Walk With Him

Sure, go ahead and ignore those reminders to update software or data on your computer and electronic devices.  What’s the big deal, you say?  Try following directions from a GPS with outdated maps and roads.  You’ll end up on a dead end street or in someone’s cow pasture!

 

The Prophet Isaiah, of course, didn’t have access to a GPS for direction or a computer for instruction.  No, he knew The Creator and Source of all directions and instructions.  And so do we!  “And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought.” (Isaiah 58:11)

 

Wherever He may guide me, no want shall turn me back;

My Shepherd is beside me, and nothing can I lack.

His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim –

He knows the way He taketh, and I will walk with Him. – A. L. Waring

 

Soul Prosperity

Star Trek fans will remember Spock’s hand gesture as he said, “live long and prosper.”  Actually, that gesture is a slight modification of the Hebrew hand sign forming the letter “Shin,” which represents the name “Shaddai” meaning “Almighty” (God).  Orthodox Jews still use the gesture today during prayer services as they give the “Priestly Blessing.”

 

What thoughts come to your mind when you consider prosperity?  No doubt, the word conjures up untold wealth, riches, and success.  After all, isn’t that the “American dream?”  Well, it’s a far cry from the blessing we read in Numbers, “May the Lord bless you and keep you.  May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.  May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (6:22)   God desires we prosper on a much deeper and more meaningful level than what “moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:19)  He designed our souls to prosper from an inward truth.  Spurgeon wrote, “Now it is a rule of nature that the inward affects the outward, as light shines from the centre of the lantern through the glass; when, therefore, the truth is kindled within, its brightness soon beams forth in the outward life and conversation.”  Don’t you see the beauty of prosperity as it’s defined by inward treasures [of Truth] in the soul which outlast mere earthly rubble!  I have no idea if script writers knew the origin of Spock’s hand gesture, but man’s soul Creator and Sustainer did.  In the Name and Truth of Jehovah God and our Redeemer Christ Jesus … prosper!

 

Book People

“Get 10 Books for .99!”  What an eye-grabber!  The fine print, however, doesn’t draw quite as much attention.  Sure, you get 10 for .99 and you GET to buy 10 at regular price over a specified period of time.  Oh yeah, what a deal!

 

At re-birth, Christians are automatically enrolled in God’s Word “book club.”  It’s true, book clubs usually have recommended reading, best seller lists, or a specific book-of-the-month.  For my birthday, I got seven new books!  I was so excited and wanted to read every one of them at once!  Reality set in a few days later when I compared my available reading time with the daily need to read God’s Word. The deficit of scriptural truth, lack of spiritual discernment, and Godly wisdom are directly linked to the amount of time a person devotes to reading and meditating on God’s Word.  Far too many Christians simply don’t have the Bible on their list of daily recommended reading.   When the Southern Kingdom of Israel (Judah) was exiled in Babylon, the scribes and priests continued to teach the books of the law and the surviving nation became known as “people of the book.”  The people returned to their homeland in 539 BC with lives centered in God’s precepts.  Without doubt, Christians should be book-people, rightly knowing and living according to Its Truth.  Evidence of Christ should be so real, the Book is written all over us!  So, what’s part of your daily recommended reading?  If God’s Word isn’t there, re-do your list and be in The Word!

All of Me

Founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, wrote these words: “God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, men with greater opportunities. But from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with them, on that day I made up my mind that God should have all of William Booth there was. And if there is anything of power in the Salvation Army today, it is because God has had all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life.”

Inspired of God first in Deuteronomy 6:5 then echoed in Mark 12:30, we have our first command: “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.”  Heart – Soul – Mind – Strength … what’s left?  Absolutely nothing.  It’s an all-of-me lifestyle: the beauty of Christ and His Magnificent Matchless Grace pouring forth with His Divine Light … all the adoration of hearts, all the power of wills, and all the influences of lives!  All of me!

Have a blessed time of thanksgiving for the rich and endless mercies of The Father.

Until Monday, 11-29 … Miles of Smiles, Beverly

Showers of Blessing

In his book, “In the Presence of Mine Enemies,” Howard Rutledge writes of being held for seven years in a Vietnam prison camp.  Frequently alone, cold, hungry, and tortured, he would recall Sunday School days in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Without a Bible or a hymnbook, he would try to rebuild from memory verses and choruses.  One night in the camp during a terrible thunderstorm, lightning knocked out the lights putting the entire prison into darkness. As the rain began to fall, at the sound of wave after wave of water, these once forgotten childhood words came to his mind: “Showers of blessing, showers of blessing we need! Mercy drops round us are falling but for the showers we plead.”  Rutledge later wrote, “The enemy knew that the best way to break a man’s resistance was to crush his spirit in a lonely cell.  In other words, some of our POWs after solitary confinement would lay down in a fetal position and died. All this talk of Scripture and hymns may seem boring to some, but it was the way we conquered our enemy and overcame the power of death around us.”  This old and familiar hymn, written by Major Daniel Whittle, reminded Rutledge in that moment of God’s promise “I will cause showers to come down in their season: there shall be showers of blessing.” (Ezekiel 34:26) 

His promises are ever true.  He is completely faithful.    Have a blessed week.  Miles of Smiles, Beverly

Resting

Hannah Whitall Smith writes about Lake Tahoe: “Among the peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains, not far from the busy whirl of San Francisco, lies Lake Tahoe. It is twenty-three miles long, ten miles wide, and so deep that a line dropped nineteen hundred feet does not touch bottom; and it lies five thousand feet above the neighboring ocean. Storms come and go in waters that are lower down the mountains, but this lake is so still and clear that the eye can penetrate, it is said, a hundred feet into its depths. Around its mild verdant sides are the mountains, ever crowned with snow. The sky above is as calm as the motionless water. Nature loses scarcely anything of its clear outline as it is reflected there.”

My, we have trouble being still?  My mind outruns my spirit quite often!  It is not uncommon for the pressures and endless tasks of each day to bully our own good nature.  We can all use a time of cease and desist!  Psalm 46:10 says, “be still and know that I am God,” calling us to cease the sin which hinders our knowing God intimately.  When we do … stop, that is … we can experience the calmness of His spirit and thus become a deep and lovely reflection of Christ’s beauty.  Oh, how the world needs to see it in us – the Savior’s peacefulness.  Be still.  Know God.  Rest.

Have a blessed weekend.  Miles of Smiles, Beverly

"Hurting But Healing" by Hannah Whital Smith

The story of Job is enacted over and over. The righteous suffer, and we do not know why. Mysterious providences darken and attempt to ruin the lives of those who have seemed too good to need such discipline, Even to ourselves come afflictions that we cannot understand, and Satan seems so busy in the matter that it is hard to trace the hand of the Lord in it al all. But his hand is in it nevertheless, and he overrules everything. No trial comes except by his persmission and for some wise and loving purpose which perhaps only eternity will disclose.  Our loving and wise Physician has discovered in us some incipient disease that he knows will ruin us if it remains unchecked, and he is applying the remedy.  Would we stay his hand even if we could? Surely not. For more than anything else, we want sound health; and any rememdy that will bring it to us is more than welcome.

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” Job 23:10-12

Miles of Smiles, Beverly

Benefits of Joy

Ever tried to catch a butterfly?  Try as you may, it always seems to be just out-of-reach.  It seems the only benefit of chasing butterflies is exercise!

Do you confuse happiness with joy?  Happiness comes from “happy” circumstances but joy comes from the well-spring of the soul – the soul rooted in the eternal consistency of Christ Jesus.  Just because we’re sad or tearful doesn’t mean we have no joy.  Why, Jesus stood outside the tomb of His friend, Lazarus, and wept! (John 11:35)  Later, as He approached Jerusalem and considered its spiritual darkness, Luke wrote that Jesus “saw the city and wept” (Luke 19:41)  Billy Graham described joy as “a quiet confidence, a state of inner peace that comes from God.”  When we live in pursuit of happiness, much like that butterfly, it’s always escaping us.  Joy, however, is the constant steady stream of Living Water that never depends on the coming-and-going, up-and-down, here-and-there circumstances of life.  As Nehemiah proclaimed, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” (8:10)  What a wonderful consequence of the joy of Christ – strength for each day’s journey.  Oh, the precious benefits of joy!

Dear Lord,

Help me to seek Your face and know Your heart to experience the beneficial joy of Jesus Christ, my Redeemer and Friend.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Encounters With Grace

Mr. Bill has coined a new phrase, I believe; he said he was planning a “coincidental encounter.”  Now, I’m not sure how you plan something coincidental but if it can be done, of all people, I’m sure HE can make it happen!

Nothing is coincidental with Almighty God.  His Sovereignty  eliminates anything accidental, by chance, or fluky for His Children.  For evermore gladness!  In wilderness wandering, Israel experienced the perfect providence of Jehovah as God’s Word says they “found grace in the wilderness” and He loved them “with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31: 2-3)  Oh my, how we redefine the deserts of our lives, missing the outpouring of God’s grace and love.  Those sunless days and lonely nights are merely tools The Father uses to bring about our satisfaction in His goodness, refreshing all who languish (V.25)   You see, nothing is wasted or unplanned with God – everything happens according to His will, on purpose with a purpose!  I can’t wait to hear about Mr. Bill’s “coincidental encounter,” and I’m sure it will be quite a story.  Let us be ever mindful, ever watchful for those precious … encounters with God’s grace.

Dear Lord,

Your sovereignty and Your grace amaze me.  It’s where I find complete peace and rest.  Rejoice, oh my soul!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Right Copy

Although fairly technologically astute, I confess to being copier “challenged.”  I just don’t use a copier enough to be proficient at it!  The office receptionist surely holds her breath when I am copying, and thankfully, is responsive to me-sounds at the copier.  It’s good to always have a backup!

Duplicity of heart never honors Christ!  Zephaniah warned Israel there was nothing good about following Jehovah AND bowing to false gods: “I will cut off them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham.”  Malcham (Molech or Moloch) was the Canaanite god of fire to whom children were sacrificed.  What an atrocious idea that God’s Chosen people could run with “hare and hound!”  Such double-mindedness is widespread even today among Believers.  In 1899, Elisha A. Hoffman posed these questions in a hymn: “Have thy affections been nailed to the cross? Dost thou count all things for Jesus but loss?  Is there no more condemnation for sin? Does Jesus rule in the temple within?  Are all thy pow’rs under Jesus’ control? Does He each moment abide in thy soul?”  In summation, she wrote, “Is thy heart right with God?”  So what about the double-dealing, the hypocrisy, the duplicity heart within us?  Spurgeon wrote, “Christ will be all or nothing.”  A good copier produces copies hard to distinguish from originals.  A Christ-centered heart duplicates the heart of The Father.  That’s the kind of copying I want to be good at!

Tranquility

In the Police Blotter several years ago, I read that a local police department responded to a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex named, “Tranquility Court.”  Huh?

God is full of joy, peace, and happiness – He is an eternal tranquil Being.  Rooted in Him, we mirror such tranquility within and without.  The loss of peace in our spirits is just awful!  I often refer to it as “being in the stew.”  You know, stew (or hash as some call it), is a myriad of ingredients so well-mixed you can’t determine any one in particular.  The multitude of disturbances in life is what disquiets our spirits and distracts us from the serene light of God.  Isaiah 16:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusteth in Thee.”  The Prophet suggests not just an avoidance but a pursuit of peace, fixing the mind on Christ Who defines perfect peace.  He IS tranquility!

What comforts, Lord, to those are given,

Who seek in Thee their home and rest!

Thy find on earth an opening heaven,

And in Thy peace are amply blest. – W. C. Dessler

"God's Instruction Manual" by June Gunden

Suppose for a moment that through a wealthy benefactor you inherit a private airplane. Not knowing how to fly, but knowing it can be done, you climb into the cockpit and begin to push buttons, determined to lift off. How ridiculous, you say. I’d crash the plane and probably kill myself. The people who made that airplane have provided instructions about how to fly it. I would certainly take some lessons from them. Yet it is difficult for us to admit that we need “living” instructions from the One who created us. He knows how life has been designed to work. May God help us to study his “instruction manual” every day, to believe its message, and to treasure its wisdom. With the psalmist, may we cry: “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” (Psalm 119:97).

Dear Lord,

Thank You for revealing Yourself in the Word.  Draw me continually to Its wisdom and make me to obey Your precepts.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Suffer a Little

Completion – how we love to finish the day, the dishes, the laundry, the long trip, the homework.  There’s a feeling of “ahh” in being done with something.  That is, unless it’s the mountain trip or the beach or brownies & milk.  Yeah …

God seeks to complete His work in His children, too!  Oh, but how we resist His work-in-progress!  One of Satan’s notorious lies is Christians should be free from hardships.  Quite the contrary!  Peter wrote, “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace [Who imparts all blessing and favor], Who has called you to His [own] eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will Himself complete and make you what you ought to be, establish and ground you securely, and strengthen, and settle you.” (1 Peter 5:10)  Our difficulties are tools of in the Father to make us more like Him, that “fragrant aroma” Paul describes (2 Corinthians 2:15).  When we do battle with our sufferings, however, the aroma is more like a stench to God!  We move toward completion of God’s work, rather, when we understand The Creator isn’t finished with His creation. Embracing God’s work-in-progress through our troubles, we bear a holy resemblance, having a real “ahh” effect to the spirit and to those around us.  Consider your present storm and that God wants to  complete some special work in you.  Cease the battles, settle in to “suffer a little.”  God will show you beauty in your troubles, and reward with unspeakable joy!

Dear Lord,

I praise You for Your sovereign grace that redeems and sanctifies.  Stay my mind on You and in Your Word, making me new and right before You.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Keep Me There!

“Get a life,” we’re told.  Well, those in Christ HAVE a life – made strong in Him.  Oh, the strength which seeps from us when we see not the beauty of His Holiness.  Nehemiah 8:10 says, “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”  Helen Lowrie Marshall says it like this:    

Isn’t life glorious! Isn’t it grand!

Here – take it – hold it tight in your hand;

Squeeze every drop of it into your soul,

Drink of the joy of it, sun-sweet and whole!

Laugh with the love of it, burst into song!

Scatter its richness as you stride along!

Isn’t life splendid – and isn’t it great

We can always start living – it’s never too late!

Dear Lord,

Let not one moment of this day pass apart from the deep joy of Your Presence.  Oh, my Father, keep me there!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

"Steps and Stops" by Millie Stamm

The children of Israel had been told to watch the cloud for guidance. But there were also times when the cloud indicated that they were to wait. The wilderness was not the most delightful place in which to wait. The barrenness of the desert was not inviting. Waiting in itself is not easy. Regardless of their strength and eagerness to start out again, regardless of their impatience to be on the way, the Israelites did not move until God, by means of the cloud, directed them to do so. “Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days … Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening till morning … Whether the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for two days or a month or a year, the Israelites would remain in camp and not set out; but when it lifted, they would set out.” (Numbers 9:20-22)  It may not have been difficult to wait a short time but sometimes they had to wait a long time. This was no doubt difficult. It was the test of their obedience. Sometimes we are kept waiting, too. We may be in the midst of heartaches, of problems, of trials, of temptations when we see the cloud stop and wait. Sometimes our waiting is for a short period. We may, on the other hand, be kept waiting for a long time. But we dare not move until he moves us. There are times when we seem settled in a comfortable place. We are happy and contented. Suddenly the cloud begins to move. We may not want to move, yet we will have his blessing only if we willingly move with his cloud. “If the Lord delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm.” (Psalm 37:23)  Both the steps and the stops of our lives are ordered by the Lord. The important thing is for us to follow where he leads.

Vision

A change of scenery is always nice!  Yesterday, my family enjoyed a day-trip to the mountains.  For a brief time, we traded the foothills’ view for up-close and personal.  Anne Ortlund’s vision reminds me how terribly urgent and crucial I need an ever more constant view of Almighty God. 

“Vision” by Anne Ortlund

O Lord, I need to know that you are you! I need to have a glorious God in view;

To see your plans, so infinite and wise, I need a mighty God before my eyes.

Show me your glory! Show yourself anew; Lord, open up my eyes of faith to you.

So often, when I face which way to go the problems seem to multiply and grow;

I do not see you standing, waiting, there, so full of power for me, to do, to dare!

Show me your glory! Show yourself anew; Lord, open up my eyes of faith to you.

O God, I know that in my present state I could not stand the sight of you, so great;

Yet even now, the smallest glimpse is bright enough to bathe my soul in dazzling light!

Show me your glory! Show yourself anew; Lord, open up my eyes of faith to you.

Amazing!

One of the trees in our yard I brought home in a coffee can.  A young man was selling seedlings at the red light, and I bought one for $1.99.  Mr. Bill laughed at the $1.99 twig and was pretty certain it wouldn’t amount to much.  Today, however, it is about 30 ft high and soon will burst forth in brilliant yellow leaves.  Amazing!

The foundational truths of salvation are rich and eternal yet there is more to our faith.  Christians must grow to producing some serious fruit!  The writer of Hebrews tells us our faith is to be productive.  He was “confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation.” (Hebrews 6:9)  It is Christ Who frees us to focus on bearing fruit and great are the rewards.   “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you  have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” (Hebrews 6:10)  God forgets and needs to remember?  No, of course, not: nothing ever “occurs” to God!  Here, “forget” and “remember” are action words: “to act on what is remembered.”  When Israel turned back to God after disobedience, the Bible notes “God remembered His covenant” (Leviticus 26:42, 45)  God didn’t forget His covenant, rather he “acted on what He remembered” – to keep the promises made earlier to His people. In the same way, God forgets to remember our sins and not punish us like we deserve (Psalm 25:7, Isaiah 43:25) Thus, when God acts on what He remembers, we receive the fruit of His covenant promises – mercy, grace, love, forgiveness.  God’s promises to us are indeed fruitful, and a rich inheritance of our faith.  Mr. Bill and I often sit in the porch swing and admire “our” little coffee-can tree, but it’s not the trunk or the roots or the strong branches we admire: it’s the beautiful leaves and the sweet shade it casts.  God’s salvation is rich and [even alone] worthy of every ounce of praise, but the fruits of His salvation to us and through us are evident. This evidence is rooted in God’s nature as He rewards “those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).  Amazing!