Savoring Christmas one more day!

This was supposed to be for yesterday, but here I am, as usual, a day late and a dollar short! But as the waning moments of the Christmas season slip by and all the joyous decorations are nestled all snug in their storage box beds until next year, I want to stop one last time and ponder the wonder of God breaking into our world as a baby Savior! I love J.B. Phillips story about "The Visited Planet" in which he attempts to give us a behind the scenes look at the incarnation from heaven's viewpoint. A senior angel is showing a younger angel around the infinite distances of the universe and the multiple galaxies until eventually they enter one particular galaxy of 500 billion stars.

"As the two of them drew near to the star which we call our sun and to its circling planets, the senior angel pointed to a small and rather insignificant sphere turning very slowly on its axis. It looked as dull as a dirty tennis-ball to the little angel, whose mind was filled with the size and glory of what he had seen.

'I want you to watch that one particularly,' said the senior angel, pointing with his finger.

'Well, it looks very small and rather dirty to me,' said the little angel. 'What's special about that one?'"

The senior angel went on to explain that this was the renowned "Visited Planet:"

"'Do you mean that our great and glorious Prince...went down in Person to this fifth-rate little ball? Why should He do a thing like that?'...

The little angel's face wrinkled in disgust. 'Do you mean to tell me,' he said, 'that He stooped so low as to become one of those creeping, crawling creatures of that floating ball?'

'I do, and I don't think He would like you to call them 'creeping, crawling creatures' in that tone of voice. For, strange as it may seem to us, he loves them. He went down to visit them to lift them up to become like Him.'

The little angel looked blank. Such a thought was almost beyond his comprehension."

And so it is mine. So often I stay busy with laundry and carpools and to do lists and I forget that this world is nothing but a mere shadow of the real world of angels and demons and a great cosmic invisible battle. And the God of the universe at one precise moment in time and history left infinite and incredible wonders and glory and power that I cannot even begin to fathom and came down to this small, dingy little planet to personally engage in the battle on our behalf. How I love the song from "Ceremony of Carols" that declares, "This little babe, so few days old has come to rifle satan's fold. All hell doth at His presence quake though He Himself for cold do shake. For in this weak unarmed wise, the gates of hell He will surprise." A helpless infant challenging the mighty powers of hell. A newborn baby come into the world to defeat death and despair and sin and satan. And all this for us, the ones He made who He knew would betray and reject and ignore and forget Him.

Who can begin to fathom such a thing? What a plan! What a Savior!

So as this new year dawns, this new decade, might we all live daily in the wonder of what He has done and is doing for us. He didn't just visit our little planet, but He came to stay. As one writer put it, He "moved into the neighborhood." Might this be the year when we really get to know and love and worship Him better and better. To God be the glory.

A growing faith? Start walking!

"It was a saying of George Mueller that faith grows with use...Put it to work by reverent and faithful praying, and it will grow and become stronger day by day. Dare today to trust God for something small and ordinary and next week or next year you may be able to trust Him for answers bordering on the miraculous.

Everyone has some faith, said Mueller; the difference among us is one of degree only, and the man of small faith may be simply the one who has not dared to exercise the little faith he has."

A.W. Tozer

As we look back on this past year, we need to ask ourselves, "has my faith grown?" Do I trust God and know God and depend upon God more today than I did one year ago? one month ago? one week ago? If the answer to any of those questions is "no" then I am clearly not walking by faith. When we walk, we make progress; we move in a direction. Sometimes our progress may be swift and purposeful and energetic. At other times we might be strolling along or even limping along because of exhaustion or energy--but we should still be moving forward in some way.

The amazing thing is, God loves us just as much whether we are sprinting effortlessly or limping slowly and painfully. He is right beside us--whatever our pace--guiding us, teaching us, encouraging us, strengthening us, correcting us. But we have to keep moving with Him. We have to keep seeking to grow in our faith by walking with Him. So instead of berating ourselves when our walk isn't perfect or giving up because we stumble and fall, it's time to stop looking back and determine that from this day we will walk with Him daily. We will exercise even our tiny little bit of faith and trust in Him daily in the small things and then watch as He grows our faith and trust. As for me, I'm just trying to study His Word and pray for an hour each day and write about it here--what a tiny little step of faith! But let's see where He will take me and my faith. It's not about where you start. It's about where you finish. And the destination is, well, heavenly beyond all description! To God be the glory.

Daniel and choosing the important over the urgent

"...Three times a day he [Daniel] got down on his knees and prayed to His God, just as he had done before." Daniel 6:10b

Early this morning, I read about faithful Daniel in Dan. 9:3 where, after studying God's Word, he "turned to the Lord God and pleaded with Him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes." Here is Daniel, an exile in the midst of a pagan and corrupt nation. He is without family, without the consolation of home and hearth, without synagogue or any group of kindred believers to encourage and strengthen. Yet here he is, faithfully seeking His Lord in prayer and petition "just as he had done before," day after day, month after month, year after year. What an example of perseverance and dogged faithfulness in the midst of the most difficult of circumstances! If Daniel could daily, consistently worship and seek after His Lord, what excuse do I have? None! I don't want to miss any of the ways God wants to teach me and lead me and conform me to His likeness. What treasures might He have in store for each of us in His Word if we will but come to Him daily with open hearts and listening ears?

Reading the Word and prayer--so basic and elementary and yet how often we fail, as Nike puts it, to "just do it." I know we often have the very best of intentions, but frequently those intentions are waylaid by last minute school projects or extra carpooling or meetings or just unexpected daily tasks. I shudder to think how often I allow the "tyranny of the urgent" to take priority over the important. I can see that laundry piled up or all those dirty dishes, but neglect of a relationship with my Creator is invisible to the eye. I can seemingly ignore it with no immediately apparent repercussions until slowly, inexorably I find myself isolated from my Savior and am empty, frustrated, frazzled, irritable, and powerless.

So the key is to daily make the choice to spend time with Him, no matter what. It's so trite but so true--choose the important over the urgent. Choose, as Jesus urged Martha, "the better thing": to sit at His feet rather than scurrying around getting the meal ready and all the tasks performed. Boy, this can be so hard when there seems to be an infinite amount of work to be done, and it can be so satisfying to see the tangible results of completing those tasks. But that's because my focus is on the temporal and not the eternal, on the visible and not the invisible, on the worldy and not heavenly. So we just have to daily, hourly, choose our focus. If I choose to spend time gazing at Christ in His Word then I will focus on Him and that focus will bring everything else in my life back into proper perspective. Life will always be crazy. Adversity and busyness and struggles and challenges will always be there--just ask Daniel! But no matter what is going on around us, we can choose to turn to God in His Word and in prayer daily, consistently and watch what He will do. If Daniel could do it, so can we. Daniel was no different from any of us. He did remarkable things because He daily depended upon a remarkable God. And so can we. And by the grace of God, so shall we. To God be the glory.

Be still...and then run!

Well, thanks to my daughters, I am now posting my first blog--nothing short of a miracle for one so technology challenged! In all likelihood, they will be the only ones reading this, but I really felt called to to do this. It has been a busy year, and I have struggled to have a consistent daily quiet time and to have daily devotions with my children. I love the Lord and am in a wonderful Bible study, but while I spend time with the Lord, far too often it is rushed and harried and becomes an item to check off on my endless to do list. Somehow as my children have gotten older, life has become busier and time has become an even more valuable commodity. I always thought that when they got in school, I would have more time, but instead, it has inexplicably gotten busier! This Christmas season, it became obvious that something had to change and that I had to make the time for the Lord and for family devotions. The most glorious season of the year, and yet as a family (and as an individual) those special times of worship and spending time in God's Word were too few and far between. So this is my challenge for the new year--to spend at least one hour per day, no matter what, with the Lord: reading His Word, studying, praying, writing about what He is teaching me, and to have some kind of family devotions every day no matter what! No more waiting for the perfect time when everyone is home and excited about it--that mythical moment will never come! No more assuming that I'll have time with the Lord sometime or other after cleaning up, doing chores, returning phone calls....

So, it's time to be still and then run around and get everything done! I've always loved the proverb, "Reverence for God adds hours to each day." I'm trusting that when I put God first, He will provide the time for me to get everything done that He's called me to do. I can't imagine how (since I can't seem to even come close to getting it all done now!), but, hey, that's all part of this great adventure! So, here goes! And to God alone be all the glory.