loves us, even when we wander away from following His direction. His love for us is more evident when we obey His word.