Redeeming the Ordinary

It's the day after Easter.  My heart still rejoices over the wonder, the glory, the miracle of Christ's resurrection. Might we never get over it and continually remember, rejoice and repeat what the Savior did for us-- 

Surely it would be enough that He--Almighty God--simply came to earth to be one of us. To live with us, help us, speak to us, show us the path of blessedness on this broken planet.  That's more than enough...and yet...

Surely it would be enough that He not only came, but that He lived a perfect life. A perfect life we never could have lived nor ever deserved, and He lived that life in our place.  That's much more than enough...and yet....

Surely it would be enough that He willingly went to the cross to die an excruciating death, bearing all our sin, shame, and selfishness. And in His death, He gave us His righteousness in exchange for the unbearable and hideous weight of all sin for all time. That's far, far more than enough...and yet...

For the glorious, gracious Son of God, that was still not enough. For Jesus not only died to save us; He rose from the dead in order to secure for us eternal, abundant resurrection life. His purity for our pride. His righteousness for our rebellion. His death for our deliverance. And His new resurrection life that would give us eternal life and a forever perfect home in the glories of heaven. 

Who can fathom such a love...such a spotless, gentle Lamb...such a glorious, omnipotent Lion? Yet that---and infinitely more--is our Savior, our Deliverer, our Good Shepherd, our King. 

Easter Day might be over, but let's don't allow its wonder to dissipate in the busyness and grind of "ordinary" life. Because Jesus came in the midst of ordinary life to redeem sinners like you and me, mired in the mud and messiness of our own ordinary lives. He was born in a smelly stable full of ordinary animals. He grew up in an ordinary peasant family. He chose twelve ordinary disciples like fisherman and accountants. He ministered to and among ordinary folks who dealt with the same ordinary problems, perplexities, limitations, joys, and sorrows confronting us. He died on an ordinary wooden cross in-between two ordinary criminals. 

But on Easter morning, Jesus' ordinary was over, while our ordinary was radically redeemed and transformed. For in the midst of our ordinary lives, Jesus has come, has conquered, is constantly with us, and has promised He's coming again. No matter what's going on in our lives or in the world, Jesus is alive. He is King. And He will not only redeem and restore our bodies and souls, but He will do it to the entire cosmos! 

Tim Keller expressed it so beautifully, "Ordinary life is what's going to be redeemed. There is nothing better than ordinary life, except that it's always going away and always falling apart. Ordinary life is food and work and chairs by the fire and hugs and dancing and mountains--this world. God loves it so much that He gave His only Son so we--and the rest of this ordinary world--could be redeemed and made perfect. And that's what is in store for us." 

So Easter might be over and it might feel like an ordinary Monday, but never forget, we have an extraordinary Savior who conquered sin and death. Right at this moment, He is alive. He is present. He is powerful. And He is, even now, redeeming our ordinary lives and our ordinary world into something unimaginably, eternally extraordinary. 

To God be the glory forever.

Remember Who Your Daddy is!

 There’s nothing like a little snowstorm—or two—to remind you that there is One who is sovereign and in control of all things…and it’s not you. 

What a relief.

Sometimes we forget, don’t we? Or at least I sure do. And when I forget, before I know it, I’m fretting and fussing. Wringing my hands in fruitless worry and scheming how on earth to manhandle the uncontrollable future. Which of course, I cannot do…which leads to more fretting and frustration. I’m such a slow learner. 

But then, in His stunning mercy and grace, our loving Lord reminds me yet again of who He is—omnipotent and omniscient. Infinite in His love and forgiveness. Constant in His care and compassion. Forever steadfast in His faithfulness and goodness. 

He is the awesome Creator, Sustainer, Deliverer, Redeemer. The Living Water, the Bread of Life, the Good Shepherd, the Light of the World, the Way, the Truth and the Life. 

He never runs low, never fails to accomplish that which He plans, never grows weary or tired. He never gives up on us, never leaves or forsakes us, never treats us as our sins deserve, never stops loving us.   

And that perfect, glorious, all-powerful, all-loving one is our Heavenly Father. Don’t just read that. Pause and really ponder that. The One who flung the stars into space, holds the planets in place, and upholds the universe by the word of His power, is our God. Our Abba. Our Daddy. 

“When the time came to completion, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then God has made you an heir.” Gal.4:4-7

Oh Father, how quickly I, Your faltering, forgetful child, fail to remember! 

I fail to remember who You are and what You can do. “Ahl Lord God, it is You who made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You!” Jeremiah 32:17 

And I forget who I am—your little child. A sinner…but a sinner saved solely by Your amazing grace.  I could never earn it or deserve it. In fact, put me at the top of the list when it comes to sinning, worrying, doubting, fretting, failing. And something tells me I’m not alone at the top of that list!  

Yet, incredibly, God loved us so much that He sent His one and Only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) As Tim Keller often shared: “The gospel says you are simultaneously more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe, yet more loved and accepted than you ever dared hope.”

We are not orphans. We are not on our own. And praise God, we are not in control. We have a Heavenly Daddy, and He has us.  He has the situations that keep us up on night. He has those we love in the palm of His hand. He has the future that worries us; He has the past that sometimes haunts us; and He has the present that is His gift to us right now. 

It is all His, and He promises in His unbreakable, unstoppable Word that all, all, all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. (Rom.8:28). 

So yes, the weather has been a bit disruptive. Yes, we are not in control. But just want to remind you—as I’ve reminded myself—our Heavenly Father is in complete control, and we are safe in His hands, His ways, and His plans.

Thank You, Abba. Thank You for the stunning beauty of this world You created. Thank you for the beauty of snow, and how winter and every season reveals Your glory in unique ways. Thank You that we are Your beloved children. Please help us to remember as we trust and rest in You. Amen.

To God—who is also our Heavenly Father (Praise Him!)—be the glory.

Keep Getting Up!

Did you know that February 1st was "National Get Up Day?" No??  Me neither.  But I loved reading the backstory.  Apparently National Figure Skating established this day in 2017 to mark the official end of "National Skating Month" (again, who knew that was a thing?) when rinks across the country are supposed to bring communities together to experience the joys of ice skating. Now if you ever been ice skating, you know that it's both exhilarating gliding across the ice AND intimidating as you try to avoid wiping out in some terribly painful way. Let me just say from personal experience--falling down on cold, hard ice ain't no fun at all! 

But you've probably already figured out the point--you've got to "get back up" after you fall.  And boy, that applies literally to an awful lot of sports, doesn't it, from horseback riding, to skiing, to gymnastics. But it's also equally applicable to every single endeavor we ever confront in life--when you fall down in failure, you've got the choice: give up or get up.  So here's the point of today's blog, especially in these long, dreary, often discouraging days of February: keep getting up rather than giving up. And even if no one else out there needs the reminding, well, yours truly surely does! 

In a wonderful sermon yesterday on "Thirty Truths to Wisdom," our pastor touched on a proverb that I’ve always loved: “for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in calamity.” (Prov.24:16) In teaching on wisdom, he summed this up as “the righteous keep getting up."  I love that!  Keep getting up!  "The righteous seem to go down. But they rise again. And again. And again.” And it all boils down to the fact that the righteous person enjoys “deep confidence…that the Lord has your back.”  (Or as one of our beloved Bible study leaders, Kelly, always puts it: “God’s got this!” Amen!)

As someone who has fallen and messed up more times than I can shake a stick at, how this encourages me! Because of the Gospel, I know I am more greatly flawed than I’d ever dare imagine but yet also more deeply loved than I’d ever dare hope! He is a God of second…and third…and fourth chances!  He calls us to come to Him like little children in humble repentance and faith, knowing that, because of Jesus, our Heavenly Abba (our Heavenly Daddy) will forgive us, dust us off, restore us, and send us back out there again to live by His grace and for His glory. He will never give up on us, and He’s got us, so we can and must simply keep “getting back up again..and again…and again!”  As that age-old definition of a "saint" describes it: "A saint is someone who keeps falling down and getting up...falling down and getting up...falling down and getting up...all the way to heaven." 

I shared this initially with our Bible study leaders, because let's be real: the months of January and February are just plain tough! And most of us have a tendency this time of year to start feeling a bit weary, disheartened, and defeated.  (Not to mention, stinking sick and tired of cold, blah weather!) Maybe you're discouraged with your lack of progress in tackling some challenging task or with establishing some desired new habit. (Hello failed New Year's resolutions!)  Maybe you're struggling with an unexpected illness or disease. Maybe you're discouraged with aspects of your family life or your parenting or your relationships. Maybe for you, it's a gnawing sense of loneliness, isolation, or inadequacy. Maybe it's regret or disappointment or exhaustion that seems to hover over and darken these sometimes dreary days of February.  

Well guess what?  God’s mercies are new every morning…and afternoon…and evening…and night. (Good old Lamentations 3) The Lord's faithfulness is absolutely undiminished. His love and forgiveness and grace are just as powerful, infinite and available today as they were last week or last year or 2000 years ago! And His call to, and empowering of, each one of us is just as real, true, and important today as it’s always been: we, too, can fall seven times (and seven times seventy times!), and we, too, can rise again—because we have Jesus! He is our righteousness. He is our forgiveness. He is our grace. He is our peace. He is our hope. He is our joy. And He is the One who gives us the power to rise again, get back out there, and try again!

So no matter how discouraging, exhausting, or challenging life has been for you in these doldrum weeks of January and February, will you ask God to enable you to rise again? Rise again from failure. Rise again from that sinful habit. Rise again from discouragement. Rise again from feeling inadequate. Rise again from listening to the lies of the enemy rather than the voice of Truth. Rise again from that illness or disease.  

Because Jesus arose, we can, and will, rise too—not just on the last day, but daily in our lives. Ask the Lord to enable you, by His grace and for His glory, to rise up from whatever has caused you to fall. With Him, it's always too soon to give up, and it's never too late to get up!

To God be the glory.

Will you remember?

                                 Food for weekend thought...on our thoughts

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in his book, Life Together: "Why is it that my thoughts wander so quickly from God's word, and that in my. hour of need the needed word is often not there? Do I forget to eat and drink and sleep? Then why do I forget God's word? Because I still can't say what the psalmist says: 'I will delight in Your statutes' (Ps.11916). I don't forget the things in which I take delight. Forgetting or not forgetting is a matter not of the mind but of the whole person, of the heart. I never forget what body and soul and depend upon. The more I begin to love the commandments of God in creation and word, the more present they will be for me in every hour. Only love protects against forgetting. 

Because God's word has spoken to us in history and thus in the past, the remembrance and repetition of what we have learned is a necessary daily exercise. Every day we must turn again to God's acts of salvation, so that we can again move forward...Faith and obedience live on remembrance and repetition. Remembrance becomes the power of the present because of the living God who once acted for me and who reminds me of that today."

Remembering is critical to our faith. Remembering Who God is and what He has done. Remembering His mighty works and His unbreakable promises in His Word. Remembering His myriad and inexhaustible daily kindnesses--big and small--in our lives.  Remembering our unyielding, relentless chains of sin...and then remembering that because of what Jesus did for us on the cross, our chains are gone. Remembering that because Jesus was forsaken on that cross, we will never ever be forsaken. Remembering His Holy Spirit is with us every moment of every day and every night, and He is continually guiding, encouraging, strengthening, convicting, reminding, empowering. Remembering His priceless gift of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, both family and friends. Remembering His supernatural and beautiful gifts of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Gal.5:22-23) 

Remembering fills our hearts, feeds our gratitude, and fuels our faith. No wonder Scripture repeatedly warns against forgetting and exhorts us to remember.

Yet, isn't it remarkable how prone we can be to, as Paul David Tripp puts it, spiritual amnesia? Let's face it--we can all be foolish, weak, "what-have-You-done-for-me-lately" spiritual amnesiacs! One minute we're rejoicing in the wonderful things God has done, and the next moment, when a sudden squall hits us, we completely forget Who is with us, what He has done, what He's promised, and what He can do! 

So what's the antidote? Choosing intentionally, continually to remember. We have to, as one of my favorite passages puts it, call it to mind. "Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's faithful love, we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say, 'The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him." (Lam.3:21-24). 

Yes, we choose to "call it to mind." And we do it daily. Jeremiah, the writer of Lamenations, says that God's mercies and faithful love are "new every morning"--meaning he rediscovers and savors this daily when He reminds himself of Who God is, what He is like, what He has done. Remembering, therefore, is a daily necessary and life-giving exercise. 

And remembering requires something quite simple yet critically important: reading. Open up God's Word and read what He has for you, specifically for you, each day. Read and remember. Don't let a day pass without listening to the Lord of the universe as He speaks to you in His Word--helping you, encouraging you, convicting you, equipping you. And while you're at it, take a few minutes each day to remember and record the ways you have seen God move--in His Word and in your life. The act of writing it down helps us remember, and I know I surely need all the help I can get! Finally, take the time to remember and rejoice. Rejoice in His greatness and His goodness. Rejoice in the gift of His Word. Rejoice in the joy of salvation. Rejoice in the refreshing winter air and the ability to sip that hot tea or savor that chocolate cake. Rejoice in the blessing of friends, family, church. 

This week, will you intentionally and daily choose to remember?  Remember by reading His Word. Remember by recording His work in your life. And remember by rejoicing in all His manifold gifts. 

To God--the glorious Giver of all good gift--be all the glory.

Praise to the Lord who has carried us!

 "The LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went until you came to this point." Deut.1:31

"Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you! I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." Isa. 46:4

"Thus far the LORD has helped us." I Sam. 7:12

What wonderful verses from Daily Light to close this old year...this year full of both challenging burdens and yet also unexpected blessings. As I think back over this year, how apparent the Lord's sustaining care has been. He truly has "carried" us through some hard, dark places. I can remember many mornings where I wept as I read His beautiful life-giving Word and cried out to Him in prayer. And He was there--carrying, sustaining, encouraging, guiding. How I thank and praise Him for His tender care and grace.

But He also carried us through spacious places of joy and celebration,  New life, new dreams, new hopes. And it was all Him--"every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (James 1:17) How can we not praise and thank Him who not only carries and sustains us through difficulty and sorrow, but who also blesses us with every good gift, large and small?  

Charles Spurgeon writes of these verses in Isaiah: "When we grow old, our God will still be the I AM, abiding evermore the same. Hoar hairs tell of our decay, but He decays not. When we cannot carry a burden and can hardly carry ourselves, the Lord will carry us. He made us, and He will care for us. When we become a burden to our friends and a burden to ourselves, the Lord will not shake us off, rather He will take us up and carry and deliver us more fully than ever. Let us not dread old age. Let us grow old graciously, since the Lord Himself is with us in fullness of grace." 

I still have a little black rock that my dear friend, Beth Page, gave us ten years ago when Janie was unconscious in the hospital. Beth had written on it the words of I Sam.7:12, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." What a reminder of God's faithfulness and sustaining care--not just in that frightening time but in all the intervening days, months, and years since then. Oh how He has been faithful...and good...and true!  If He has "helped us thus far"--and He has!--He will continue to help us--and, of course, He will!  He always keeps all His promises!

I don't know what this new year holds for any of us. But I do know we are called not to fear but to faith, for our God has promised He will carry us through it all. We can look to 2023 with hopeful anticipation and joy, for He who has been so extraordinarily faithful to us this past year, does not change, so He will be faithful, forgiving, loving, sustaining, gracious, and mighty in the year ahead. His faithful love endures forever and ever. 

May you spend a few minutes pondering how God has carried you through this past year--with all its joys and sorrows, successes and setbacks--and then give Him praise and glory for His extraordinary faithfulness and goodness throughout 2022. Thank Him that "thus far He has helped" you. Then, look ahead to 2023 with hope and joy, knowing that He has so much more for you to see and experience of His faithfulness and goodness in the days ahead. For we know that, no matter what, the Lord will carry us all the way till He delivers us to our perfect, glorious heavenly home. 

To God, the forever faithful One, be all the glory. 

Fountain Christmas Letter 2022

 Merry Christmas from all the Fountains!  

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”                                                   Charles Dickens,  A Christmas Carol

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-4,14) 

In this season, we celebrate the coming of that Word, of the Word, Jesus.  I will never get over the wonder of it all: that Almighty God would determine to redeem this broken planet by choosing to become one of us. That divinity, as Eugene Peterson expressed it in The Message,"became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood."  A tiny, helpless infant who was also the incarnate, infinite God. The long-promised, mighty Messiah who would save His people from their sins, yet born in a humble manger. Who can grasp that? Who can even begin to comprehend the wonder and glory of the incarnation?  Fully God and fully man. 

I did some research on—what else—google. Here are just a couple of facts to consider: 

-The nearest major galaxy is 2.5 million lights years away.

-One light year is equal to 5.88 trillion miles.

-Conservatively, our Milky Way galaxy has about 100 billion stars and could have as many as 400 billion stars. 

-We are only one of at least two trillion galaxies...and we're merely an average-sized galaxy. 

-There are likely ten times more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth (which, by the way, is estimated at 7.5 quintillion--contemplate that the next time you're building a sand castle). We're talking an unimaginable number of stars. 

Now ponder these verses: 

"He determines the number of the stars; He gives to all of them their names." (Ps.147:4) 

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork." (Ps.19:1) 

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Col.1:17

Think back to John 1:2—“All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” 

We share all this as a reminder of just who that baby born in the manger truly was and is.  As the apostle John reiterates, Jesus, Emmanuel, is also the omniscient and omnipotent Creator and Sustainer of the universe. There is nothing that He cannot do. Nothing that He does not know. Nothing that can thwart His plans or His hand. If He can fashion such awesome enormity as we glimpse in the heavens, what are our problems to Him?  Sure, our difficulties and challenges can feel overwhelming and huge to us...but not to Him. Look at who He is and what He has done. He spoke the vast universe into being. He created every individual on the face of the earth. He knows and loves each of us, not merely collectively, but individually and intimately. And He chose to enter His own creation in order to redeem and save those He created and loved. He lived the perfect life none of us could live, died the death we each deserved for our sins, and rose again to new life so that we, too, might enjoy eternal, resurrection life.  

Be encouraged that whatever sorrows or setbacks you might be enduring right now, whatever difficulties or disappointments you might be facing, Jesus can handle it. All of it. Nothing is too big or too challenging for Him, the Word, through whom all things were made. And never forget, no darkness has, or will ever, overcome Him. He is the Light of the world. 

May your Christmas this year be filled with His unstoppable light and His unconquerable love.  Joy to the world, the Lord is come! 

Merry Christmas and much love,  All the Fountains

(p.s. In case you are interested in a brief update on our crew, here it is below:                   Mary Norris and Matt Tilmes live in Charlotte and welcomed Eleanor Jane (Ella) on November 23, 2021. She joins big sister, Emily, who is now three years old. Needless to say, they are our joy and delight, and grand-parenting truly cannot be oversold. It is the best!  Casey and Richard, who also live in Charlotte, are expecting their first baby in March, and we're all mighty excited!  Janie really enjoys working and living in, where else, Charlotte!  What can I say? I can't get anyone to move to Raleigh despite my relentless Chamber of Commerce-worthy plugs for our city. But it's always pure joy to go to Charlotte and get to see grand-babies and three of our five children. So for the record, the "Queen City" is growing on us! Preyer lives in Washington, D.C. and will be marrying Maddie Grace Hough in March.  We are all thrilled!  Finally, Peter, a junior at UNC-CH, continues to love being at Carolina and playing golf for the Tar Heels. Go Heels! We're also incredibly thankful that all my siblings and their spouses, as well as Richard's 94 year old daddy (who is remarkable!), are all doing well. It's always such a gift to be with them! Oh, and we can't forget our beloved lab, Mr. Bingley (who, despite his incredible good looks, inexplicably failed to make the card this year. A major faux pas).  Bingley continues to love hauling huge sticks down the greenway, chasing after deer, and having any of the children come home. Merry Christmas!)

Morning--the gate of the day

 

 "Let me hear in the morning of Your steadfast love, for in You I trust. Make me know the way I should go for to You, I lift up my soul." Ps.143:8

"The morning is the gate of the day, and should be well guarded with prayer. It is one end of the thread on which the day's actions are strung, and should be well knotted with devotion. It we felt more the majesty of life we should be more careful of its mornings. He who rushes from his bed to his business and without worship is as foolish as though he had not put on his clothes, or washed his face, and as unwise as though he had dashed into battle without arms or armor."  Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"We are silent in the early hours of each day, because God is supposed to have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep, because to God also belongs the last word. We are silent solely for the sake of the word, not in order to show dishonor to the word but in order to honor and receive it properly. Silence ultimately means nothing but waiting for God's word and coming away blessed by God's word...Silence before the word, however, will have its effect on the whole day."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

How I love the early mornings! Now granted, I'm a "morning person," but all of us have the choice what we will do with our mornings upon first awakening. Will we waste those early, quiet minutes with busyness and chores? Will we fritter away those precious moments in mindless scrolling?  Will we fill them up with noise--the noise of TV's or phones or computers? I've always loved (and been convicted by) C.S. Lewis' quote in Screwtape Letters, where the "senior demon" Screwtape advises his mignon, Wormwood, on the great value of nonstop noise to distract and drive humans away from God:

 "Music and silence–how I detest them both!….[Hell] has been occupied by Noise–Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile–Noise which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end….The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end."

During these pre-dawn mornings during Advent, in particular, I've been encouraged afresh of the wonder and beauty of our Savior. Of the life-giving, attitude-altering, wisdom-filling importance of spending time each morning with Him first by reading His Word before any other reading or listening or "doing." Allowing Him to imprint our day with His Spirit and His Word rather than allowing the multitude of other voices overwhelm us. It really is true: what we read or hear first truly can have a profound effect on our whole day. 

On this third Sunday in Advent, might we be determined anew in this coming year to make His voice the first thing we listen to and heed each morning. Let Him and His Word imprint our days with hope, wisdom, and joy.  May we, like the psalmist, wait upon the Lord and put our hope in His Word. (Ps.130:5) 

To God be the glory.