Yearly Archives: 2012

Faith that works and waits

LIVE IT!

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I went out in the backyard to catch up on a little watering this morning. The sweet peas have risen like a curtain of green and delicate pinks and purples to hide the unsightly rickety fencing that surrounds the old chicken yard…Their fragrance is everything I remembered it to be when, daring to hope, I planted those unassuming hard dry peas. First there was the eradication of crab grass entangled in the chain link—the tugging and digging out every trace of a dry root that might spring to life and foil my plans of beautification…It was hard duty on my knees, carried forward only by the vision of sweet peas climbing happily to the sun and the memory of an inimitable scent… This was an act of faith, an undertaking inspired by the yet unseen.

Would these unlikely dark balls even germinate or was the seed too old? Would the tender greens be devoured by rampant slugs or brazen deer? Was it worth the effort? This morning as I watered the thirsty roots with bucket after bucket of cool water a verse came to mind, a prayer… for you, for me, for us to pray for all to whom our prayers extend…”that our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.” (II Thess.1:11)

Paul first prayed these words for the Thessalonians who were suffering persecution, needing hope that their perseverance would be rewarded. He commended their growing faith and obvious love for each other in the middle of hard times and even hinted that their persecution was itself  evidence of their calling to a Kingdom not of this world. But the focus of his encouragement was the coming of Jesus to grant them relief and avenge their suffering “when he comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed…”
(II Thess.1:10) Then he prayed this prayer of blessing on their lives: that God would fulfill the desires He had placed within them and whatever they put their hands to by faith He would likewise bring to fruition by His power. Awesome blessing!

I can pull weeds on my knees. I can plant seeds in faith. I can pray…I can believe…but it is God’s good hand that causes the seed planted in faith to sprout and grow into a beautiful vine that covers all the ugliness and effuses a heavenly fragrance…Precisely His intent– that through our faith-filled enterprises ‘the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us], and [we] in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.’ (II Thess.1:12)

So don’t lose heart if your harvest is not yet in. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with an eye to what it will become with God’s blessing. He will prosper that which He inspires us to undertake, for His glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus. May the fragrance of Heaven exude from our lives by His grace.

“…but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Gal.6:8,9

–LS P1070855

In Christ Jesus the only thing that matters is faith working through love.
(Gal. 5:6)

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward  of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Col. 3:23,24

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” I Cor.15:58

Witch Hunts and the Glory of God

All Sorts

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The very best chunk of the day is that delicious morning part before the rest of my ‘world’ gets up—when all is quiet on the home front and I slip out of bed on tiptoe to curl up with my favorite fleece and my Bible, and yes of course, with my journal and pen. It gets even better in the summer especially on cloudless mornings when the sun is also just rising above the mountains. My favorite perch at such moments is the back step with a cushion for a seat and the sliding glass door at my back…And yes, with my favorite fleece, at least until the sun coaxes me to shed it. I breathe the cool freshness, gaze out beyond the overhang of our giant willow into the beyond of my own green acre so enshrouded with trees it appears to have no ending…and I reflect on the Word and the issues of my heart that it exposes…

I seem to hear God best before breakfast has wakened me to all my daily duties, before I’ve entered into conversation with mere mortals—my best loved mortals! Maybe my heart is more open, nearer the surface, more vulnerable to being engaged with Truth. I don’t know, but mornings are good. Unfortunately I also like evenings. They also are quiet and the duties of the day are now behind…But my mind is not so agile, my heart not so tender; my eyes begin to droop. I wander into other’s thoughts and goings on rather than wrestle with my own. Everything becomes virtual until I’m idling my should-be-sleeping hours in perusing Facebook for latest quips or photos–robbing myself of precious morning moments… That by way of confession. Summer’s laid back schedules makes this yo-yo of nights vs. mornings much more pronounced. Night usually wins while mornings garner extra sleep. Precious reflections are strewn throughout days….

But there are beach moments with a timely book. And there was yesterday morning—a long quiet perusal of the Word and an ‘additive’—good words in a book titled The Explicit Gospel. 1 And there was a missionary speaker from Israel last night…And there are these conversations with my wise husband… God is not limited to my pre-breakfast routine! His Spirit is not saddled by my need for quiet alone spaces of time. So what is He saying these casual summer days?

I’m reminded lately that even a watchdog needs downtime. Or to change idioms, an unending witch-hunt will sooner or later bring up innocent victims if there is not a balancing reflection on positive truth. If you’ve followed my thoughts for long, you know they tend toward finding what’s wrong in my world. Whether it be my inner world or the outer one of the Body of Christ. I don’t often get as far as pointing out what’s wrong in the bigger world. It’s all messed up. I figure the Body has just what the world needs if we stay on track. So ferreting out truth and error seems to be my bent. But there’s this hazard of becoming overwhelmed by the wrong-headed, the mixed-up, the false-but-enticing and the misled—overwhelmed so that cynicism begins to erode hope of truth ever rising to conquer nonsense.

I’ve been in a season of sniffing about suspiciously and growling. There’s illegitimate teaching everywhere. (At least it seems that way…) And there are excellent books written that synthesize Scriptural truth and apply it to present-day anomalies. The Other Side of the River 2 is such. I devoured it on our last sailing trip, processing it alongside Scripture and then writing a review to hopefully alert others to its relevance.

Then I launched into Hunt’s (now there’s a good name for a watchdog!) Beyond Seduction 3 midstream. My initial enthusiasm, sparked by an excellent section mid-book on the nature of genuine faith, was tempered by overstated ‘truths’ in another area…reminding me that no author has it all right, none but the Bible is 100% trustworthy. Another sharp-shooting book of recent months was Wandering Stars.4 Wow and Ouch. The author’s done some serious research and Scripture sleuthing. Good stuff.
But as my truth-loving bent is drawn to writing of this nature I see its potential to become almost addictive—it feels so good to be ‘right all along’, to ‘have the corner on truth’, to ‘catch a brother in the wrong’, to ‘be in the know’. What begins as ‘speaking the truth in love’ can become an offensive elitism devoid of love. Knowledge puffs up. Love builds up. In know way do I mean to imply that these authors are guilty of such, but I see in myself this tendency to get so ‘gung-ho’ about right and wrong that cynicism begins to displace the love of the brethren that was my initial motivation!

All that by way of explaining that I’m reminded these days that a watch-dog needs down time. A witch hunt needs boundaries. And I’ve been realizing (again) lately that my reading and learning and the focus of my life must be God-ward, not always pointed toward error. It is no testimony to the glory of our Almighty God to be overwrought by the deceptions of fallen man…as if man were the measure of all things and God had lost control…

Toward this end I add to my ‘plate’ books that celebrate God’s triumph over evil, books that speak of His supremacy, His remedy– ‘big picture’ books. Of course the Bible presents the big picture best from Genesis to the grand finale! Revelation tends to set our times in perspective. Jude and Peter and Paul warn that ‘perilous times will come’ but they aren’t the whole story. And they won’t triumph over the true Church of God. She will be a radiant Bride at Christ’s coming. Though the love of many will grow cold. Though a great falling away is certain, despite our sincerest yearnings for a mass revival… yet God is in control. The Gospel needs no fortifications. In it lies the power of God for the salvation of anyone who will cast in their lot with Christ. The Bible says all this but I do appreciate teachers who write books synthesizing Scriptural truth into thought-bites that get me chewing it all again and again… You know the adage: “Repetition with variety is the key to learning.” Teachers and pastors in the Body do this for us.

For example, I’ve recently finished David F. Wells superb book: The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World.5 It’s both an indictment on the modern church and a rallying cry to return to the foundational doctrines of God, of Christ, of Self and of the Church. Tremendous writing. Daunting to think of writing a review with so much underlining to summarize! Someday soon I hope. And intermittently I dip into: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World 6 by John Piper and others. The title says all. But this week a bright gem came to my door to turn my heart from what’s wrong to what is so gloriously right in the world! It’s title: The Explicit Gospel. 1 First chapter title: God.

As author Matt Chandler lays a foundation for his presentation of the Gospel in its fullness and yet simplicity, he expounds on Paul’s impassioned cry beginning: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Rom.11:33-36) His thesis is that in order to fully appreciate what God has done at the Cross, we must first be awe-struck by the glory of God Himself. The remainder of the chapter is devoted to turning our attention to the importance of the glory of God. I read such statements as:

“God’s glory is what drives the universe; it is why everything exists.” (24)…”The Bible is for us, but it’s not about us.” … “We are allergic to the idea that everything exists, including us, not for ourselves but for the glory of God.” (34)… “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” (Rom.11:36)  God’s aim is His own glory and the ‘endless ever-increasing joy of His people in that glory.’ (quoting Piper, 35)…”When you understand the driving force behind everything, all of a sudden there’s an eternal amount of joy at our disposal because everything we do is enlightened and enlivened by the endless glory of the eternal God.” (36)
“Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?” (Rom.11:35)

And as I reflect on these thoughts and turn to investigate the Scriptures from which they stem it’s as though a refreshing breeze is blowing. It whisks away pre-occupation with myself as vigilante of truth, as indispensable defender of the faith, as…as in fact an entity intended for anything less than, more than or other than God’s pleasure and glory! This is a relief. It puts the burden back in God’s hands, the burden of all that’s wrong in the world, the burden of needing to fix it, the burden of myself! A fixation with God’s glory—my chief end being to glorify Him and to enjoy Him forever– puts my small ‘world’ and calling in right perspective.

When life gets in the way of my soul looking to God in gratitude and awe, I have let life loom to large. My focal point is wrong.

I turn often to the Lord’s Prayer. It says all this in a few words. Our Father. In Heaven. Hallowed by Your Name. Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth, just like it is in Heaven. Here is a God who is very much in control of Heaven and of earth. He calls me to submit my wishes to His will, done in His way, in His timing, in everything. There’s no cause for desperation here that the world (or the church) is ‘going to Hell in a handbasket’. We pray for revival. Are we willing for judgment, beginning with the house of God? (I Pet.4:17) Ananias and Sapphira weren’t. It seems the fear of God had ebbed in the giddy enthusiasm of the early church. God corrected that. “And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things.” (Acts 5:11) Do we mistakenly clamor for the ‘feeling’ of His ‘presence’, forgetting the weight of this Glory, forgetting that it is “a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”? (Heb.10:31) Do we mistake emotional fervor for worship, carnal insatiability, for the Spirit’s moving? I wonder about these things. And I return to the Lord’s prayer…

Just give us what we need for today, our daily bread. That is enough. We are your bondservants. We rest in your care. I read of the disciples in Acts 4 as persecution had begun. I see the way they prayed, not for the opposition to dissolve, but for boldness to speak in spite of it, their daily bread–courage. They rested their case with the God who had overseen Jesus’ crucifixion at the hands of those who “were gathered together against [Him]…to do whatever Your hand and Your plan had predestined to take place.” (Acts 4;27,28) They trusted God to accomplish His will through them however He chose, for His glory above all else.

And I think again of Jesus’ own prayer in the face of His greatest temptation—He could have called legions of angels to His rescue. He could have saved His own skin. He could have prayed: “Father, save me from this hour.” Instead he said, “But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” (Jn.12:27,28). Hallowed by Your Name… Jesus lived by the Father’s design, for the Father’s glory. He calls us all to the same. He graces us all to fulfill His design. He supplies the strength, we the yielding. Thy will be done on earth…

To the persecuted church in exile Peter writes: “The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins…” What will that love look like? It will be different for each of us as we serve one another with our individual gifts, “as good stewards of God’s varied grace…by the strength that God supplies”  But what will be the common thread and the end result? “…that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” (I Pet.4:7,8)

“To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
(I Pet.4:11)

So as you and I reflect on the glory of God, whether it be on boats, or beaches or in our own backyards, let us find consolation and courage in this One who ‘sits in the heavens and laughs’ at those who oppose Him, for ‘blessed are all who take refuge in Him.’ (Ps.2:4,12) Come what may, He will win the day!

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Hab.2:14

–LS

1 Chandler, Matt. The Explicit Gospel. Crossway Publ.2012. 237pp.

2 Reeves, Kevin. The Other Side of the River. Lighthouse Trails Publ. 2007. 222pp.

3 Hunt, Dave. Beyond Seduction: A Return to Biblical Christianity. Harvest House Publishers, 1987. 264pp

4 Gibson, Keith. Wandering Stars: Contending for the Faith with the New Apostles and Prophets. Solid Ground Christian Books, 2011. 312pp.

5 Wells, David F. The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World. William B. Eerdman’s Publ.,2008. 253pp.

6 Piper, John and Justin Taylor, eds. The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World. Crossway Books,2007. 179pp. Contributors: David F. Wells, Voddie Baucham Jr., J.Piper, D.A.Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll

Aliens No Longer

All Sorts

I spent the last two days largely alone. I thought I liked being alone but this was different. Waking alone, eating alone, wiling away a sunny day alone, spending the evening alone, hitting the hay alone… None of these are things I haven’t done alone before but this felt different, like a foreshadowing of lonely days to come–of an empty nest, of noone needing me, of endless discretionary time to manage, yet without a clear objective. But this post is not about garnering sympathetic advice for a case of pre-empty nest syndrome. Something else caught my attention in my aloneness. Just this, that I never feel entirely alone, and that’s what makes being by myself tolerable and even enjoyable. The knowing that God is very much with me, always, makes all the difference. At least it has in the past.

But this time there was a difference. Rather than luxuriating in some time to myself, and sweet opportunity for fellowship with my Father, I found this niggling sense of shame going on in the backdrop of my mind—even reinforced with Scripture—like: “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Hmm… do you? What would that look like? Nevermind, you’re clearly too selfish. Look at so and so, what he did for that other widow lady… why don’t you ever do things like that? You’re so selfish—should be ashamed of yourself. How can you pretend to be walking in fellowship with the Father when you’re obviously bringing no credit to His Kingdom? What are you doing anyway?! Nothing but your own business, thinking about your own household, enjoying yourself when other people are lonely…

OK, so it looks like accusation when I spell it all out here, certainly condemnation. Unfortunately I didn’t take time to spell it out while it was going on and it certainly wasn’t THIS obvious, just a subtle undertow of my being ‘bad’, disobedient to the Word, and therefore presumptuous to pretend that I could just walk through the day in happy fellowship with the Father. This dull nagging undertow squelched my enthusiasm for being alone. (After all, being completely alone is more like the definition of hell than of serenity!) Mind you, there was no particular aspect of disobedience or any obvious action that I was balking at taking. Just a sense of my not measuring up and therefore not having a right to enjoy the Father’s fellowship. Bummer.

The day passed productively in other respects. Got all sorts of bookwork done and all manner of weeds whacked! And before ‘lights out’ I made these points in my prayer journal:

1) Maybe I don’t like being alone that much after all, but this day has given me greater empathy for some sisters in Christ who live this way much of the time.

2) Yes, I’ve been feeling guilty about my lonely neighbor. What would loving her as myself look like, Lord? Yes, I’m selfish besides, but selfish can get lonely.

3) I truly don’t want to live in disobedience (can’t stand this alienated feeling!) no matter whether it’s due to fear or indecision or plain old selfishness. Show me what to do, not merely to assuage guilt but to love as You love me, because it’s what I’m designed for!

And so the day ended. No brilliant insights. No clear-cut strategy for loving my neighbor better. Nothing to show I was heard, but I was. Strike one for my wily foe.

I found myself in Ephesians the following morning, ironically, praying for my kids to realize who they are and whose they are and to learn to walk in a manner worthy of their calling. Ha! I see in retrospect that the prayer time was as much for me as for them! Here clearly drawn out is the antidote to accusations of unworthiness. I paraphrase:

You WERE dead in sin, walking like the rest of the world, following the prince of the power of the air
(who currently works in the disobedient),
living according to your own passions–
your mental and physical desires,
“by nature children of wrath”.

BUT GOD MADE YOU ALIVE, seated you in the heavenlies! You’ve been saved from death and its lifestyle
as a gift from God,
created afresh for good works
that God prepared ahead of time for you to walk in… (Eph.2)

The passage goes on reminding the Ephesians (and me) where they’ve come from—once enemies, strangers, outsiders to God’s covenant—but that they are now RECONCILED, fellow citizens with the saints, members of the household of God, part of the ‘holy temple’ God is building to dwell in!

There’s not a hint of accusation, or of implication that these believers are sub-standard Christians and ought to be ashamed of themselves. They are ‘called out’ ones, chosen ones, alive, reconciled, belonging to God’s own household! Any word to the contrary is nothing more than a delusion from the prince of this world preying on the child who feels unworthy, for whatever reason. So this is where I stand. Selfish? Yes. Unloving at times? That too. But reconciled to God and seated in the heavenlies, very much alive, without cause to hang my head or avoid His gaze. I am no longer a child deserving His wrath. Strike two for my accuser.

Then comes that glorious prayer! (I paraphrase):

 Strengthen their inner beings with power through Your Spirit so that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith,
so that being rooted and grounded in this incredible love they may comprehend this vast love of Christ’s for them and may know it even though it is beyond comprehension.
Why? So they’ll be filled up with God Himself. (Eph.3:16ff)

And all this is asked of the God who ‘is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us’ to His own glory throughout all generations. That includes my generation and beyond! Amen!!

When Paul resumes his letter he addresses the living out of this magnificent calling as God’s own child, urging the Ephesians to ‘walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which [they’ve] been called’. It’s not a matter for heroics on their part, mind you, but of humility and gentleness and patience, extending love to fellow believers, supplying their part as joints in a Body that is gifted and directed by Christ Himself.

It seems likely to me that the church at Ephesus hadn’t yet ‘arrived’ (any more than I have) at the pinnacle of a ‘worthy walk’ because Paul goes on to say ‘you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.’ He takes pains to explain that for the unbeliever this is a necessary default, but not so the believer! The unbeliever’s understanding is ‘darkened’. He is actually ‘alienated from the life of God!’ His ignorance stems from a calloused heart, unwilling to respond to God’s grace, given over instead to satisfying his impulses. For a believer to live like this is to live a lie. He may walk in a way unworthy of his calling but he has nevertheless been called, reconciled, brought into God’s family. It makes no sense to continue living the old way, brainwashed by deceitful desires (desires that promise what they can’t deliver) when there is a new ‘birthday suit’ to be put on, one that resembles God’s beautiful righteousness and holiness (Eph.4:24). There are many particulars of what this new suit will look like (and how to put it on; first, a renewing of the mind) but they can be summed up in: “Therefore be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us…”(5:1,2)

Here’s a glimmer of Strike Three… we are dearly loved. It is natural as children to want to imitate our Dad. And when we fail, when we walk as if we belonged to darkness, when we feel we have been ‘alienated from the life of God’, it is not so. (If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things–I Jn.3:19) God is in fact jealous for our friendship. He’s given us His own Spirit to be with us forever so that we can have this kind of relationship! I read it this morning, in James. “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us” (James 4:5) He even supplies the grace when we are ready to admit our failure. “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And the steps to take: Submit yourselves therefore to God (shortcomings and all). Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (Aha! Strike Three!) “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you…” (James 4:6-8)

So whether the accusations coming at us are justified or groundless, the solution is in drawing near to our greatest Ally. He’s committed to our welfare and nothing can separate us from such love. Such are the things one learns in aloneness.

“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ ( We’re no longer aliens!) and love one another ( We begin to act like dearly loved children!) Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”
(I Jn.3:21-24)

–LS

“He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever.” John 14:16

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.” John 15:9

Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you! Eph.5:14

A Mighty Rushing Wind

All Sorts

I experienced wind this week—mighty rushing wind, and the waves it whipped into a frenzy. Frightening wind. Uncontrollable, unpredictable, unescapable. We could only keep the sail trimmed and angled to propel us forward and hang onto the tiller, compensating for the tossing about with corresponding shifts of the rudder. It is a fearful thing, a humbling thing, an awesome thing to experience wind. You bow to it; it does not do your bidding.

I couldn’t help thinking of the Day of Pentecost that was said to have come with the sound of a ‘mighty rushing wind’. Not the wind itself, but the sound ‘filled all the house where they were sitting’ (Acts 2:2) Was it terrifying? There they were, Jesus’ followers, all together for a single purpose. They were waiting as Jesus had commanded them, for the ‘promise of the Father’ (Acts 1:4) which would empower them to be His witnesses. This was the good gift of the Father to His children—Luke 11:13—sealing their inheritance as sons, a down payment of all that they were to become. (Eph.1:14) And they were sticking together in Jerusalem, waiting, as commanded…

Then came the fire-like flames on each of their heads, and the miraculous gift of speech in languages they had not learned, making them effective witnesses to Christ’s Resurrection! And in fulfillment of their calling they spoke forth “the wonderful works of God” (Acts 2:11) The hearers were filled with perplexed amazement. “What could this mean?” they asked. Then tuning in to Peter’s explanation they got the whole story. This was God’s gracious evidence to all in attendance that Jesus had indeed returned to the Father and sent His Spirit to be with them forever… Acts 2:32,33 The sound of wind accompanied the Gift, a reminder that though we do not know where it comes from or where it is going, Wind comes, with power, and does the work only God can do (Jn.3:8) bringing sinners to faith in their risen Saviour, giving dead folk life eternal…

And what is left for us to do? “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:38

It’s not a matter of our might or power, but of the Spirit blowing where He wishes…the mighty rushing Spirit of God, and our aligning our ‘sails’ with His purpose. When He is on the move, we bow, we do His bidding, not He ours, and one day we will find our little ‘bark’ has been transported safely Home… It is an awesome thing to be carried by Wind, a humbling thing, a fearful thing…but for the sailor this is the stuff of Life!

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“The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.  So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” –Jesus

–LS

For my further thoughts along this line may I refer you to: Wind and Spirit from the archives… (Oct.8,2010)

Smelling Creosote

All Sorts

Chase Me

I woke this morning to the sweetly reminiscent smell of creosote—reminiscent of all my childhood years lived in close proximity to the historic Weston Canal, having to cross the Canal bridge with its creosote laden piers many times a week— for mail, for church, for the baseball field, for school day lunches, for just about everything of importance…ah yes, the smell of creosote. We are moored at the dock on Vancouver Island where we purchased our boat.

I wake to the scent of creosote, the dancing of reflected light on the V-birth ceiling, the subtle slap of water on the bow. No gnats in the night, no stifling stillness. It has been a good sleep. Eggs, bacon and bagel fried on deck to order. Brilliant sun, rising breeze, clear blue skies… the town awakes beyond the shelter of the harbor.

I’m reflecting this morning on the power of gratitude— to free us from the gremlins of bad dreams, bad moods and plain old self centered quagmires, to keep us from the discontent which so readily spawns a subtle idolatry of craving ‘more’, and to deepen our confidence and hope in the unseen which is our true inheritance.

Gratitude resets our thinking to the realities beyond the felt and seen. When I wake disgruntled from some inane dream there is no better antidote than giving thanks. This morning it is easy, beginning with the smell of creosote and the dance of light’s reflections… But more than this, once I run out of tangible sensory things, a conscious gratitude takes me beyond the seen and felt to my true inheritance. These are the unseen realities that will keep us from cravings that will ruin us.

As we blew into port yesterday, bouncing in a bit of turbulent water created by competing tides and wind I was reading about ‘winds of doctrine’ (Eph.4:14) besetting the church in our day, ‘varied and strange teachings’ (Heb.13:9) that have become commonplace in churches, replacing grace, replacing sound teaching, replacing the Gospel. The author suggests that our modern quest for tangible ‘spiritual’ experiences is not unlike Esau’s demand for pottage now to quell his appetite. In so demanding he ‘sold his birthright for a single meal’ (Heb.12:16)

Basing his book on his own experiences and his own years of comparing Scripture with current practices, he makes many wise observations, but that is the stuff of a future book review. As I turned back to Scripture myself I was struck by the passage in Hebrews comparing the Israelites’ experience of God with what we have been given. It begins: “For you have not come to what may be touched.” (Heb.12:18) Mount Sinai was all about the tangible—blazing fire, darkness and gloom, whirlwind, trumpet blast, and audible words. What was the people’s response? It scared them to death and they begged not to hear or see, but to be given a mediator between themselves and God.

And this Mediator is precisely what we have in Christ. He is the image of God’s glory, revealed to us. He is our high priest, our mediator, the One by whom we have access to God—the God who ‘knows what you need before you ask Him’. The passage in Hebrews goes on to describe in lofty language our inheritance—”the city of the living God”, the heavenly Jerusalem, myriads of angels, “the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven”, and to God, the Judge of all, and to “the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant”…(Heb.12:22-24) We have all this. But how much of it is visible here and now?

How difficult it is to wean our souls from wanting more than we perceive that we have, from wanting that which we can see and hear and feel. But surely gratitude is a first step in that direction. And that is how this passage winds up. First it reminds us that what is unseen is also unshakeable. When all else is destroyed, (as will be these bodies and all their senses,) the unseen Kingdom of God will remain…”Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb.12:28)

So as I sit and smell the creosote, and feel the warmth of sun and freshness of a sea breeze, I will give thanks and then keep on giving thanks till I have gotten beyond the tangible to that which is unseen but forever sure—my place among the righteous made perfect in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus, the Captain of my Soul.

–LS