Yearly Archives: 2012

Here in the Shadow

All Sorts

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Ps.91:1

Here in the Shadow—Shannon Wexelberg

The autumn rains have returned.  I plunked a Vitamin D capsule by my cereal bowl this morning.  We are braced for a change in weather.  In other ways this is a new season for us.  Changing seasons usually bring unsettled weather.  That’s been true too.  I made a wardrobe switch this week, digging out all my turtlenecks and long wool skirts, tucking away my sunny wear till the sun returns.  Getting ready.  And with the wet roads we’ve parked the tandem so I ‘m back to my ‘hamster wheel’—the elliptical trainer upstairs.  What’s good about this absolutely mind-numbing exercise is the chance it gives me to praise and worship.  I pop in my earphones and press a button and my mind is turned to the glory of God and the truth of the gospel.  As my heart pounds and my muscles contract my soul sings for all its worth and I am freed to worship with body, mind and soul. 

I needed that tonight.  There had been tears and sadness today.  Disappointment.  A sense of loss.  A passionate voicing of our core values and our concerns–a being heard but not really understood.  A knowing we have let others down in our decisions, have caused them sadness, but cannot do otherwise.  Convictions not shared.  Friendships maintained, but changed.  Seasons change…

How do I prepare for a new season?  First I run to the shadow of God’s wings (sit myself down alone, journal in hand, worship music playing…and cry!) and resting here I begin to know He is the King. He orders our days.  Times and seasons are in His hand.  He knows all that concerns me.

I remember Sunday’s sermon taken from Acts 1.  Jesus had risen. The disciples were sure their freedom from the rule of Rome was just around the corner.  Would Jesus set up His Kingdom now?!   This would seem to be the obvious opportunity.  Jesus had shown His power.  He could do it NOW.  But He didn’t.  We can have our plans. We can think them His.  We can lay out the whole triumphant scenario in our mind’s eye and believe it is God’s game plan too—and that we are key players.  Then he shatters our worlds with:

“It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” 

He has bigger plans than our most compelling interests.  His kingdom building entails details far beyond the scope of our knowledge.  In this case, Israel becoming an independent nation wasn’t in view, not for a long while. The disciples had overlooked an enormous interim project–the coming of the Gospel to the whole Gentile world!  The disciples were thinking in their little sphere, of their own especial interest—their own temporal  freedom.  God had plans so much bigger.  His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.  He’s in no rush. He will plug us in where He will, when He will, how He will.  It’s His call.

But there is a promise given that restores our hope.  He does plan to use us.  And he will equip us for our task.  For this He sends His Spirit, to make us able witnesses.  This too, in His time.  In this instance, the disciples are told to wait…another reminder that the Father is in control of times and seasons.  This first coming of the Spirit, token of Christ’s ascension to the Father,  was perfectly timed to fulfill the long-held Jewish Feast of Pentecost.  Did they know?  Did they imagine the significance of this moment for which they waited?  They only knew they held a promise and they waited…

And this I know, that this same Spirit blows where He will.  He touches lives, He enlightens, He revives, He imprints us for the Kingdom…And as wind blows in changing seasons, so the Spirit is at work in His good time, in our days. In my disappointment, my sadness.  In change.  I can rest in this certainty.  All is well in the shadow of His wings.

–LS

And there is nothing quite like worship to turn my woes into carefree worship of the One who is worthy to be rejoiced in!

Hail to the King—Shannon Wexelberg

A Soundtrack to live by

LIVE IT!

God is here in these moments as I finish up the supper dishes, everyone gone out for the evening but me, here, with Him. Grateful. There is no audible presence. No proof of His nearness. Just His Word, His oath—I will never leave you nor forsake you… Tonight that is enough.

I walked this afternoon, the days now cool and gray, accented with the brilliance of changing leaves. The energy of rhythm and of the stirring lyrics sung in my ears put a spring in my steps. I smiled thinking of something Jim once said: “Imagine life with your own soundtrack.”  Yes, imagine it, just like in the movies. You know, that behind-the-scenes music that sets the tone for what’s going to happen, whether romance (bring on the violins!) or suspense or drama. The music makes the mood.

I need a soundtrack some days. Like this morning. I woke early fretting like a silly mother hen, fretting because someone’s got to do it if things are going to change, right?!  What I needed was an inspiring soundtrack to stir my soul to rise and believe in things yet unseen…

Instead I woke dwelling on my insufficiency for all that came to mind! I prayed, but sleepily and doubtful, loathe to leave the comfort of warm covers, though needing far more to rouse body and soul to the truth of the matter: My grace is sufficient for you in your weakness…II Cor.12:9

But now at the other end of the day I am ready to write out some things I am sure of, my ‘soundtrack’ if you will, for foggy mornings when my head’s all sleepy and my faith unsteady, mornings when I need the rhythm and music of truth ringing in my ears. Let these things sound in the background of my days:

#1 God is our Shepherd, faithful to shepherd every generation. (Ps.95,100)

This goes for me and my kids, whose success in life is my greatest obsession and easily rises to become idolatry. Each of us must bring our dreams, our fears, and our desires to Him and bow down. He’s our Maker. If He leads through a wilderness where we cannot find a thing to drink, we have only to ask, not to whine, not to threaten, not to mutiny. He waits to hear our voice, to see our trust, to know what’s in our hearts. This is our test, not His. It is not for us to demand that He prove His nearness: “Is the Lord among us or not?!” (Ex.17:7) We are to trust His heart and learn His ways of answering our every prayer—whether we see instant results or not. He is shepherding. Only by trusting will we find rest.

#2 God does as He pleases. The will of man is no obstacle to Him.

“Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come? Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?” (Lam.3:37-39)

Gone are the days when the solution is as simple as “she spanked them all soundly and sent them to bed”. My charges are no longer living in my shoe. But they are not out of reach of the God who has chosen and called them for His glory. He will fulfill His purposes without the old woman’s spanking spoon! Nebuchadnezzar learned these things the hard way. His sanity was restored only after he was willing to acknowledge that God’s kingdom far outranked his own:

“He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘What have you done?'” Dan.4:35

I sometimes pray as if in a ‘spoof’ of the old hymn, Have Thine Own Way, Lord.* It’s as though I’ve rewritten it to “I want my own way, Lord. I want my own way”. No wonder I don’t find peace when I’m through! I want what I want, and soon. Surely He does too? I want us all to live happily ever after. I want for my children the good things we have found. I want for them to be unscathed by the mistakes that we have made. Is this too much to ask? Can I assume God’s thoughts are my thoughts on this? And then just pray my will be done as though I were the potter and He the clay? As though “power all power, surely is…[mine!]”. I can easily forget that God does not exist to fulfill my dreams but that we exist for His glory, however He intends to bring that about. The Kingdom is His and the Glory and the Power. He is not thwarted by man.

#3 God is able to keep that which I’ve entrusted to Him (and He to me!) (II Tim.1:12)

He is in fact able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or even think? His power is already at work. Must I see it to believe or will I choose to trust His Word? (Eph.1:19,20) Will I trust Him too with my dreams? His are far better and though they foil my best-timed scenarios, His have eternity in view!

#4 Only God is able to change a heart, to fill it with hope, to reveal an unseen inheritance, and to give courage and strength. But I can pray. (Eph.1:17-19)

These things are sure, my stirring soundtrack for mornings that dawn foggy… Can you hear the music?

I read an article this week titled: Four Essentials for Finishing Well.** The author summarized by commending these four keys to persevering. I pass them on to you in closing:

  • a daily time of focused communion with God
  • a daily appropriation of the gospel
  • a daily presenting yourself as a living sacrifice, and
  • a continual firm belief in the sovereignty and the goodness of God

And to these I say ‘Amen!’ , by the grace of God ‘so be it’ in my life. Bring on the soundtrack!

–LS

 

“Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” Ps.95:1

“…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began“ II Tim.1:9

“…for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” II Tim.1:12

‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden you hearts…’ Ps.95:7

—————————-

*Have Thine Own Way, Lord! by Adelaide Pollard, 1862-1934. Words available here.

**by Jerry Bridges, p.35, Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints. Eds. John Piper and Justin Taylor, Crossway Books, 2008.

Faithful Ones

All Sorts

I’m grateful this week for God’s faithfulness because it is the rock that steadies my own fickleness.

I weary of my fainting faith, of my fickle heart that fills with hope and confidence one moment but is so easily cast into doubt and sent racing off in desperation to do something at the next moment! Could it be my hopes are staked on tangible evidence and not on God’s faithfulness—His character and ‘track record’ as revealed in His Word?!

So this has been a week for reflecting gratefully on God’s faithfulness, realizing that the extent to which I treasure it, count on it, stake my life upon it, to that extent my life will reflect it. And I too will be characterized by a steady confidence, unswayed by externals, grounded in God’s unchanging Word, His revelation of who He is.

I sat one morning this week and read slowly through the book of Lamentations . I wanted to see the lead up to those ‘famous’ verses we love to sing: “Great is thy Faithfulness.” How many times have I stood singing this great hymn, my heart brimming with all the ‘good things’ I can remember, grateful for God’s care in multiple situations, sometimes brought to tears at the reminiscence of His steady love for me? But Lamentations does not read at all like this! It’s a bleak little book in some respects (as per the title). The measure of God’s faithfulness in Lamentations has little to do with feeling good or even seeing His hand at all. It is the record of God’s faithfulness to His own Word and His consequent disciplining of His children to bring them back from idols to treasure only Him. This too is God’s faithfulness. The sum of God’s faithfulness extends far beyond the ‘good things’ we perceive He’s done for us…

“How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become…she weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks.” So begins the poignant description of God’s beloved Judah now gone into exile: loveless, desolate, afflicted, suffering bitter enslavement to her foes. Why? ‘because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions’ (Lam.1:1-5)

Israel’s loving God does things we’d expect of a tyrant: He sent fire into my bones; He spread a net for my feet; He turned me back; He left me stunned. To sum up graphically: “My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail” (Lam.1:13,14) His people have rebelled against His word, (1:18) their prophets have spoken false and deceptive visions of comfort rather than exposing their sin (2:14) and now it is left to God to restore His people to their inheritance but not without first bringing them to their knees in repentance, and what a horrific process follows.

The first two tragically sad chapters capture Israel’s situation. Then Jeremiah begins a lament of his own. As God’s messenger he has had to suffer with the people of God. And they’ve gone and plunked him in a mud-filled well to die; they don’t want to hear His warnings. So Jeremiah’s own life-mission seems like a failure. There’s very much to be sad about! But into this chapter midstream of all this grief comes our hymn– this marvelous statement of God’s faithfulness, and in it Jeremiah’s own faithfulness is evident:

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.’

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth….”

Jeremiah has not lost hope. By faith he sees salvation on the horizon. He knows God is faithful and that his love is not absent even in the most horrendous of circumstances. Recognizing the LORD’s unchanging character he urges the people to examine their own ways and return to Him (3:40) Jeremiah chooses to rest his soul in God’s unchanging character despite what he witnesses day to day… And eventually his lament ends with the acknowledgement: “But you, O LORD, reign forever; your throne endures to all generations.” (5:19) He’s still filled with questions of why the agony must last so long but He knows his is a faithful God. And in the hanging on to this knowing Jeremiah shows himself to be in the line of those who will be rewarded with those words: ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant’.

His applause didn’t come on earth. The nation of Israel was carried off into bondage never to return. Judah was exiled only to return in straggles some 70 years later and eventually to be overrun for good till recent history. But Jeremiah fulfilled his role in proclaiming the faithfulness of God to His Word and His people.

These are reminders I need. Life is not about success or fulfilled expectations. It’s not even about knowing only sweetness with no bitterness mixed in. It’s about counting on a faithful God when the streams flow smoothly at my side and through the rocky painful passages too, and in this confidence, walking in faithfulness, a sheep at the side of a very good shepherd.

These ponderings have encouraged my soul this week. I hope they’ll do the same for you.  We serve a faithful God–faithful to His Word, faithful to His character.  He calls us to stake our lives on who He is no matter what comes. 

[Faithful One is a song that brings home this truth winsomely. Listen here.]

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand. Ps.95:6,7

–LS

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.II Tim.2:13

“Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.”
–“Behold, we come to You; For You are the LORD our God. Jer.3:22

“There is no Rock like our God.” I Sam.2:2

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.” Numbers 23:19

Of Minas and life missions…

LIVE IT!

Have you noticed how unique the walk of faith is for each of us?

We are called to imitate Christ and yet we will not all be itinerate miracle workers without a place to lay our heads…

Paul invited the brothers to imitate his example (Phil. 3:17), to follow him as he followed Christ, but not all were called to the missionary perils he endured in bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles…

My friend felt compelled to tell everyone that Jesus loved them and could not let a fellow hiker pass without some word shared…

I’ve read countless biographies of ‘great Christians’—missionaries, preachers, musicians, doctors, ordinary and extraordinary people accomplishing great things for God…

And once upon a time I was going to be a Bible Translator, a single woman missionary if need be,  who would bring the Gospel story to an indigenous people who had never seen their language in writing…

That was something I was sure I could do—loving words and linguistic puzzles and bookish work, but skittish of people—yes, this would be just the thing for an intellectual introvert.

Then I was found and loved and invited to marry…and everything began to change. I  worked hard at language study.  I enthusiastically  transcribed stories in a foreign tongue.  But I only endured lessons with a ‘language helper’ as my energies were spent with bearing young and being tugged by motherhood to devote myself to my brood not mere language work…

Eventually, we turned over the language work and translation project to able native hands and I was freed to be a wife and mother without a competing role to play.  Soon,  I became their official ‘teacher’ as well and it was good.  This was a life I had not imagined but I thrived on it, grateful for the God who redirects our steps to fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts… even the desires buried beyond our own recognition…

Now that season too is coming to an end but still I am to follow Christ…If not into itinerate evangelism then what?  I cringe at the expectations put on me by stories of ‘great Christians’.  I have a static attraction for commands that are given to others, as if they were my own.  I hear the word ‘evangelism’ and wilt.  Guilt trips attach to me like lint to velvet.

Then I consider Jesus’ Parable of the Ten Minas…  (Luke 19; Mt.25)  how that the nobleman has gone into a far country to receive for Himself a Kingdom and then return…how that in the meantime he has entrusted his servants with  funds to invest.  He asks only that they ‘engage in business until [he]comes.’ Upon his return he is pleased with their investments, except for the one who has skulked away and refused to invest anything for the King’s benefit.  He claims to have been afraid and to have thought his lord to be harsh and unfair.  But he has not even put his allowance in the bank to gain interest.

I used to equate myself to this cringing worthless servant–Fearful of risk.  Fearful of opportunity—simply because I wasn’t doing what others seemed to think everyone should be doing.  I wasn’t evangelizing my neighbors, starting children’s clubs for straying goat herders,  or discipling anyone…(?) at least not in the romanticized ways I was picturing!

But this servant is called worthless, wicked and slothful and thrown into outer darkness.  Gulp.  This man’s story does not reflect what’s in my heart. I may be fearful but I am confident my Master is good, not harsh or exacting.  He is gracious, patient and persistent. He is at work in me to will and to do all His good pleasure.  I am not destined for the pit but for glory. I have long labored under false impressions of what is expected of me. I want to lay it down.

I want to be open to all He will yet invite me to participate in.  I have to remind myself that He knows the desires of my heart. And that He knows that I know that all that I have accomplished in these years of mothering and teaching, and yes, of soul-winning and discipling my own brood, all this has only been by His grace…I know these things.  And I can trust Him for tomorrow’s business. I can trust Him to shape the desires of my heart to fit His purposes.

He hasn’t returned yet.  There is still time to ‘engage in business’.  What minas do I hold in my hand?  Where can I invest them?  These are the things I consider as I carry on with the life He has given me to live.  I refuse to obsess about ‘spiritual gifts’.  I suspect that in the systematizing of these we have trampled and overlooked people’s unique designs and hindered the natural process of discovering our places in the Body. I am confident (for today anyway) that as I abide in the Word and let it abide in me, as I embrace godly fellowship, and as I walk in an attitude of submission day by day, attentive to the direction of my Head, the future will unfold as the past has—my heart shaped by His,  my will formed to coincide with His, my life purpose–His glory. 

For it is God that works in me to will and to do His good pleasure…(Phil.2:13)

–LS

This song says all:  By Grace Alone .  Enjoy.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Rom.12:1-3

Hang on for dear life!

All Sorts

Struggling today to make a start here, to open the gates for the torrent of pent-up words that circle and gather and stream through my thoughts these days. I’m crazy about truth and that it exists and that it matters and that following someone, anyone, who is not walking in truth is foolish, dangerous, even deadly.

The Mormons came to our door this week, espousing their Christian-ese, speaking Jesus name in vain, deceived and bent on persuading others to come along down this path to godhood. They name the Name but haven’t the relationship. They claim to be genuine Christians but deny the very God-head they espouse. To them God is not one person but three. God is not spirit, but a physical flesh, blood and bone body. Satan did not lie to Eve in the garden that she would be as a god if she ate that appealing fruit…They are young and zealous. They have testimonies. They believe what they proclaim. And they are offended, indignant, and tremble with frustrated anger when Jim tells them they are deceived. And that they are wrong.

I woke early one morning, unusually early, my mind engaged with the implications of Jesus being the Way, the Truth and the Life. No other leader will do. No other way to God is feasible. There are absolutes. There is truth. We can know it.  We can know Him who is the Truth. But knowledge of Him comes through knowledge of His Word.  He is the Word made flesh, the Bread of Life.  The two cannot be separated. We do not see Him now but He has not left us without a guide. We have His Word on that, and His Spirit, the Spirit of TRUTH that resides in His followers, reminding of the things that are true–the things He has said, and bringing life to the sacred writings that are written for our benefit (I Cor.10:11) The Word of God is the sword we wield against the Devil’s schemes! (Eph.6:17) To claim to operate by the Spirit and act in Jesus’ name but disparage the value of the written Word of God is perilous.

“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Mt.7:22,23

Doctrine does matter. By it we verify that our connection with the Head is true.  Subjective signs are not enough.  But why this truth burning in my heart today? It wasn’t the Mormons. But rather a conversation I had had the day previous, a halting ‘speaking of the truth in love’, a timid warning to a friend. All that glitters is not gold. All that seems right is not good. All that offers up what we long for is not safe…Be careful. Be warned. I tried to say it winsomely. I tried to spit out the tongue-tied gist of my conviction based on the Word after I had listened to her point of view. I listened restless to the reasons it does seem ok to dabble in teaching not overtly based on the Word, teaching that claims the name of Jesus and portends to imitate his life (though picking and choosing the red letters it abides by).

Is it ok? Is it enough to have passion and like-minded fellowship and a sincere heart to impact one’s community together? Just so long as the words it’s based on seem good and right?  Just so long as the teaching  claims to be about building the Kingdom of God? Could there be any harm in it? Does good doctrine really matter?

The young missionaries at my door were zealous too. They too have found a formula that makes for good community, that gives them a significant role in building a kingdom, (but whose?) that seems right ‘though the end thereof is death’. Their testimonies speak of a burning knowing in their hearts that what they’ve been taught is true. They’re convinced. They urge us to read it and see… To feel is to believe. And they are fed a twisted lie, twisted round with Scripture and with Jesus name, with talk of salvation and immortality…and eternal sex and becoming gods! The ‘details’ further along don’t sound quite so Biblical as the “Jesus talk” at the door.

And that’s how deception works. Not just for Mormons. We wouldn’t believe it if there were no appeal. Often the drawing card is the appeal to our heart’s desires. Unfulfilled desires, cherished hopes, and faulty expectations…all leave us vulnerable to tantalizing half-truths that promise to deliver life. I woke the morning after that heart to heart conversation with my friend provoked to pray for mercy and to gain greater understanding of how deception makes its inroads and how to avert its advance in my own life.

What I’ve concluded, so far, I will try to share in a smattering here…

Deception so often makes its inroads because it’s just what we want to hear— a gratifying teaching, a self-exalting doctrine, a solution at last! ‘You will be as gods’ for instance. Is this not the deepest desire of our depraved natural hearts? (Compare II Timothy 4:3,4)

Pursuing something false often starts with wanting something that God has not provided for us (yet). Wanting it so badly that we crave it, must have it, are sure God wants us to have it, and at last, determine it is up to us to get it! Scripture is twisted or put to the side as we head off to find something that works! Something that will bring relief, or answers, or results. Rationalizing that our will is God’s too, we unwittingly fall prey to our own notions of truth: “going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by he sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head...” (Col.2:18,19).

Discontentment, even ‘spiritual’ discontent makes us vulnerable to deception. Whether the seemingly legitimate longings are those of a mother’s heart, or the angst of a soul-winner not seeing souls saved and the kingdom come, or the craving for like-minded fellowship, we are in trouble when we allow desperation to usurp contentment with God’s present provision, when we determine that we must take action to make things happen rather than submitting to God’s sovereign hand.

Abraham is both a positive and negative role model in this regard. Rushing into intimacy with Hagar to help God provide him an heir contrasts starkly with the record we are encouraged to emulate: “He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Rom.4: 20,21

I find too, deception waits round the bend for peacemakers who want so badly to find common ground with another, to think the best of them, to find some way to agree—that inadvertently a blind eye is turned to mistruths and rationalizing covers half-truths. The motive seems right but the end result is deception. In the name of love and unity, false teaching is tolerated and ultimately advanced. I’ve stood in this place, caught unawares.

The antidote of course for all deception is truth—a floodlight turned on our path to make our paths clear (Ps.119:105). Our really desperate need is to cultivate a love of the truth, no matter how it cuts across the grain of our desires or our preconceptions. In an age where truth is fast becoming ‘unknowable’ and the church dabbles in rejecting classic creeds, we must be students of the Word! This Word is living and powerful (Heb.4:12) It cuts to the heart, right through our self-deception. It labels truth and lies for what they are. It proclaims who God is and who we are. It reproves, corrects and trains us in God’s ways, equipping us with everything we need for life and godliness (II Tim.3:16).

To slight attention to the Word of God, or consider it an out-of-date relic in favor of pragmatic results or more contemporary words is to invite deception. In a sobering letter to the Thessalonians Paul describes those deluded by the Anti-Christ’s false signs and wonders as having been sent a strong delusion ‘because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.’ (2Thess.2:10,11) Even as saints we have an urgent need to renew our minds in the Word in order to avoid being shaped by the world’s false premises (Rom.12:1,2) and its prophets’ false proclamations.

And that brings me to the verse that’s been sticking to my ribs all week: “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” Wait. To wait is to rest in His Word and trust in His perfect timing for its fulfillment. To wait is to be saved from the temptation to panic, to run ahead, to look for alternative answers to felt needs. To wait is to be freed from the lure of sensational promises or guaranteed strategies other than His for me.

To wait is to quiet my soul’s penchant for ‘more’ and abide with eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith.

He is our way, our truth and our life.  Let’s hang on to Him, for dear life!…”until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph.4:13-16)

–LS

“Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the LORD are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.” (Hosea 14:9)

Continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed….knowing form whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  II Tim.4:14-16

————–And as I conclude the ‘tweaking’ of this page, a song I need to hear plays;  I commend it to you: God is in Control

No matter how the deception may fly
There is one thing that has always been true
It will be true forever
God is in control
We believe that His children will not be forsaken
God is in control
We will choose to remember and never be shaken
There is no power above or beside Him, God is in control.
–Twila Paris

Amen.
–LS