No compromise, no attention

We are reviewing the book of Daniel one last time in Bible study before we start 1 Peter, so I have to go back to the well one more time and look at the convicting example of this godly man. In looking at Daniel 6, I was struck by 2 things I had not noticed before (and how many times have I read this chapter?! God's Word is so amazing and always new and fresh!). Daniel has learned of the decree that anyone who worships any god or man other than the king "for the next 30 days" will be thrown into the lions' den.

The decree only lasted for 30 days! I've never seen that before! In other words, all Daniel had to do was to lay low for 30 days, and then he could worship God without fear of recrimination! Would I have been tempted to compromise? "Well, just for the next month I'll pray silently in my heart. God will understand. After all, He needs me here as His representative to these hopeless pagans." Surely Daniel could have justified some sort of compromise for that short period of time--but he didn't. Instead, he went to his room with the windows opened wide for all to see, got down on his knees, and prayed 3 times a day, just as he had always done. (v.10) No whiff of compromise whatsoever! And don't forget this was a very busy and important man who was one of 3 administrators of the entire kingdom. Surely he had little or no free time available.

What does it take for me to compromise? A funny look, a snide comment, a desire not to offend or to please? Or how often have I excused missing my quiet times because of my busy schedule? I think I'll get back going when things has "calmed down" (which, of course, they never do) or I have more time or I feel better... Daniel's example challenges me that there truly are no excuses for being not being faithful to God. It's time to step up and step out in faith and trust that God will use whatever happens to our greater good and His greater glory. And no matter how busy the day, I must daily choose to put Him first and trust He'll enable me to get all those other responsibilities finished as well.

But the second thing I noticed in reading chapter 6 were the snide comments of the jealous men who went to the king to tattle on Daniel. "...Daniel, who is one of the exiles from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the decree you put in writing. He still prays three times a day." v.13 I had to laugh at the attempt to put Daniel down with the reference "one of the exiles from Judah." By this point in the story, Daniel is in his 80's and has lived in Babylon for close to 70 years, and he has served as a top adviser to a number of kings of both Babylon and the Medes and Persians. Somehow, I don't think his status as a former exile would be the first thing that people would think of when it came to this distinguished old man. Yet they bring it back up in order to put him down and remind the king that he was not "one of us."

Moreover, you have to love the fact that they characterize him as paying "no attention" to the king or his decree! In other words, this guy is a fanatic, a rebel, a troublemaker. He is not a team player! He has some misguided notion that his God is far more important than the king or the king's (ridiculous) decrees. You get the feeling that nothing in this world could tempt or deter this man of God from loving, obeying and worshipping His Lord.

Boy, I want to be more like that! How often the siren song of the world's allures draw me in and away from the Lord I love. O, I "pay attention" to what the world is saying and doing and in the process, I miss the blessings God longs to give me if my focus was fixed upon Him. It really does come down to that: fix your eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). When we pay attention to something, we focus upon it, we look intently upon it. So I want my attention and my focus on Christ and not the world. It's okay to look but just not to focus. It is the gaze, not the look, that sanctifies.

Help me Lord to daily fix my eyes upon You and to pay no attention to that which seeks me to draw my affections away from You. We are called to be in the world and to be salt and light in that world, but even in the midst of the world (just as Daniel in the very heart of that pagan empire) we keep our focus, our gaze upon Christ. To God be the glory!

p.s. The snow is so beautiful today! Wow, what a wonderful transformed white landscape outside my door! What kind of a Creator would think of snow?! If the earth needed rain, He could have just created rain, but instead He created the unique, miraculous beauty of each snowflake! He is a Creator who did not just consider function but extraordinary beauty and wonder! There truly is no God like our God!

Sin overpromises and underdelivers

"Sin overpromises and underdelievers everytime." I just heard this brief snippet on the radio today, and it really struck me how absolutely true that is. On the front end, sin always overpromises: happiness, success, satisfaction, reward--all with minimal cost and little or no downside. We have an enemy whose daily delight is to deceive and destroy. "No one will ever know." "You deserve this." "Just this once." "It's time you finally enjoyed a little happiness." "This won't hurt anyone else." "Everybody else is doing it (or enjoying it or possesses it).

And then every single time, that sin gives birth to pain and disappointment and regret. When we choose to sin, we choose to suffer, for our enemy will always always always underdeliver. I cannot help but see the various sexual scandals swirling around right now, and can just about guarantee that those individuals never imagined the heartache and humiliation and betrayal their actions would eventually reap.

But lest I grow self-righteous, there but by the grace of God go I. The Lord knows the selfishness and pride and envy and ugliness that festers in my own soul. When I pass along that morsel of gossip or talk harshly to my husband or indulge my desires at the expense of someone else, I am giving in to sin just as putrid in the eyes of a holy God as that of the most hardened criminal. "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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me...Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!.." Rom. 7:18-20,24.

What excuse do I have for having a complaining, ungrateful, self-pitying heart when I have been not only forgiven so much, but enabled to live a life of righteousness through Christ?! I who deserve condemnation and instead receive mercy and commendation through the righteousness of Christ? I who am so unworthy have been declared more than worthy all because of my Savior?

I cannot help but reminded of Charles Colson's account of visiting a Brazilian prison several years ago that had been handed over to 2 Christian layman who planned to run it by Christian principles. The prison has only 2 full time staff and all the rest of the work is done by the inmates. Each prisoner must either join the chapel program or take a course in character development. Here are Colson's words:

"When I visited the prison I found the inmates smiling--particularly the murderer who held the keys and opened the gates to let me in. Wherever I walked, I saw men at peace. I saw clean living areas. I saw people working industriously. The walls were decorated with biblical sayings from Psalms and Proverbs. The prison has an astonishing record. The recidivism rate is 4 percent, compared to 75 percent in the rest of Brazil and the U.S. How is that possible? I saw it with my own eyes. When my inmate guide escorted me to the notorious punishment cell once used for torture, he told me that today it houses only a single inmate. We walked down a long cell block, a long corridor of steel doors, and came to the end and he peeked in. He paused. 'Yes, he's in there,' he said. Then he turned to me and asked, 'Are you sure you want to go in, Mr. Colson?'

'Of course,' I replied impatiently. 'I've been in punishment cells in 600 prisons all over the world.' Slowly the inmate swung open the door and I saw the prisoner in the punishment cell. I walked in and turned to the right and there on the wall, beautifully carved by the inmates, was a crucifix. The prisoner Jesus was hanging on the cross. 'He,' said the inmate, 'is doing time for all the rest of us.'"

Thank You Jesus for doing my time and taking my sin and my punishment. O might I live a life of gratitude and grace in response to what You have done and are doing. You are in that cell in Brazil and in those flattened buildings in Haiti. You are doing time in slums and palaces. Wherever there is sin and hopelessness and despair and death and defeat, You are there doing time, offering hope and redemption and renewal. In the darkest corners of the earth and the darkest recesses of my heart, You are there, ready to turn wretchedness into righteousness. What more can this overwhelmed and grateful heart declare than "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" Sin might overpromise and underdeliver but our Savior does abundantly more than all we could ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20) Lord, to You be all the glory!!

Go your way till the end!

This past week we are looking at Daniel 12 in Bible study. Now, I confess that I have struggled a bit with the last couple of chapters of Daniel. I loved the first 6 chapters, but, boy, the 2nd half of Daniel is tough sledding. I know every word in God's love letter to us is inspired, eternal, true, enlightening, and vitally important. But, these dreams and visions and beasts and mysterious conflicts seem so confusing and convoluted and, frankly, far removed from my everyday life. Sorry, Lord, I know I am supposed to love end times prophecy, but You know my fickle heart anyway so I may as well admit the truth!

But chapter 12 has turned it all around for me (though I still don't understand it too well!). Our hero Daniel, faithful in a faithless, pagan culture, has been given these myriad visions, and finally in 12:8 he responds to "the man clothed in linen" (who I assume is the pre-incarnate Christ) "I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, 'My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?'" The Lord responds, "Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end." (v.9) In other words, "Don't worry about it, Daniel. You don't understand and you're not going to understand any time soon, but just keep on keeping on. Understanding is not a prerequisite to faithfully staying the course."

And then, I read the last verse in Daniel, and it's got to be my favorite! The Lord urges Daniel "As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance."

Did you catch it? "Go your way till the end." That could be Daniel's theme song! Way back in chapter 1, we saw Daniel resolving not to defile himself with the king's food and wine (1:8) and at the end of the chapter, we learned, "Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus." In chapter 6 (Daniel in the lion's den), we see Daniel defying the royal edict to only worship the king. "Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had before." (6:10) Day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, this faithful man has worshipped, obeyed, and served His Lord. The threat of hungry lions does not deter him. The tempting pleasures and delights of a decadent pagan culture cannot deter him. The intrigue of new kings and assassinations and power struggles cannot deter him. Extraordinary busyness when he is the king's adviser cannot deter him. Old age and loneliness and being pushed to the side cannot deter him. He just keeps praying, keeps obeying, keeps loving His God whether he understands what God is doing or not.

And so, this faithful old man, who has been praying 3 times a day and serving His Lord continually for so many years in such a barren and thankless place, refuses to quit no matter how hard the going gets, no matter how dark and confusing the future appears to be. "As for you, go your way till the end." That is exactly what Daniel has done all his life and will do to the end. Perseverance of the saints. I love the definition of this: falling down and getting up. Falling down and getting up. Falling down and getting up--all the way to heaven.

Winston Churchill, in one of his most famous speeches delivered during the darkest days of World War II, expressed this in a way I'll never forget. He stood to address a graduating class and simply but urgently declared: "Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never give up."

We would do well to take his words to heart as Christians. We may not understand what God is doing. We may wonder why truth is "forever on the scaffold" and evil forever on the throne. We may grow weary in the battles of life. We may feel like the heavy burdens placed upon us are simply too much. But Daniel would urge us to keep going your way till the end. From the perspective he has now, he would encourage us that all the struggle and confusion and difficulty will someday be more than worth it. This is nothing profound, but sometimes I just need to be reminded not to quit. Not to give up or give in or give out. If Daniel can make it all the way to the end, then so can we. We have the same almighty God who enables us and sustains us. He has promised--and we can count on it. All the way to the end.

Rags for Righteouness

From Walter Wangerin, Jr. (one of my favorite authors), Ragman and Other Cries of Faith (I can't figure out how to underline that on my computer!):

Even before the dawn one Friday morning I noticed a young man, handsome and strong, walking the alleys of our City. He was pulling an old cart filled with clothes both bright and new, and he was calling in a clear, tenor voice: 'rags!' Ah, the air was foul and the first light filthy to be crossed by such sweet music.

'Rags! New rags for old! I take your tired rags! Rags!'

Now, this is a wonder,' I thought to myself, for the man stood 6 foot 4, and his arms were like tree limbs, hard and muscular, and his eyes flashed intelligence. Could he find no better job than this, to be a ragman in the inner city?

Soon the Ragman saw a woman sitting on her back porch. She was sobbing into a handkerchief, sighing, and shedding a thousand tears. Her knees and elbows made a sad X. Her shoulders shook. Her heart was breaking.

The Ragman stopped his cart. Quietly, he walked to the woman, stepping round tin cans, dead toys, and Pampers.

'Give me your rag,' he said gently, 'and I'll give you another.'

He slipped the handkerchief from her eyes. She looked up, and he laid across her palm a linen cloth so clean and new that it shined. she blinked from the gift to the giver.

Then, as he began to pull his cart again, the Ragman did a strange thing: he put her stained handkerchief to his own face; and then he began to weep, to sob as grievously as she had don, his shoulders shaking. yet she was left without a tear.

'this is a wonder,' I breathed to myself, and I followed the sobbing Ragman like a child who cannot turn away from mystery.

'Rags! Rags! New rags for old!'

In a little while, when the sky showed grey behind the rooftops and I could see the shredded curtains hanging out black windows, the Ragman came upon a girl whose head was wrapped in a bandage, whose eyes were empty. Blood soaked her bandage. A single line of blood ran down her cheek.

Now the tall Ragman looked upon this child with pity, and he drew a lovely yellow bonnet from his cart.

'Give me your rag,' he said, tracing his own line on her cheek, 'and I'll give you mine.'

The child could only gaze at him while he loosened the bandage, removed it, and tied it to his own head. The bonnet he set on hers. And I gasped at what I saw: for with the bandage went the wound! Against his brow it ran darker, more substantial blood--his own.

'Rags! Rags! I take old rags!' cried the sobbing, bleeding, strong, intelligent Ragman.

The sun hurt both the sky, now, and my eyes; the Ragman seemed more and more in a hurry.

'Are you going to work?' he asked a man who leaned against a telephone pole. The man shook his head. The Ragman pressed him: Do you have a job?

'Are you crazy?' sneered the other. He pulled away from the pole, revealing the right sleeve of his jacket--flat, the cuff stuffed into the pocket. He had no arm.

'So,' said the Ragman. 'Give me your jacket, and I'll give you mine.'

Such quiet authority in his voice!

The one-armed man took off his jacket. So did the Ragman--and I trembled at what I saw: for the Ragman's arm stayed in its sleeve, and when the other put it on he had two good arms, thick as tree limbs; but the Ragman had only one.

'Go to work,' he said.

After that he found a drunk, lying unconscious beneath an army blanket, an old man, hunched, wizened, and sick. He took that blanket and wrapped it round himself, but for the drunk he left new clothes.

And now I had to run to keep up with the Ragman. Though eh was weeping uncontrollably, and bleeding freely at the forehead, pulling his cart with one arm, stumbling for drunkenness, falling again and again, exhausted, old, old, and sick, yet he want at terrible speed. On spider's legs he skittered through the alleys of the City, this mile and the next, until he came to its limits, and then he rushed beyond.

I wept to see the change in this man. I hurt to see his sorrow. And yet I needed to see where he was going in such haste, perhaps to know what drove him so.

The little old Ragman--he came to a landfill. He came to the garbage pits. And then I wanted to help him in what he did, but I hung back, hiding. he climbed a hill. With tormented labor he cleared a little space on that hill. Then he sighed. He lay down. He pillowed his head on a handkerchief and a jacket. He covered his bones with an army blanket. And he died.

Oh, how I cried to witness that death! I slumped in a junked car and wailed and mourned as one who has no hope--because I had come to love the Ragman. Every other face had faded in the wonder of this man, and I cherished him; but he died. I sobbed myself to sleep.

I did not know--how could I know?--that I slept through Friday night and Saturday and its night too.

But then on Sunday morning, I was wakened by a violence.

Light--pure, hard, demanding light--slammed against my sour face, and I blinked, and I looked, and I saw the last and first wonder of all. There was the Ragman, folding the blanket most carefully, a scar on his forehead, but alive! And, besides that, healthy! There was no sign of sorrow nor of age, and all the rags that he had gathered shined for cleanliness.

Well, then I lowered my head and trembling for all that I had seen, I myself walked up to the Ragman. I told him my name with shame, for I was a sorry figure next to him. Then I took off all my clothes in that place, and I said to him with dear yearning in my voice: 'Dress me.'

He dressed me. My Lord, he put new rags on me, and I am a wonder beside him. The Ragman, the Ragman, the Christ!"

May we never get over the wonder of what Christ did for us! What a picture of our Savior taking our filthy rags of pride and selfishness and greed and gossip and hatred and envy and giving us His robes of shining perfect righteousness! Again, I think back to that first verse in 2 Peter 1: 1b "To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours." We did nothing to earn it. We could never ever earn it or deserve it in any way whatsoever. But He who had no sin, out of His love for each of us, gave us His righteousness freely so we might have eternal life.

And not only do we have His righteousness, but we have the Holy Spirit that enables us to live the supernatural abundant life. Just as the Ragman bid the healed one-armed man, "Go to work," so He bids us to do likewise. He lives within us and enables us to love when we don't feel like it or enjoy peace in the midst of strife and stress or choose joy when circumstances are hard or forgive when we have been wronged or trust when we want to worry. We can "go to work" because He is doing the work through us, if we will choose to daily yield in obedience to Him.

Lord, thank You for the priceless gift of Your righteousness. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit that enables me to live the abundant life You long for me to experience. Thank You for your forgiveness and mercy when I fall so short again and again. And thank You for the grace that allows me to get up and try again. The Ragman, the Ragman, the Christ! To You alone be all the glory!

Remember and stand firm!

"Oh, do not pray for easier lives! Pray to be stronger men and women! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks! Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle. But you shall be a miracle. Every day you shall wonder at yourself, at the richness of life which has come in you by the grace of God." Phillip Brooks

I have the privilege of seeing this lived out in the lives of several close friends, each in very different and difficult circumstances, but each shining out the truth of the Gospel and the beautiful display of the supernatural power of God. None of them would choose those hard circumstances, and I'm sure each would never dream of how their patient, quiet, and indeed joyful faithfulness in the hard places of their lives has inspired and convicted me (and no doubt many others who know them). They truly are, each of them, a walking breathing miracle to the glory of God.

And how I praise the Lord that, as Peter makes it so clear in 2 Peter 1:1, every believer has "received a faith as precious as [theirs]." We have the same supernatural power available to us that Paul and Peter and Jim Elliott and Martin Luther and Billy Graham enjoyed. He is the same Almighty, awesome, eternal God for each of them and for us.

But sometimes we forget! We say what we believe, but we live as if we have completely forgotten the riches in Christ available to each of us. In the midst of busy days or challenging circumstances or disappointment or exhaustion, we forget. And frankly, I have a crummy memory! But I just read this today: "Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me" Is. 46:8-9 When we remember, we stand firm. When we forget, we fall. It's just that simple.

So what are we doing to remember? Of course, we must daily, hourly, fix our minds on Jesus. As Brother Andrew wrote hundreds of years ago, we must "practice the presence." Take a moment frequently throughout our day to acknowledge God's presence with us right at that moment. It's easy to forget that He is with us in that long line or that laundry or that lunch. Thank Him constantly--a prayer of thanks for the sunshine, for the laughter of a child, for our spouse, for a piece of chocolate (one of His best inventions), for the next breath He has so graciously given us, for the gift of coming into a warm house from the cold, bracing winter air. And meditate on His Word. I am really starting to see why people extol the virtues of memorizing scripture! When you try to memorize it and think about it periodically throughout the day, God's Word suddenly comes alive in a whole new way. When I'm feeling discouraged, I say the first 4 verses of Ps. 103 to myself (that's as far as I've gotten on that one! But those first 4 verses have some good stuff!!). I'm reminded of how much I have to bless the Lord for and my attitude is transformed from grumpy to grateful. "Bless the Lord o my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits..." In other words, as Isaiah put it, "remember the former things of old" and when we remember, we will "stand firm." (Is. 46:9,8).

When John Newton was a very old man, shortly before his death, he declared that his memory had failed him and he didn't remember much. But he did remember 2 things: that he was a great sinner and Christ was a great Savior. Might we all "remember this and stand firm!" Thank You Lord for the power of Your Word. Thank You for living examples in our friends of what it means to live for You and Your glory even in challenging circumstances. Thank You for Your presence that is with us no matter where we go. O Lord, we believe--but help us to remember! To You be all the glory.

Whew, this is almost miraculous--I've already cooked and cleaned up dinner, Peter is in the bath, Preyer is doing homework, Richard, Janie, and Richard are all at Bible study, and I suddenly have a few quiet moments! Thank You Lord! I just read this from a devotional study Mary Norris gave me: "What do you do when alone with God? Many of us think, talk or ask. But when alone with God how vital also to listen! Solitude is the place where you can hear the voice that calls you the beloved, that leads you onto the next page of the adventure, that says, as God said to Jesus early in the Gospels, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.' Matthew 3:17)"

How often do I truly get quiet before the Lord? Like most busy moms, I am a major multitasker! To sit quietly and not be getting something accomplished just seems, well, almost sinful! I sit and my mind wants to start racing with all the unfinished business of the day. "Martha, Martha...!" O how I can relate to poor old Martha--after all, exactly who was going to get all that food served and make everything comfortable and inviting for Jesus and the disciples?! Certainly not good-for-nothing Mary just sitting lazily at Jesus' feet.

But Mary is the one Jesus commended for she truly chose "the better part." Forgive me Jesus for so often bypassing the privilege of sitting at Your feet and experiencing the joy of spending time with you in favor of getting things done (ostensibly for You). I am trying to learn that You want me and not my to do list. You want a relationship with each of us and not our accomplishments or awards or clean houses or Julia Child meals. The King of the Universe wants us and longs for us to hear Him call us His beloved! Incredible. And I think I have more important things to do?

I love the first two verses of a passage I am trying (emphasize TRYING!) to memorize declare: "Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior JEsus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord."

We have a faith as precious as that of Peter and Paul and Luke! We have the same Holy Spirit within us and the same power available to us! And we can have that same abundance of grace and peace through the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. How do we get knowledge of someone--by spending time with them, having a relationship with them, learning about them.

So thank You for this time, Lord to just say hi and listen for a few moments to Your still small voice. For reminding me that the laundry will still be there--it will always be there--but I need to grab those moments with You and redeem the time! To You be the glory. p.s. It's too quiet upstairs! I am about to get busy again, but I take the grace and peace of My Savior with me. Thanks Lord!

Sir Harry Lauder, the famed Scottish humorist at the turn of the 20th century, was a Christian. He described an incident that he had observed one evening that speaks powerfully of what our Christian lives should be. Here are his words:

"I was sitting in the gloamin' an' a man passed by the window. He was the lamplighter. He pushed his pole into the lamp and lighted it. Then he went to another and another. Now I didn't see him. But I knew where he was by the lights as they broke out down the street, until he had left a beautiful avenue of light. Ye're a lamplighter. They'll know where ye've been by the lights ye have lit."

This reminded me of something I just heard in Bible study the other day: "Darkness does not overtake light but light overtakes darkness." Just one candle can illuminate our paths in the darkest of nights. And in this ever darkening world in which we live, we have the Light of the World to shine into the darkest corners of doubt and discouragement and disease and defeat. I shudder how quickly I forget that I have within me the Light of the World.

So often I grope around in my busyness and weakness as if I had no light. But Ephesians 5:8 commands us "...for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." Darkness is my past. But, as we saw the other day, we are to "forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing!" (Is. 43:18) So today, not tomorrow or some day in the future when I get it all together, today I am called to walk as children of light. Because that is what I am.

It makes me weep to even write that because I am so so far from a child of light--so full of selfishness and pride and wrong priorities and sin--but the reality is that in Christ, that is what I am. That is what you are: a child of light who is called to walk in this dark world as a lamplighter. To light those lamps as we carpool and shop for groceries and fold laundry and try to train our children so that "people will know where ye've been by the lamps ye have lit."

O Lord Jesus, help me to be a lamplighter for You wherever I go and with whomever I meet. Might the light of Your glory be somehow reflected in me--this weakest of vessels. Help me never to forget that the power and the light are all from and in and through You. To be the all the glory.

p.s. A clear example of being a lamplighter for Christ occurred just the other night when Colt McCoy, the quarterback for Texas was injured at the beginning of the national championship game and was unable to play the entire game. What a heartbreak for this godly young man who had practiced and sacrificed for this moment his entire life. Yet when asked about his feelings after the game, he fought back tears and responded with graciousness, complimenting and congratulating Alabama. He then declared, "I always give God the glory. I never question why things happen the way they do. God is in control of my life and I know that if nothing else, I'm standing on the Rock." That is being a lamplighter. It's easy to lamp lights when everything is going your way, during the bright morning sunshine, but the lamps shine the most brilliantly in the blackest of nights. When we shine the light of Christ in the midst of our disappointments and failures and weakness, how much brighter shines His Light. "Shine Jesus shine!"

A new thing!

"Prayer prevails. It brings power. It brings life. It brings God. Let us dare to be definite with God; let us dare to lay hold of the promises and to wait in faith until the answer comes." Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

Mrs. Cowman was the author of the one of the greatest devotionals of time: Streams in the Desert. Lettie Cowman and her husband were missionaries, but this devotional, their most enduring and powerful work, resulted from great suffering. When her husband became ill, Mrs. Cowman prayed and nursed him. But during this time of suffering and pondering God's will, she put together a collection of her favorite sayings and quotes. She hoped to use this little book to provide some small funds to support their missionary work. Little did she suspect that God would used this devotional to bless and encourage countless Christians for years to come. It is still in print over 75 years later--and it is one of my favorites (and one of my aunt Janie's favorites. My copy is the one she had by her bedside at her home when she died).

Who knows how God will use the deserts in our lives? I only know that I want to experience that power and life that only comes through prevailing prayer. Amazingly, yesterday in church part of the passage for the sermon came from what I assume was the inspiration for the title of the devotional. How these words encouraged my heart: "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." Is. 43:18-19

What great verses for a new year! Forget about last years failures! Forget about all those times you came up short or ran out of wisdom or love or faithfulness. Stop dwelling on the past--for as I said the other day, regret fuels worry. God is the Great I Am. Ever present. Ever active. Ever powerful. Ever forgiving. And He is doing a new thing in each of our lives. He will bring forth those living streams of water in the most barren, desperate places in our lives.

So the question is, will we choose to dwell on the past or will we look with hope and trust and prayerful faith to the future? He wants to do a new thing in our families, in our hearts, in our nation. And Lord, I want to be a part of it! So Lord, bring on those cool, life-giving streams in our lives and help us to boldly go forth with You. To God be the glory.

"... But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Rom. 8:24-26

I read these verses early this morning, and, as usual, how active and living and applicable God's Word is. I want to be a hopeful person, but I also want to "see" that hope! I don't want to wait on it or risk the possibility that my "hope" is ill-founded in any way. So typical of me--I basically want the easy, comfortable, risk-free, pain-free way. But God tells us clearly that is not His kind of hope! He is such an adventurer, such a risk taker--sometimes it almost takes your breath away! Just look at the 12 unlikely men He chose as His disciples: uneducated fishermen, hated, corrupt tax collectors, unpredictable half crazy political zealots...And these are the men He entrusts after His death with telling the world about the Savior. What on earth! What if they gave up or did a lousy job of it or just plain failed? What was the back up plan?

There was no other plan. God banked it all on these often fallible, weak, inconsistent, quarrelsome, clueless men. Sound familiar? Add emotional and tired in there and I'd fit right in...and so would my family! But by the power of the Holy Spirit, boy, did those disciples come through.

And so can we. Right now I may not feel filled with hope. I might be tired and overwhelmed. I might feel discouraged and defeated. Or I might feel irritated and ungrateful. But what I feel has no bearing on what is true: that the Spirit is interceding for me, God's undeserving but dearly loved child. That I can have hope because my hope is not based on how I feel but on who God is and what He has done and can do. That God just seems to enjoy using the unlikely and unlovely and unqualified to bring glory to His name, because He is the One with the infinite power and grace and joy and peace. Just ask the disciples.

So Lord, do it again. And to You be all the glory.

How (not) to have a miserable new year!

A new year: 2010. Wow! What will this new year bring? 10 years ago, I had just lost my mom suddenly and unexpectantly. And in a few short weeks, I would learn my dad had terminal cancer. A few months after that, I lost my wonderful Aunt Janie. But then the Lord also gave us the surprising gift of little Peter only 2 weeks before Daddy's death. He also gave us a new home, graduations from various schools, a new church, and other blessings many utterly unexpected and all undeserved. I guess the point of all this is that we have absolutely no idea what this new year holds but we do know Who holds the future and He is holding us in the palm of His hand. We can trust that whatever this year brings, He will give us the grace and strength and joy and all that we need to get through it not just somehow but triumphantly.

I just heard Chuck Swindoll give a list of 5 things to ensure that you will have a miserable new year! The list included: 1) Worry a lot. And add to your worry list. Especially focus on your past failures as regret fuels worry. Soooo true! I am a professional at this. 2) Focus on getting rich. Pretty clear this one leads to misery! 3)Compare yourself to others. Again, we women are so adept at this one. And we always compare ourselves to someone else's strength and our weakness. I always love Mother Teresa's quote: "All our problems come from looking around rather than up." Help me to daily look up and not around, Lord Jesus. 4)Lengthen your list of enemies. Mercy, life is hard enough as it is, why do I want to add to my list of enemies?! 5) Set and cling to unrealistic expectations. Again, one that so often trips me up as I want to have the perfect Christmas, the perfect family dinner, the warm, spotless, and organized home (HA!), and a family that never fusses, plays board games together at night in front of the fire, shares insights they have been learning from God's Word and then reads great literature in their beds at night. (double HA!)

Okay, so how about the list ensuring a great year? Well, that must be in tomorrow's talk by Swindoll, so for now, at least I know what I'm trying to avoid! But I do know that I will daily try to spend an hour with God--in His Word, in prayer, in writing, in memorizing. And we'll try daily to do family devotions. So far, so good, but then the year is only a few hours old! But what a great adventure--seeking to know and love the God of the universe better today than yesterday and to try to make Him known to my family. To God be the glory.