Members of the Resistance

                                             A little food for weekend thought:

     "Failures will be forgiven; it is acquiescence that is fatal, the permitted, regularized presence of an area in ourselves which we still claim for our own.  We may never, this side of death, drive the invader out of our territory, but we must be in the Resistance, not in the Vichy government.  And this, so far as I can yet see, must be begun each day.  Our morning prayer should be in the Imitation: Da hodie perfecte incipere--grant me to make an unflawed beginning today, for I have done nothing yet."
                        C.S. Lewis
      Lewis adds that we need to repeatedly, doggedly continue to renounce this all too easy spirit of acquiescence, of acceptance of our weaknesses and sin-prone tendencies.  It requires "the daily or hourly repeated exercises of my own will in renouncing this attitude, especially each morning, for it grows all over me like a new shell each night."
     Oftentimes, it's just so much easier to just shrug our shoulders and sigh, "Well, that's just the way I am" rather than fight the good fight, in the power of the Spirit, against our selfishness or laziness or pridefulness or greediness... or whatever our sin-prone area might be.  Sure we will sin; but, Lord, help us never to learn to love, or even just passively accept, that sin. As we remember You on the cross, might we resist hard and long against the incessant cry of our flesh.  "..for He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (I John 4:4)
     Might we this week encounter the enemy--satan and sin--as members of the Resistance... and not weak-willed Vichy compromisers.  Help us, Father, to fight the good fight of faith... all the while knowing that You have already won the War.   To God be the glory.

Healthy eyes... happy lives!

     In the category of, "I"m not taking this for granted anymore... or at least today": My EYES!
     Mercy, I somehow managed to get my contact lens stuck way over in the side of my eye.  I tried and tried to get it out, but all to no avail.  And the more I tried to dislodge that pesky lens, the more it hurt and the more uncomfortable I grew.  Good grief--I had just put it in a few minutes earlier, but who knew one tiny, flimsy, nearly invisible lens could so mess up your whole morning?!
      I finally had to call the optician in desperation. How embarrassing.  But praise God, they were able to get it out within seconds.  I could have hugged everyone in the office!  Sweet, blessed relief.
      So thank You Lord for eyes... forgive me for forgetting to be thankful for this old pair of mine that enable me to see this gorgeous planet... and my loved ones... and books... and the Word (and Moses--can't forget him!).  And thank You for glasses and lens that correct our faulty vision so that we can see that which we cannot see!  And, goodness, thank You for eye doctors and opticians!
     This all reminded me of how many verses deal with our eyes.  But just two right here: "The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both."  (Prov.20:12)  Gifts from His hand--have we thanked Him today?
     And secondly, "The eye is the lamp of the body.  So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light." (Mt.6:22)  Boy, I needed that reminder, because our perspective is so critical, isn't it?  Whenever I start viewing life through the myopic lens of my own agenda, my own circumstances, and my own selfishness (that's the bottom line--my selfishness), well, then, my eye is no longer healthy.  Our sin and preoccupation with self always thrust us into the darkness where we cannot see clearly and rightly.  And walking in the darkness always leads to fear, failure, fretting, and fault-finding in others.
     But when our eyes see through the lens of God's way and God's Word, everything changes.  O sure, the circumstances may not change.  The problems may not disappear.  But seeing through our Heavenly Father's eyes, we find a renewed and redeemed perspective and peace and power.  And we rediscover joy.
    And the two best ways to do this--gaze at Him in His Word and be grateful to Him for His gifts. Just as simple as that--His prescription for healthy eyes!
     Gazing at Jesus in His Word--you'll find your proper perspective return and your vision clear.
     Gratitude to Him for who He is, what He has done, and what He has given to you.  Salvation. Forgiveness. Redemption. Grace. Peace. Hope. Joy.   But also His common, but miraculous gifts, like eyes... or ears... or chocolate.  And then the gifts of friends and family... O my, I could be here all day!
     So today, let's gaze at Him and be restored.  Let's express our gratitude and be renewed.  Let's walk in His Light... with Him... and find joy.  To God be the glory.

Birds... and the Gospel

     Sorry, but one more picture from Curacao.  This bird visited us on our little porch every time we walked outside.  And we're talking--open the door and up he flew.  Our first morning there, I grabbed my Bible and pen and prepared to have a lovely, peaceful time enjoying God's creation on our porch overlooking the ocean.  But no sooner had I sat down than this guy charged up, practically staring me down (and you can't really see it in the picture, but he has huge eyes.  Seriously, it all took me back to that creepy movie about the birds from my childhood.  If you are not old enough to remember that horror film, be thankful!  If you are, well, then, sorry to remind you.)
     I've always loved birds.  What exquisite tiny packages of God's glory!  And Curacao overflowed with gorgeous birds--neon yellow ones, multi-colored ones, tiny graceful ones--but I must say, this little guy bordered on the psychotic. We really couldn't sit on our porch for fear of being pecked and hassled.
     All that being said, this just reminded me of the wonder of God's creation and one of my favorite quotes from Marin Luther: "God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and  clouds and stars."  Amen. Look around you right now and see the glory of God brilliantly displayed.
     Just yesterday, Peter ran in excitedly, shouting, "I just saw the first caterpillar of spring!"  The Gospel in a tiny, furry creature!  God transforms a lowly, crawling creature into a brilliant butterfly--but it must go through "death" in the cocoon.  How often do we miss it in our busyness?
     Or the buds on trees, the flowers beginning to bloom.  New life, rebirth all around us.  Wordless evidence of the Gospel!  And so common, so ordinary, that we (or I) tend to ignore it or pass it by without slowing down to praise the Author and Creator.
     So today, with a blanket of fresh yellow pollen covering our cars and streets and giving the world a slightly dirty haze, rather than complain about allergies, might we be reminded of the Gospel.  Given in blood, written in words... but also displayed in a springtime day.  Help us not to miss it, Lord.  Keep us grateful!  To God be the glory.

Our pain for His Peace

     Did I mention yesterday that re-entry can be rough?
     Well, just in case you missed it: O MY STARS re-entry is brutal!  Where are those endorphins we surely built up after all that resting in the sun, swimming in the impossibly blue water, reading wonderful books, and laughing and sharing with dear friends and family?  hmm, somehow, our vacation seems like a million miles away and a million years ago.
     But re-entry doesn't just rear it's ugly head only after vacations.  Noooo... how about after a hard-fought victory, or a mountain-top experience, or a marvelous break-through with an intractable problem, or a mending of a relationship. Anytime we feel like we have overcome or arrived or achieved or accomplished, well then, it's time to be prepared for the roller coaster of re-entry and the inevitable downhill plunge.
     And the result can be crippling discouragement.  Or doubt.  Maybe even despair.  We forget all about the glorious mountain top we've just enjoyed when plunged into John Bunyan's "Valley of Despond."
     Gracious, how quickly we can lose perspective. Just today, it was a disappointing test result for one of my children who had missed four days of school to go on our wonderful trip.  Sure, it was worth it.  We said over and over and over again how thrilled we were that we decided to take him.  We went on and on about how we'd all never forget this marvelous time together.
     But then, mercy, here comes re-entry.  Bless his heart--our son's been trying so hard to catch back up, but he has multiple tests, make-up work, a project to present, and all on top of having missed critical days of school.  And I can feel the tension and fear mounting--both in his little heart as well as in mine. He suffered deep disappointment, and well, mama just suffered.
      Because here's the sad truth: our (or at least my) default mode is not worship but worry.  Not trusting faith but fear.  Not overflowing gratitude but overwhelmed grumbling.  And not hoping in Christ but hurting in our circumstances.
     Boy, I am such an incurably slow learner, but at least I've finally figured out that rather than marinate in my worries,  I need to soak in His Word.  So I opened His never-failing Word to the chapter we are studying this week in Bible study, John 20.  And this is what I read: "On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'  When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you." (John 20:19-21)
     "Peace be with you"--the first words out of His mouth to the disciples.  And He repeats it again... and again when He appears to the disciples and "doubting" Thomas eight days later: "Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.'  Then He said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side.  Do not disbelieve but believe." (John 20:26-27)
     And I think back to John 16:33-34, right before His crucifixion, when Jesus declared "I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart;  I have overcome the world."
     We can have peace, because Jesus stands among us and within us.  He gives His peace and He is our peace.  The world may be falling apart around you, life may be out of control,  but if the Prince of Peace resides in you, you have peace.  Perfect supernatural peace that the world cannot give and does not know.
      Because His peace comes from who He is and what He did.  It struck me that both times Jesus commands peace be with the disciples, and then He immediately shows them His wounded hands and side.  His peace is associated with His wounds, with His death on the cross for us.
    "With His wounds we are healed," the prophet Isaiah tells us.
     His wounds for our worry.  His stripes for our sorrow.  His piercing for our pain.
     And so we have the choice--worry and fret and wallow in our disappointments... or hand Him our fears and have faith that He is sufficient for anything and everything we will ever face.  Give Him our disappointments and trust that He who overcame the world will enable us to overcome as well.  Exchange our pity-parties for praise-parties of the One who died for our sin and who is now, even at this very moment, ALIVE.  Just as alive at this day and hour and year as He was with the disciples 2000 years ago--the eternal "I Am."  And our eternal I Am is our Prince of Peace.
     So re-entry or not, mountain-top or valley--He is risen, He is able, He is eternally worthy... and He is our perfect Peace.  To God, our Prince of Peace, be the glory.
   

Behold...and remember

     Re-entry after a vacation is for the birds.  Seriously.  Trying to return and adjust to a schedule and schoolwork and chores and busyness... sigh.  I feel like I'm trying to run through deep, soft sand and making precious little progress.  Mercy, this is discouraging.
     So here's what I had to do: refocus.  Like putting on my reading glasses that miraculously transform a bunch of indecipherable lines and dots into legible words that I can actually read and comprehend.  I had to force my restless, overwhelmed self to cease striving and fussing and sit down with the Word. Rest with the very Breath of God in my lap and glimpse His sufficiency and His power and His glory.
     We're reading John 19 in Bible study.  And today these words stopped me in my tracks: "Behold the man!"  Pilate had brought Jesus out before the bloodthirsty mob.  The Savior--beaten, bloodied, bruised from the scourging, a crown of thorns jammed into His head--stands before the crowd.  Sinners, just like me, screaming "Crucify Him!"  And Pilate demands, "Behold the man!"
     Did they behold?  Did they look?  Did they consider?  Did they dream what Jesus had come to do--die for them?  Die for their selfishness and pride and bigotry and ingratitude and jealousy... and mine.
     Do we behold?  Because when we turn our eyes away from ourselves, away from our problems, away from our annoyances, away from our entitlements... and behold Him, we cannot help but be changed.  Love does that.  Grace does that.
     Our circumstances may not change one iota, but if we truly behold Jesus, if we gaze at Him in His Word,  we are transformed.
     In beholding Him, I see afresh my sins nailed to His cross.  I see my failures and weaknesses covered by His blood.  And I see that divine exchange of my sin for His righteousness--ashes for beauty, cross for a crown, forsaken for forgiven.  As Scottie Smith prayed, "Because You were fully forsaken, I am forever forgiven.  Because You exhausted God's judgment against my foul sin, I now live by the gift of  Your perfect righteousness.  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!"
     Sometimes we forget, don't we?  Or at least I do.  In the midst of the mundane and muck and mire of life, we tend to lose sight of the glorious message of the Gospel.
     We stop beholding the God-Man.
     But as Luther once said, we need the basics of the gospel everyday because we forget the Gospel everyday. And so daily, we need to behold the God-Man and remember.  Remember the price paid for our sins.  And remember that price paid it all... forgiven... forever.  Done.  How can I complain?!
     As Stephen Curtis Chapman once sang--we need to "remember our chains... and remember our chains are gone."  Help us not to forget, Father.  Keep us beholding You.  To God be the glory.

Curacao moments... sort of

     Greetings from Curacao!
     ...well, actually, we are now all back in the good old "North State," so greetings from Raleigh!   This was us in Curacao the night before last.  I could not get the internet to work in Curacao for love nor money (as my mom used to say), so I'm just going to imagine that I'm writing this with the backdrop of the sound of the ocean breezes and the smell of the salt air.  Goodness gracious, it was wonderful.  I think I could be a much nicer person if I could enjoy weather and beauty like that all the time.  Well, either that or be able to eat unlimited chocolate.
       This is one of my favorite pictures from the beach with all of the Jones children and our crew (except Mary Norris who was engrossed in a book).  The bathing beauty being held aloft is Peter with a pina colada (nonalcoholic, just in case you're wondering).  This was just one of many moments that I wanted to freeze and sear in my memory--
   

Here's one of the girls as we waited in the Gazebo for our nightly dessert: some variation of cake (most of us went for God's crowning culinary achievement--chocolate, of course--but there were some cheesecake and tiramisu hold outs as well), but this must always be accompanied by multiple scoops of cocoanut ice cream.  As Lisa Jones told the waiter our last night: "Just bring us the whole tub and we'll let you know when we've had enough."  Tessa is on the far left.  To think where we were 7 months ago. Lord, You are a God of miracles.

The dads reading and chatting in the shade.  I think they could be a on a "Life is Good" tee shirt.

One more-- a few good men... and lookin' good to boot!   

I apologize for so many pictures, but, boy, it's fun to relive these moments.  We never do much of anything for spring break, so this was such a fun privilege to go as a kind of celebration to the Lord for helping and healing our girls.  

There were so many occasions during the trip that I thought, Lord, how could we have ever begun to dream 7 months ago where we would be today.  Sitting in that ICU room with Janie, (and the Joneses with Tessa) so much fear, so much sorrow... and yet so much certainty that God was right there with us in that room.  We knew He was with us and for us, even then, especially then, and knew He was sustaining us and carrying us as His people prayed.  O thank You, Lord, for their prayers! 

But to think God has brought us so far--to this place, to Curacao, to healing, to hope, and now to home.  There were so many moments when we'd be just walking or sitting or reading or watching the kids or eating ice cream or simply feeling the breezes when it would just hit you: this moment, this moment right now is so precious, so beautiful.  How I wanted to hold onto each of those moments forever. 

Of course, we cannot hold onto them... but we can hold onto the God of those moments.

And we can live those moments fully by truly seeing them as gifts from the Father--each little moment a tiny wrapped package from our extravagantly generous Father.  It's so easy to just let them slip by-- unnoticed because they are unannounced.  No one shouting:" This is it!  This is life! This is overflowing with the goodness and glory of God! Do you see?  Do you feel it?  Don't miss it!"

But we so often do.  In our hurry and worry and focus on tomorrow and the next thing to be done or seen, we miss the precious present.  The small, seemingly insignificant but astoundingly beautiful moments to be treasured with those we love, with life, with creation.  

The smell of salt air.  The taste of creamy ice cream.  The sound of your loved one's laughter.  The joy of watching your child reading a book or running to the water.  The savoring of friendship.  The peaceful beauty of a setting sun.  The symphony of birds in the early morning.  The feel of steamy hot water in the shower.  The knowledge of God's presence... the honor, the privilege, the joy of His presence in every single one of those "small" but ultimately huge moments.  

And we wouldn't be able to appreciate how grand, how glorious these moments truly are if we did not also experience those moments in the valley.  None of us has a "Get out of pain free" card in life.  None of us.  And that, too, ultimately is a gift.  For without those valleys, we could not comprehend the glory of the mountain. And without those valleys, we could not know our Lord as deeply and dearly. And without those valleys, we could not experience the settled joy of walking with our Good Shepherd through the "valley of the shadow of death" and seeing He will get us through to the other side to the green pastures and clear streams.  

So, I guess this is just a huge thank You to God.  Really, can we ever begin to say thank You enough? Of course not!  But why don't we try--just for a moment.  For this moment.  Each irreplaceable moment of the precious present.  After all, that is the only moment God gives us--this moment right now. And He is "I Am" eternally present and powerful with us in this present moment. Might we rejoice in Him--whether we are walking through the valley or whether we are enjoying green pasture.  For He is always enough.  To God be the glory.

Easter in Curacao!

     Curacao.   aka heaven on earth.
     We're here with the Jones family for spring break and having a ball.  Upper 80's, breeze always blowing, and the bluest water I've ever seen.  We've done nothing but sit on the beach, swim and snorkel, eat, play games, read, and just generally relax and enjoy the glories of God's creation.  Internet is spotty at best, so this is a wild guess as to whether this actually goes through or not.  But if it does: Happy Easter!   He is risen!  More pictures to follow, Lord willing, but just a few brief thoughts I had the other day about Easter--
    The nation of England stood on edge.  What would happen in the critical and climatic battle of Waterloo?  There were no TV’s or radios or cell phones or computers, so the people waited to learn the fate of the great British general, Wellington, as he faced Napoleon.  Wellington’s fate would be their fate, and the people waited.

A signalman was placed on the top of Winchester Cathedral with instructions to continually watch the sea. When he received the message, he was to pass that message on to another man on a hill.  That man would pass it to another and so on until the news of the battle finally reached London and then across England.  

Eventually a ship was sighted through the thick fog of the English Channel.   The signalman on board sent the first word--”Wellington.”  The next word was sent--”defeated.”  Then the fog moved in again and blocked the ship from view.  “Wellington defeated!”  The message was sent across England, and despair and gloom descended across the countryside.  

But after two or three hours, the fog lifted. The message was not finished.  And the signal came again: “Wellington defeated the enemy!”  As the word spread, England revived and rejoiced.  

Is that not the story of Easter?  The message of the cross seemed to be--”Christ defeated.” 

Satan wins, and Christ’s defeat spelled our certain defeat.  Our fate is determined by His, and sin and death and despair have won.  End of story.

But after three days, the fog lifted... and the tomb was empty.  The message was not finished and the signal comes again, ringing words by the angel--”He is not dead!  Come see the place where they laid Him. He is risen, just as He said!”  “Christ has defeated the enemy,” and we are saved.  Forever.

“It is finished” was His cry on the cross.  And so it is.  That is the end of the story--because “it is finished,” we are not.  Not ever.  Because Christ finished the work of paying for our sins on the cross, because He died in our place, and because He rose from the dead, defeating the enemy of sin and death and satan.

And because “it is finished”--we are not.  We can never fall too deeply that He cannot lift us up and redeem us.  We can never run too far that He cannot find us and bring us home.  We can never fail too greatly that He cannot redeem even the worst failures and use them for good. We cannot become too entrapped in destructive habits or addictions that He cannot free us.  We cannot become too hopeless and hapless that He cannot bring recovery and restore hope. There is no pit too deep, no situation too desperate, no gap too wide, that His power and love are not deeper and greater and wider still.

Because Christ said “it is finished”--we are not.  Not ever. 

Might our lives ring with the reality of the words, “It is finished” and “He is risen!” Our salvation, our hope and our joy in a Roman cross and an empty tomb.  

He is risen!  He is risen indeed! 

To God, the Author and Finisher of our Salvation, be all the glory.