From The Sheep Pen

In the beginning God…Genesis 1:1

Another year has gone and a new one begins. Last night at midnight a million freezing people were herded together in Times Square to watch the Waterford Ball drop for sixty seconds as a mark of the new year. It is estimated that a billion others on the planet viewed the event. Additionally, there were countless persons connecting on their personal electronic devices with one another globally.  Despite the arctic New York temperatures freezing the very bone marrow, revelers amassed to say good bye to the old year and welcome in the new.

It occurs to me that there is something sadly symbolic about so many people celebrating, blowing horns, performing and dancing   around a “crystal ball” which drops down from a great height into their midst The comparison to Israel worshiping   the golden calf is not too far fetched. Twenty one centuries later,  humanity still  strays  from God and His commandments against bowing to idols!

I didn’t stay up to bring in the New Year. In fact I was abed shamefully early and Dan even earlier than me. We’d planned to shoot off a firework or two to celebrate New Year’s with our grand daughters, but it was too far cold to be outside, even if to delight the children  with fireworks. One of my grand daughters has had the flu and was still feeling tired so we played board games instead. After the girls went to sleep, my daughter and I stayed up for a while surfing the television,   but found nothing which enticed us to stay up to midnight. The hyped up media broadcast on the East Coast lost its appeal to me long ago. I could not imagine actually being where so many people were crammed together – and enjoying it!

And so I woke up today extremely well rested. It is still frigid: the temperature outside read 6 below. We drank our morning coffee and cocoa, warming up by the fire. The January sun on the ice and snow is beyond any words I have for “beautiful.” Icicles grow from the eaves of the house, curving inward like white fingers frozen on a hand. The snow is infused with crystals sparking like diamond studs. I look outside at God’s exquisite work this brand new morning and I can hardly breathe at such times. What God has wrought! What wonders God continually creates for His children who have the eyes to see and whose hearts beat with His. His creative wonders as well as His mercies are pristine and new every morning.

While a new page opens up the 2015 calendar, I’ve learned not to see the final moments of December as a break from last year. The first day of January marks a beginning point of time in our western culture even though in reality there is no discernible difference between the last seconds of 2014 and the first micro  seconds of 2015. Time moves and has moved effortlessly ever since God stepped into the void and separated the Light from the Dark. Our mortal minds cannot comprehend  life in time  which is somehow not linear, which is not measured by hours, divided into day and night, marked by seasons or counted in years.

Because of God’s generous loving heart, I see today as well as all of 2015 filled with potential and possibilities. Like an eager artist standing in front of an empty canvas, like a restless musician about to write down the songs he’s been mentally  playing,   I want only to fill up the blank pages in front of me with truth, thanksgiving and praise to the God who was and is and always will be for time and seasons are His, from everlasting to everlasting.

I count it a blessing  to arise to this new day knowing God’s desire is for us to receive from Him another year. It is not to revel or party that we receive the gift of a new year. It is so that He is revealed in our hearts.   It is    so that He will be honored and glorified every day in 2015. It is to do God’s will and leave my own willfulness in the past.

And that is better than any New Year’s Resolution I’ve ever made and tried to keep.

Happy New Year!

It is Christmas. Dan and I went to a candle lighting service last night. The carols were the old,   familiar ones I learned  as a child.  As the candles were lighted from one person to another, the church darkened and everyone joined in  “Silent Night.” I always sing it quietly in German and think of Christmases long ago. The tiny lights of a hundred candles flickered as the choir voices  rose,  remembering the birth of the Lord Jesus in Bethlehem. I felt an abiding   stillness in myself and sensed it in those around me. It was  peace and joy. We had come for the real purpose of Christmas, to adore Him like the shepherds and angels did. He gave us the true gift, Himself.

Christmas is about Jesus. Period. We have made it into so many other things: buying gifts, decorating the house, traditions both serious and silly and even family. Christ is the magnificent incarnated gift we received from God Himself. Jesus is the gift He offers of Himself. Through Him, we get a double portion for we receive both the Gift and the Giver. It is Jesus who taught us to give the best of ourselves to others in like manner. We give gifts to others because He first gave everything to us. Such selfless giving should be for every day of the year, not just the 25^th of December.

In the spirit of giving of ourselves, we at Mountain Life Church share some thoughts about the joys, memories and insights which make Christmas 2015 special.

Friede Gabbert

From Pastor Joe Eisenbrandt:

I am grateful for everything that Christmas represents and stirs in this time of year.  I love Christmas.   My fondest childhood memories are of my family at Christmas.     My earliest are my mom, sister and I decorating, playing Christmas records (yes, vinyl records), watching Christmas movies and our whole family (and extended family) coming together on Christmas Eve.   There are so many vivid memories of Christmas, unlike any other season or event in my life.   Through all of these memories, the time with my family is the one thing that remains consistent and wonderful through them all.    Now, as the father of a six-year-old, Christmas continues to be the same time for me.   I think even more now because I get to experience the same excitement, joy, wonder and love through my son.     I am grateful for the Love of Father God demonstrated in our Savior’s Birth and still now revealed through my family.

From Kim Meyer:

“Life is full of little lessons.  I thought of three just in the half hour it took to walk my dogs when I got home from work the other day.

The first lesson was “Find Joy in the Little Things!”  Two words come to mind regarding my dogs when we start out on our walk – “wild abandon”  -They do their own face plants and rub their snouts left and right  in the new snow.  They prance with their tails high.  Makes me laugh and I realize joy is a simple thing found anywhere.  And it’s infectious!

As I walked along the river I heard a lone goose honking across the way and sensed it was flying closer.  Then I heard a sound I did not understand. As I was looking up for the source of the sound I was half afraid that I would see a space ship hovering over me.  I was dumbfounded when I laid eyes on a gaggle of silent geese flying over, in their proverbial V formation, with only one sporadic honker/leader.  Because there was only the one goose honking I was able to hear their wings flapping and it was a very sharp, whirring sound that I had never heard before.  Lesson – in a big group, quit honking and listen to the leader and you might hear the sound of wind in your wings

The final lesson:  I was tired and wondering how I would make it up the hill that I must climb to get home.  I quit worrying about it and just trudged on, putting one foot in front of the other and suddenly,  I was surprised to find myself on top of the hill and didn’t even remember the struggle of the climb.   It’s good to learn to take your eyes off the looming struggle and just focus on what is before you, casting your worries aside.”

From Natalie Dyrud:

I find myself becoming so flustered and frustrated by the EXTRA HUSTLE of the holiday season.  My everyday life is already enough of a race as a wife, mother of three girls, and owner of a high- energy dog.  It is rare that I find a moment to rest, sit still, not have a question to answer or a problem to work through, etc.   I have found myself, shall we say “discouraged” by the aforementioned fact and the length of my need-to-do list much less my want-to-do list.  However, a couple of days ago I was touched by the Spirit with the fact that I should be grateful for even the physical ability to accomplish the need-to list.  I could be physically prevented from any ability to affect my circumstances.

So today, I thank my Father for bodily strength and capability; as simple as it seems I am truly grateful for this.  I am determined to every menial task out of love for my God Praise His Name!

From Lance and Jill Miller:

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

This verse is an Old Testament prophecy, written of the coming of Jesus and concentrates on His person and every name given to Him expresses His character and nature. Each name has a profound meaning and a message for our hearts at Christmas time.

The name that spoke to me strongly this year is the first, “… and the government shall be upon His shoulders.” Because He is Lord and one with the Father, the government of the world rests on His shoulders. There is nothing outside His control. This Christmastime, the One who has the government of the world on His shoulders wants to carry the government of your life on His shoulders. Everything that concerns you is His concern and He desires to bear the burden of it as you trust Him and obey Him as Lord.

PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Son. Please give me fresh revelation of who Jesus is and the wonder of Your indescribable gift. During this Christmas time I reflect on Jesus and draw closer to Him. Whatever my circumstances are, I ask for grace to trust you to fulfill Your purpose in and through my life.

Isaiah’s majestic description of the Messiah in 9:6-7 is awe inspiring and still shakes the earth. As I read his words again for the first time, they explode from Scripture directly into the heart.    In just a few phrases, Isaiah foretells the Messiah from Infant Child to the future King in all his regal splendor, power and righteousness who will come to rule the world. The illuminating vision he has of Messiah is like the comet over Bethlehem   shining in the dark night sky. He would be called by royal titles: : Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. No earthly ruler has ever been honored with such magnificent appellations.

Genesis declares that In the beginning of time God spoke and there was Light. The Light pierced the formless void and Creation began. As the prophet receives the messianic vision of the One who would come into the darkness for Israel, it is Jesus, “the Light of the world”   and first fruit of the new creation whom Isaiah   sees .   John   declares that Jesus is the Word of God, who was with God and was God in the beginning. Under the divine power of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah prophesies the Word through royal throne names of the Messiah and in doing so , he calls forth the Name and Character of the Godhead Himself. For it is the Lord God who with the Son and the Holy Spirit is the Mighty God, the Eternal Father, the Wonderful Counselor, and the Prince of Peace. What Isaiah speaks of in 9:7 describes  God manifested in the Holy Trinity.

Isaiah 9:6-7 is often used as a Christmas message because it builds on the Immanuel prophesy and points to the birth of Jesus in the New Testament.   I believe it is much more than that. Taken in its entirety, it is the full message of the Gospel of the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. There is the very familiar connection of “ unto us a Child is born” which describes Christ’s Incarnation as a human child.  “Son of Man” was Jesus favorite description of Himself because He was one of us, born as a little child.

But is not “unto us a Son is given” also the prophetic message of the cross? Is it not pointing to the Messiah as not only one of us, but also as God’s only Son freely given to mankind as the price of redemption? Is it not the Son, come as the Suffering Servant who would   die for all  our sin and  take on our  punishment?  Isaiah sees dimly what John reveals fully:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16

Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah ends in the glory of His kingly power and reign. It is the resurrected and glorified Jesus whom we see. He will come as “Prince of Peace” in all His power and divinity upon whom “the government   will be upon His shoulder.” At the end of Psalm 22 David speaks of when…

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. Psalm 22:27-28

The Psalm quoted by Jesus on the cross wherein dying for our sin He calls out to Abba Father ends not in despair but in triumph and power.  We await in faith, hope and joy  the prophetic fulfillment of  these holy Scriptures.  There can be no greater Christmas Message than this!

EAG

Unto us a Son is given…Isaiah 9:6

What joyful promises this prophecy holds! For Isaiah the promise was seeing Israel’s long awaited Messiah, the One who would free his people and usher in a different kingdom. He saw a king coming from the House of David, from Israel itself. This Messiah would be a Son who would be given to them and coming from them. And He would be named most extraordinarily.

Reading the second part Isaiah 9:6 , I sense how the weary Prophet must have been  suddenly filled with excitement and joy. Up to that prophetic insight, Isaiah’s words pile warning upon warning over Israel’ apostasy and rebellion  against God. Most of Isaiah 9 is prophetic doom and gloom . The Assyrians had come and gone; the Babylonian conquest was pounding toward the gates. Without repentance, Israel’s destruction was unavoidable.

But God never leaves His people without hope. As if pulling away a heavy veil, the Lord gave Isaiah  a glimpse of the Light which would   break through Israel’s  broken hostile world .  Isaiah saw  Messiah coming through time and space. He would be one of his kind, born of his own people, not of a foreign nation. The Consolation of Israel would be a Son of Israel, given unto his own people.

There is something incomparable about “getting” a boy child, especially if you’ve had to wait for one. I’ll never forget the joy Dan and I had when our son Chris was born. Our daughters were wonderful, of course, but being able to present Dan with a son was special. Back in the olden days of the 70’s, we didn’t know the baby’s sex ahead of time. I was fully convinced it was going to be another girl. In fact I was so sure of it that we hadn’t even chosen a name. For the first day or so my son’s hospital crib was generically tagged “Baby Boy Gabbert”.

While Dan  happily passed out large cigars to his law partners,  our best friends came by the hospital with a  football. As young families, we’d formed close friendships because none of us  had  families in Boise. Chris was welcomed as someone special, a “son” for everyone. Across the country Dan’s mother and my parents were thrilled. ” Es ist ein Bub’ ” my mother told all my New York family.   “It’s a boy!” And my father, for whom family lineage and heritage was tantamount, proudly bragged about his first longed -for grandson.

In the natural,  it’s difficult for most to understand the idea of belonging to “a people” as Israel does. We  Americans are a grand melting pot of every nationality, language, culture, ethnicity, race, tradition and religion. The national identities which immigrants bring to this country  lose their power over time. Slowly, each generation  forgets  a little more of its unique ancestral heritage. My children speak English, not German. We’ve broken with most of the traditions my parents brought with them from Europe. My grandchildren won’t know the “people” or homeland so cherished by my parents, except that I teach them. As my family’s cultural roots disappear, I   sense a loss of identity.  To honor the memory of my parents, I don’t want to forget my ancestors or the   people  I come from.

However, there is another heritage offered to me and to every believer. We belong to a “people” far grander than our earthly one. God’s blessed gift  of the Son   foreseen by Isaiah is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God Himself “given unto us” the people who believe on His Wonderful Name . We’re neither Gentile nor Jew, grafted into God’s own people, beyond all nationalities, mores and worldly heritages.  We are a new people and a new family. Our spiritual  identity comes from  Jesus alone and I for one, gladly give up every other  world- driven identity in order to belong to Him.

Isaiah’s  prophetic vision of Jesus, the Son given unto us….is also the promise of Great Light piercing the darkness of modern  threats and conquerors.  As the prophet ‘s eyes beheld the future Messiah,  our eyes look at the same Savior this Christmas week with hope and unending joy that the Word has come and is fulfilled.

EAG

“For unto us a Child is born…Isaiah 9:6

The December mornings are dark now when I get up. On grey days like we’ve had recently, the pine forest outside my windows seems sketched in charcoal.   Color and light have been smudged out as if they don’t  belong in winter.  I long for color and light and warmth of the sun.

Then I remember that this is the physical season of darkness and waiting in our northern hemisphere. For another week or so  earth will move even farther away from the sun, until the daylight is shortest, until night seems  endless.  We  eagerly,  and not so patiently  wait for the solar fulcrum to tip  earth   back towards the sun in it yearly revolution just as the Creator has ordained.

It is the season of Advent in the liturgical church. As a child I was awestruck by the massive, fragrant  evergreen Advent wreaths  hanging by bright red ribbons in church and the lighting of tall, elegant  beeswax  candles  each week of Advent as a reminder that “we were people  waiting in darkness for whom a great light was coming.” Closing my eyes I c still  recall the Advent  smell of fresh greenery  and melting candle wax.

The  Advent wreath was also  German tradition in our home.  For three  Sundays my mother lit  one  of the three red candles  nestled  in the wreath. Finally on the Sunday before the 25th, the last white candle was lighted and we children  knew that the time of waiting was ended.  Weihnachten was very near. Christmas was  all about awaiting the Christ child to be born.

I knew nothing of Isaiah or  prophecies at the time, but his beautiful words foretelling the birth of the Messiah  inspired countless  artists for centuries and their art inspired me.   I’ve  visited many museums graced with  nativity paintings based on  Luke ‘s account in the Bible . Pondering  the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation never fails  to stir  my heart to soar and wonder. Today the advent of our  Immanuel is   boxed up   as Christmas cards for us  to send off  dutifully to family and friends.   Sadly, it’s a sign of our times that it’s now much easier to find “Christmas” images  that tout  Santa Claus and “holly, jolly holidays greetings ” than it is to find art work  celebrating the  Lord’s birth. A Google search yields thousands more secular holiday   images  than Biblical  ones. The old masters  like Raphael, Botticelli and Michelangelo would be dumbfounded by 21st  century Christmas art.

We, too,  are a people “who walked in darkness and have seen a great light.” We are reborn out of the darkness  of our own sin into the saving light of a Son who  is infinitely more life giving to our eternal spirits than any celestial body can be  to our physical existence. The prophet tells us that “unto us” this Child is born. He is one of us and among us. Isaiah  foretold Him in another prophecy as Immanuel, as “God with us”, God who would  be with Israel forever and who in Jesus Messiah never leaves us nor abandons  us.

The amazing juxtaposition to Isaiah’s vision of Israel’s  Messiah being born as a child is that Jesus, the fulfilled Messiah  later tells us we cannot enter His kingdom unless we are reborn, unless we come as little children. He is the one through whom believers would be reborn because He was born unto us first,   the Incarnate God described by John:

“In Him was the life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. ”  John 1:4-5

There seems  to be limitless  darkness, gloom and oppression on earth,  greater  today than  at any other time in history.  Yet the promise is still the same. Despite the gloom, for those   who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, “upon them a light has shined.”  Immanuel  has come. Isaiah speaks to the future of the Messiah’s coming and kingdom, but as if it has already taken place. Likewise we await Jesus again and our eternal destinies,  but live our lives according to the promises Jesus has already fulfilled for us. We live in Christ  because of His Light already come  despite the growing darkness oppressing  earth.

Thus , we sing joyfully  like the angels on high because we know  Isaiah’s prophecy was foretold and is fulfilled:

“O come, O come, Immanuel. And ransom captive Israel, That mourns in lonely exile here,  Until the Son of God appear.                                                                                         Rejoice, Rejoice.  Immanuel  shall come to thee, O Israel.

EAG

Another week has ended as another one begins.  I’ve noticed how short the days are, even here on the western edge of the Mountain Time Zone. It gets dark now before the evening news comes on and dawn seems reluctant to break forth in the mornings. We’ve had snow and bitter cold, especially today when an arctic wind reminded me to dress for comfort, not vanity.  The shortest day of the year is still a month away so winter isn’t official yet. But it feels like winter already.

It’s been a quiet Sunday. I came home from church spiritually filled with God’s Word and full from of a good potluck meal. I curled up in front of the fireplace with an entertaining Whodunnit and did nothing more than turn the pages of the book and sip my tea. At least for a while. I can only do nothing for so long!

I kept thinking of a Word that’s come to me more than once. During worship, we sang a song , “One Thing Remains” which   seems to be a favorite at Mountain Life Church. It is about God’s unfailing love upholding us when there is nothing else left. The chorus is taken from the Book of Lamentations:

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. Lam 3:22

The Hebrew word chasde  used in this Scripture literally means covenantal loyalty but some versions also interpret it as lovingkindness, mercy or compassion. In the context of the worship song, the idea is steadfast love.

His love never fails, never gives up, never runs out one me…

Too often, we rely on some one else to be steadfast throughout all our circumstances and are then crushed when they disappoint. A friend once warned me, “ I will fail you, but God never will.” At the time it was not a comforting statement. I believed God had always failed me previously, so how could I trust such a promise? Circumstances proved my friend’s words to be true in both respects. God did not fail. His love never left me alone for a moment .

It is only and solely the love of Jesus which never fails us because Jesus alone is the incarnation  of the Father’s love for us.  In Jesus’ greatest hour of suffering His disciples failed Him. They gave up on Him. They ran out on Him because they were scared and broken men. They had forgotten their Lord’s promise that He would not  forsake them. He would not leave them orphans.

As the Savior hung dying on the cross, crushed by the weight of sin, He felt the abandonment of God and accepted His wrath for our sakes and thus, we are saved. No greater love or compassion or mercy has ever compared to the love of God in Christ Jesus and because of that Paul declares God will not run out on us.

… neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:39

…His love never runs out on me…

There is another sense in which God’s love never runs out. His love is inexhaustible. It’s a wellspring which can never be emptied or run dry no matter how many times it is poured out. Why is that? It is because the very nature and character of God Is Love! 1. John reveals

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. … 1. John4:8

The God Who Is Love can never be contrary to Himself. It is illogical and impossible for God to run out of Himself. What an amazing realization. What a hope and promise that is for anyone who has ever felt that somehow God’s love for them is too small, as if there wasn’t enough to go around for the entire human race and universe. That kind of thinking comes from our own stingy, miserly hearts which have been hurt by love that did run out. Our self focused, small   hearts are promised an answer and healing.  What’s needed is God’s covenant chesed: mercy, compassion, limitless Love which wrecks us to abandon all  else to Him Who… … so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

EAG

My favorite place to write is sitting at the old oak table in the dining area which looks out onto the hillsides covered in tall dark pines. Our windows open up a panoramic view over the valley towards Brundage Mountain where if I get up early enough I can see the sun rise up over the far horizon before it comes through the branches of the large tree in front of the deck. On such mornings I see light draw away the dark shadows and spot the first finches flitting to the feeders.  In the winter dawn comes a little later – and I can justify being a slug-a-bed half an hour longer. I know the morning sky will always be a fresh canvas on which the clouds paint themselves in abstract shapes. Not only are God’s mercies new every morning, but so are His wonderful surprises.

I have been journaling at this same table for so many years now I’m losing track of them. I’ve looked out over the same landscape, the same sky and driveway and oddly am never bored. I find it is a paradox that the very sameness outside my windows is coincidentally never quite the same. A leaf drifts; a crow flies higher, new tracks appear in the snow. This in itself is a wonder. We are made to wonder at such things, to examine the meaning of each day, to breathe another breath – and to thank the God who makes it possible for us to seek Him every morning in the world and in our hearts.

At the very top of the hillside to the west, a tall snag sticks upward like the mast of a ship. I call it The Tall Dead Tree and I look for it every day, glad when it is still upright. That tree marks a turning point in my life, when God’s Word bypassed my brain and dropped the 12 inches into my heart. I first noticed the tree during a dreadfully dark season in my life. I saw only a dead thing, naked and bare of branches and leaves, without life giving sap, still standing with no purpose at all.  Silhouetted  against the sky it seemed a perfect metaphor for me and the life I was living. Yet, I couldn’t take my eyes away from it. Every morning I’d search the hillside – and there it was just the way it was the day before.

Then one morning as I fixated on the snag, the words of Psalm 121 came unbidden to me:
I will lift up my eyes to the hills –
Where does my help come from?
It comes from the LORD
The maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2

The psalm spoke something new and different. Just as the psalmist looked up to the hills of Jerusalem during his pilgrimage of worship, so did I need to lift my eyes higher than my circumstances. The pilgrim’s help came from the LORD as he sought Him in Jerusalem’s temple. Where did my help come from? It too comes from the LORD God, “the maker of heaven and earth” right outside my window. Even as I scanned the hillside and saw only a dead snag, God was drawing my eyes toward Him.

In the Old Testament God called Israel a rebellious, stiff-necked people because of their stubbornness and refusal to obey His commandments. Isaiah gives a colorful, graphic and description of his people’s hard heartedness:
For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze. Isaiah 48:4
Sometimes when I’ve had a stiff neck from a cramped muscle, it hurts to move my head in any direction and so all I can do is look straight ahead. I feels like my “ neck is of iron and my forehead bronze”. I can neither bow my head nor can I look in any direction except straight ahead. My vision is seriously impaired and mobility is constrained.
The Jews were described as stiff-necked because their pride kept them from looking up to the hills, from seeking God who was their Help and Refuge. Worse, they were stiff-necked,  too stubborn to bow their heads in humility. Their  pride wouldn’t let them prostrate themselves in obedience to the covenant God had made with them.

As were the Israelites, so are we also. No one is exempt from pride. Paul warns in Acts 7:51
“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!”
How often we clench our teeth and look only straight ahead instead of lifting our eyes upward, away from trials and troubles. The problem with looking only straight ahead is that the view is extremely narrow. We get a stiff neck from clenched muscles. Pride immobilizes the heart from seeking God’s divine help :” I can do this by myself. I don’t need to look farther than the next few feet.” We believe our own deception: “if only I can keep my eyes right in front of me, I won’t fall or stumble and I’ll be perfectly in control.  Instead, we end up with tunnel vision and we end up in rebellion.
Whenever I am tempted to resist the Holy Spirit and go my own way instead of following Jesus on His way, I need to sit for a while in front of the Lord, be it at my writing table in the early morning or on my knees at night. Humility and gratitude more than anything loosens the enemy’s vise grip on our necks.
EAG

I read the news, but only reluctantly. I read it because as a temporary sojourner in this world, I need to seek out God’s Light in the dark and I need to know the terrain I’m treading.  While some  of what is now presented as the news is downright silly, some of it is very  disturbing.

The recent case of  Brittany Maynard is   tragic, but not in the way the media and its arm chair pundits  would like us to think. Her decision to die  by  medical- assisted suicide  in Oregon opens a Pandora’s box of ethical and moral questions, but she is neither the heroine nor the villain  as many want to portray her.  Brittany suffered from something much deeper. One has to question why she or anyone would go viral  with such private matters, but this is the Age of Social Media Blabbing. Nothing is sacred and nothing is secret, even choosing to die. I don’t get it, nor do I want to.

The truth behind this young woman’s death is not about choices or about the “death with dignity” controversy.   The truth is that Brittany chose  suicide because she had no hope to cling to. The painful disease and death she faced overpowered everything and everyone else: new husband, parents, family. She feared dying more than she found hope to go on living. We should all weep for this lost child and for her grieving family.

Nothing is worse than to be beyond hope and to feel the utter futility of life on our own. And nothing is greater than finding hope in the darkness when God’s compassion and mercy pours out over the hopeless, wretched soul like a waterfall. The poet Emily Dickinson described hope this way:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

The image of “the thing with feathers” perched in the soul is for me the Holy Spirit singing- without words, never stopping, always crooning about God’s love. He is the believer’s Comforter and the Encourager. The tune is the sweet voice of Jesus calling out to the sick and hopeless:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matt 11:28

Jesus did not say, “Come to Me … except you with the brain tumor or  you with paralysis or you who have dementia.”  His invitation is with open arms  and all inclusive. Everyone come. Find rest.   I will give you living water. Find hope in Me here in the life you have.

Jesus offers the greater hope of eternal life to those who believe on His Name. Christ’s  death and resurrection are the  victory over Satan’s realm of darkness and death. It is the most powerful promise of hope any suffering person could desire.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. … Matt 11:16

In 1.Corinthians, the apostle Paul describes how our mortal bodies will put on immortality. He quotes both Isaiah and Hosea’s prophecies “that death is swallowed up in victory.” Because of Jesus, our only hope, we can declare,   ” O, death, where is your sting? ”

My heart breaks for young people who see only the sting of death ahead of them. They may intellectualize and argue  about their  right to choose to die with dignity, i.e.  commit suicide,   but in the end they are alone, scared and totally deluded.  Their understanding has been clouded. The enemy’s special expertise is the arena  of death and dying and he will never make any death under his control dignified.

There was another young woman who recently passed away. Kaitlyn  also had cancer and had suffered greatly since she was a teen from the cancer. She also was in her twenties and had married very young. But her death was very different from Brittany’s.  There was no media event in Boise.  Instead, there were hours of prayer, praise to God and thanksgiving for her life as loved ones gathered close. Her  entire family and many friends were  with her in  the hospital. She shared her favorite ice cream and even joked with those present. There were tears, of course, as many as were needed.     I am saddened at  her death and grieve for a little while while  with her  parents, but I also know  God’s promises.    Kaitlyn had what the other girl did not. She had hope and that hope sustained her to the end.  Kaitlyn believed Jesus’ promise that life in Him was eternal.  At her passing, Kaitlyn left that hopefulness with  everyone who came to the memorial  service celebrating her life as her family testified to the Gospel of Jesus, even to unbelievers.

I have compassion for the Maynard family. Losing a child  under any circumstance is heart breaking.    We are called to pray, not judge  for only God knows what  transpired  between Him and  Brittany at the last moment.  But this I do know. Without Christ there is no hope for anyone. With Him, we have it all: life worth living now; life eternal with God.  There is no sting of death . There is only victory. Forever and ever.  Amen.

EAG

“My heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.” St. Augustine

It’s been a quiet day today. I came home after church feeling off the mark.  That’s not surprising considering all that’s transpired in the last two weeks. The adrenaline spike which kept me going through the move of the food bank and through the weeks since is gone, replaced by a bone -deep tiredness. I hate to admit it, but these” golden years” slow me down a lot. So, instead of socializing and doing one more thing after the morning service, I headed home.

The sun’s rays weaving through the trees bounced off my car windows like strobe lights and fed the dull head ache which has been building for days. I knew what I needed to do before a full blown migraine hit – quiet myself down. Relax. Rest. Be stilled.

The Bible is filled with Scriptures instructing humans to rest. In fact, “rest” was included at the outset in God’s plan for mankind. God begins and completes the entire work of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis. Then as the second chapter opens, it is with God’s resting :

“all the host of them were finished, and on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Gen: 2:2

I was struck with the word “finished.”

“Thus the heavens and the earth and all the host of them were finished.” Gen: 2:1

Who else but the amazing Creator, the Lord God Almighty, could do such a thing? Who but God could finish, complete, fill and fulfill the universe and all that is in it? Only God can create a work, complete a work and then rest in Himself. Then He gave us the seventh day, the Sabbath so that we too could rest from the curse of incessant laboring. As God rested, so should his children.

Why then is it almost impossible to find God’s intended rest? Why is the satisfaction of completing something so elusive?

Therein in lies the crux of what ails us. We can’t truly finish anything on our own. No matter how great or how small is the task we’ve been given, in reality the work’s never done 100%. Isn’t there always something else to do? Something to add? Something we’ve messed up on and need to fix? Something someone else messed up which we feel driven to fix? One second we feel satisfied but then a curve ball flies at us. We correct the glitch, make improvements but despite every attempt, we are never fully content at the end.  So much of our fragile self perceptions are based on what we do. But always there’s a thought pestering us like a fly buzzing in the ear: we can’t seem to complete anything and be done with it. We’re bound in shackles of restlessness.

The fall of man got in the way of us resting in God alone. Through sin, man is condemned to toil the earth and woman is cursed with discontent. Fallen away from God, the Source of our rest, humans are unable to find rest from earthly toil and weariness. Seeking to become little gods ourselves, often through our jobs,   positions and even ministries, we’re duped by the enemy’s outright lies : work like a fool and then rest later.   The infamous Nazi sign at the entrance of Auschwitz and other slave labor, death camps read: Arbeit Macht Frei. Work Will Set You Free. The sign is a chilling lie but also the perverted mark of our exhausted condition. The American Dream states the same principle in more lofty terms. Work hard. Get ahead. The more you do/strive/work, the quicker you’ll find happiness, success and wealth. The American Dream says nothing about rest.

It’s a challenge for goal driven people to see the spiritual causes of our   tiredness. Finally, when we’re ready to drop on our feet , God – and spiritual life – gets our attention. Within Genesis 2:1 lies the answer. Rest in God first and in Him alone for He is both Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things, the Author and the Finisher. It really isn’t about us! Stubborn pride keeps us from a most humble admission: Lord, we can’t finish anything on our own. We need You. We need Your Divine Completion.

Jesus is the Father’s Divine Completion. As He was dying on the cross, He spoke, “It is finished.” The Son of God reiterated what His Father had ordained in the beginning. The creative work of salvation is done. It is finished. We can’t add one iota to it. What is required is to say Yes, accept Christ and Christ’s invitation for resting.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Matt: 11

It is the only true  rest possible. Be still and know that I am God. This afternoon, I remained still for a little while. Like a child, my heart was quieted. I rested in Jesus alone, knowing I could. And amazingly, that earlier threatening migraine never showed up!

EAG