TODAY #3–Winter cannot win!

TODAY

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.– Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.–For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.–For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.–And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.–Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven!

Phil.1:6; Phil.2:12,13; Romans 8:19; Mal.4:2; Gal.5:5; I Jn.3:3; I Cor.15:49
English Standard Version

Tromping through snow and slush, slipping, sometimes falling, we make our way through a fallen world to the Eternal City.  Created in Christ Jesus for good things, yet bearing in our bodies remnants of the old, we are liable to lapse into sin and fall away from the living God.  But His indomitable Spirit within woos and works to fit us for glory.  Our new nature is like a bulb that’s been planted in fall.  The sun will shine, the bloom will spring forth.  Because Christ Himself has risen conquering death, winter cannot win! –LS

Christ is Risen!

Let no one caught in sin remain
Inside the lie of inward shame…

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!

–Matt Maher
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IExdrZGQVeI

March Moments and Milestones

Month-in-Review

March marks the official end of our first winter in Alberta* ; we made it!

Apart from being hung-over with a bad flu for weeks too long mid-winter, the season has passed quickly.  (Next year we will say ‘YES!’ to the flu shot.)  We pushed weights in the gym, volunteered at the local thrift store, and got a lot more steady and a little more graceful on cross-country skis.  Amazing what practice will do.

With the coming of March our last-launched fledgling, Rachel, flew in for a quick look around our new nest.  It was wonderful to have her back so grown up (:

 

Incidentally, our nest is now up for sale and we wait hopeful that the new landlords will love us and want to keep us. Real estate and rentals are always a juggling match in this much-coveted mountain valley…

O Lord…’you know when I sit down and when I rise up’–David’s words in Psalm 139 took on fresh meaning this month when I thrashed my tailbone in a clumsy moment at the bottom of a slick ski hill and ceased to be able to slouch comfortably in any of my favorite cushy spots… I am learning better posture as we speak!

Bikes–a sure sign that spring is in the works. We got ours out this week!  For short jaunts they work, like getting to and from the bus-stop ( :  I’m discovering the convenience and inconvenience of taking the bus into town.  It’s nice for saving gas and vehicle wear-and-tear.  It’s not nice for having to hustle out the door on time only to stand idle at the bus stop watching ice melt into puddles… It’s good for a wee spot of reading time though…

The book I’m carrying around for such moments is a memoir by a writer who holed up in the dreary Falkland Islands in winter thinking she’d be able there to compose a novel without distraction.  The novel never happened.  Her humorous re-telling of the lonely experience did. It’s called Bleaker House**, a take-off on the Dickens’ novel by a similar name.  And with it I’m realizing that Creative Non-fiction is the genre that most piques my interest…

Speaking of memoirs and books…I discovered post-modern writing and what is known as ‘metafiction’ this month in Dave Eggers’ memoir-of-sorts: The Heartbreaking Work of a Staggering Genius. His incredibly sad life story, which so easily might have been depressing, was re-told in a way that kept making me chuckle, even laugh out loud, and that is something to sit up and take notice of! The non-stop hyper-active self-conscious narration intrigued me, and kept me going past the irreverent, crass and language-laden content. Eggers’ brazen egotism and yet perceptive honesty caught me off-guard. Having said that, the novelty of this genre wore off before the 400+ pages ran out.  Though I will not recommend it, if your curiosity does take you to the library to find this title, DO heed the extensive preface material and author’s own suggestion: ‘the first three of four chapters are all some of you might want to bother with…[they]stick to one general subject, something manageable, which is more that what can be said for the book thereafter.’

This was Egger’s first book, copyright 2000. But it is not Eggers at his best.  Last month I happened upon a biographical novel (at the Thrift store!) which he wrote in 2006 called What is the What.  I enjoyed it incredibly much!  It revived my reading energy and I consumed all 535 pages in record time. His humorous and breathlessly engaging narrative style works superbly when the subject matter is not himself!  In this later book he narrates the life of one of the “Lost Boys” of southern Sudan. It is not only fascinating but informative, a tender first-person account with  a subtle humor and relentless optimism that offsets the stark tragedies of civil war and refugee life.  Unforgettable and well worth finding a copy!  I posted a review over at my occasionally updated book review site–A Few Good Books (thestackofdawn.blogspot.ca)

Before I leave my most memorable books of the month, I must mention the most profound of them all: Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis.  I meditated through this one just a couple chapters a week with discussion at a favorite blogger’s place.  Wow. Mythology isn’t my favorite genre but when Lewis takes hold of a myth, in this case Cupid and Psyche, and molds it to show what words can hardly tell, well it is compelling, convicting, and such good soul-food.  The principle character lives a lifetime with a hard-heart, assuming the worst about the gods, misinterpreting their every move and suffering behind a veil which hides her from being deeply known.  Only in the end does she come to see the way things really are.

“All my life the god of the Mountain has been wooing me….

“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing–to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from–“

But I will not give the storyline away. This one is worth a slow and thoughtful read.  And if you want some hints and helps along the way, Michele, at Living Our Days, has done a beautiful job of introducing this book chapter by chapter starting here: Till We Have Faces: Welcome to the Discussion. Enjoy!

Well, enough of books (for now) except for the best one of all… For the last couple months I’ve taken a break from reading multiple chapters and genres throughout Scripture and have settled into the Gospels, into hearing Jesus’ words and watching Him deal with people like me.  This is what I need for now.  And on my desk is this quote:

O Lord God,  Thou has commanded me to believe in Jesus; and I would flee to no other refuge, wash in no other fountain, build on no other foundation, receive from no other fullness, rest in no other relief.

–from The Valley of Vision: a collection of Puritan Prayers by Arthur Bennett

The latest and greatest milestone of my month is this website. which has been quite the project, one I would not have gotten through without my husband Jim’s steady expertise.  I have had nearly a year’s sabbatical from weekly posts but just can’t get away from what I perceive to be God’s calling to share His words and the way they speak into my life. So I am here, to recommence sharing what He’s teaching me and I’m so glad you’ve come by to join me.  Welcome back!

–LS

*(We weathered several winters in Alberta way back when we were students at Prairie Bible Institute.  But that was practically another life-time ago!)

**[4/10/17 a disclaimer re: Bleaker House, now that I’ve gotten through it.  Though it belongs to a favorite genre of mine, creative non-fiction, it is NOT an example I recommend.  The author has chosen to embellish the retelling of a bleak period in her life with sordid stories of her life prior to this point.  The titillating details did nothing to improve the going-nowhere narrative and decreased my respect and interest in the author’s work.  Perhaps Dickens’ Bleak House would be a preferable choice!]

TODAY #2–Apart from Me you can do nothing

TODAY

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty… in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.–That you may know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead–I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.–“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

John 15:5;I Chr. 29:11,12;Eph.1:19,20;Phil.4:13;Rom.7:18;1Co 1:31

In our ‘can-do’ society where competent independence is a goal to be prized and the hallmark of maturity, it’s valuable to notice that the upside-down ideals of God’s Kingdom have more to do with our dependence on His greatness than on any inherent personal competence.

Words for TODAY

TODAY

It’s easy to take for granted that God has spoken to us in His Word when you’ve grown up in church, surrounded by Christians with whom you live and move and have your being!  I was in the tenth grade in a little Christian school run by our church, taking my faith for granted, not much excited about the realities of it, when Audrey decided she wanted to become a Christian too!  She was my best friend so she asked me how to go about it.  I deferred to the youth group leader to walk her through it– to make sure it was done ‘right’.  Well, something happened.  The Bible came alive for her!  

Morning by morning she’d come to school with a wee scrap of paper for me with a verse copied out in her delightfully tiny handwriting and sometimes a note reflecting her amazement at this new-found treasure.  God used her eager child-like faith to wake me up to the wonder of His Word.  He’s still waking me up to it, morning by morning.  And here I bring my notes to share with you.  May we find His words to be life-giving and faith-sustaining as long as it is called Today. 

This post is the first of a feature I am calling Words for TODAY. Here I will share thematic collections of words from Scripture that have spoken to my heart day-by-day in the hopes that you too will find encouragement and renewed trust in our living, speaking God! –LS

Today if you hear his voice do not harden your hearts–The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.–So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void,but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.–Be careful then, dear brothers and sisters.  Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God.

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,”
so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Ps.95:7,8ESV; Is.50:4NASB; Is.55:11NKJV; Heb.3:12NLT; Heb.3:13NIV

 

Always Abounding…

LOVE IT!, READ IT!

I arrived this week at the end of a passage I’ve been memorizing since January. At just two verses per week it’s been a slow but steady crawl. But I can now recite it thoughtfully to the echoey walls of my new home beginning with:

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep…” (I Cor.15:19)

And concluding with the resoundingly familiar:

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”
(I Cor.15:58)

It’s that last verse I’m stuck on, not because I can’t say it, but because I wonder, is it true of me? here? now? And I’ve had to go back and be walked through the reality of what this “work of the Lord” is because I don’t feel as though I am abounding in anything right now.

It sounds somehow more descriptive of saints who have gone before–great ‘missionary statesmen’, or even of friends we trained with who are still pouring out their life energies in poorest Africa.

What is ‘the work of the Lord’? Is it synonymous with ‘full-time Christian service’ (interesting old expression…)? Or maybe my Grandmother would qualify; she was a cheerful servant to whomever she met. But me? I am just a ‘stay at home Mom’ in a place that does not yet feel like home and minus the kids that merited me the title. I do still qualify mostly for the ‘stay at home’ part! People ask if I will get a job. Maybe. New friends inquire what I’ve done with my life. No, I never worked. (HA!) I homeschooled my five kids. (That falls flat–an alien thought for most of my current social group). Well, so yes, I suppose I’m retired, sort of…

But just now as I was beginning to slip into morose self-pity I glanced to the wall beside my desk. There hangs a strategically placed photo–a precious reminder of why I am in this place:

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Four eager faces grin back at me. I can’t help but smile and wipe away happy tears that I am here, at home, ready to welcome them in the door tomorrow, to have a special dessert ready, to go out for a nature hike, to play another game of Crazy Eights and stick some more decals on the front window…to get down the little wooden tractor and trailer my Dad made and let them zoom it across the floor… These kids are what I’m here for, at least in part. I am here so they can come to Grandmom’s house, as I once went to my Grandma’s house–just to be welcomed and loved and known, to belong.

To be here for them in this season of our lives is to abound in the work of the Lord.

How did I acquire so grand a calling anyway? I who could have, would have (but for Jim, but for God) been a single woman Bible Translator to some remote tribe, I who did not grow up playing with dolls or dreaming of a houseful of my own babies–preferring the company of the woods and a ramble with Shags and some time in the Good Book… How did I inherit this high calling–to have these little folk look up adoringly at my entrance into the room, or race eagerly now to my door: “Let’s do something!”

And though I sit here alone for now, dreaming up baby quilts for the new one coming along next month, and wondering how to shake the echo from our new suite and make it feel like home… I am not alone. God’s Word marches through my thoughts bringing truth to dispel the lies that threaten to swamp my boat, bringing LIFE in its timely reminders of who I am–God’s own child, accepted in the Beloved, His workmanship created in Christ Jesus… I am not the sum of my earthly accomplishments.

I am the work of the Lord, and as I walk each day by faith in His power to transform the ordinary into the eternal…I showcase His glory.

These are some of the verses I’ve been reflecting on this week:

Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.  Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

…It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. Jn.6:27-29,63

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Eph.2:10

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Eph.1:11,12

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. I Cor.10:31

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;
and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
I Cor.12:4-7

…and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places…Eph.1:19,20

…for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil.2:13

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. I Cor.15:10

———

These good Words remind me that because of the Gospel, I am delivered from the need to DO in order to be acceptable in God’s sight. Jesus did what was needed. He died. And conquered death. In Him I live and move and have my being.

By faith in Him I am declared righteous and enabled to please God.

By His Word, His truth, I am led in paths of righteousness—even as I sew baby blankets, make chocolate cake for the kiddies coming out tomorrow, and prepare hot lunches for my hubby…

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By faith I can abound in the work of the Lord, in unseen homebody ways, giving thanks for His enabling, asking for His guidance, and walking in the works prepared for me from the foundation of the world…

By His grace I am what I am…and by His energy working in me I am sufficient in all things at all times to fulfill His calling in my life.

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
II Cor.9:8

When I get side-tracked into worrying about my productivity for the Kingdom I find I must go back to the basics of the Gospel. It’s not about what I’m able to do, but about what Christ has already done. My confidence in Him as I attend to His Words is what will bear fruit over time. And as I’ve been considering what passage next to memorize I’m drawn back to the beginning of I Corinthians 15, the verses I skipped over:

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.  For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures…that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day…and that He appeared…” (I Cor.15:1-5)

I think I’ll begin there—at the heart of the Gospel.  It’s my only hope of ever abounding in truly Good works.  Jesus Christ is our hope, not only for this lifetime, but for an eternity to come when these perishable bodies have been transformed into His image.  And all this is by faith.

What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith…Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Rom.9:30-33

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Cor.15:56,57

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.  Rom.10:4

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen! Heb.13:20,21
–LS

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