God isn't just the God of -- 

Steeples, Prayer meetings, well-paying jobs, Mission trips, intact families, worship songs, Sunday School, all those visible spaces, the ones we show to the world. The ones that look like we have our act together. The ones where we will be praised. He is bigger than that! Much bigger. His heart is bigger. His presence is bigger. His well-worn tenderness is bigger. 

Because

He's also and especially the God of --

Oncology visits, broken hearts, Empty checking accounts, Funeral parlors, Rehab rooms, sleepless and fitful nights, bathroom floors, messy lives. The places where it's just us and Him. The ones only He can see. Hear, understand, guide, comfort, heal. 

The places of --

Loss, despair, loneliness, doubt, fear. 

That are also the places of --

Growth, hope, belonging, grace, peace the places that nothing and no one else can touch. Except for this big, big, "very present help in time of trouble, "tender-hearted God. 

Those are the most sacred places of all; and some of the most beautiful. 

 

 

 When I was a little boy, I can't remember my age, I was given a Bozo the clown doll like this one. Now children need nurturing love, and when they don't get it from their parents they will attach to almost anything, it may be a doll, a toy, a pet, or a person. Sometimes those persons are good, but as often they are not. 

  My only memory of this doll is when I had my feelings hurt by someone, and I embraced the doll and felt like he was my only friend. 

  "Awake O north wind, and come thou south wind, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out." Song of Solomon 4:16

  "Now by the garden we may safely understand it to mean a sanctified soul, and by the spices in the garden we may understand it to mean the several graces planted in the soul by God. Now these spices can never flow out, and send forth their fragrant smell into the world, until the north and south wind blows upon them. The winds represent the adversity we meet when we launch out and endeavor to answer our call to serve Christ. In other words, when we attempt to do what we fear or feel woefully inadequate to accomplish, the winds, meaning the challenges to our faith, stirs up our sleeping graces and Christ raises up within us strength faith, hope, love, patience, prudence, courage, boldness, zeal and persistence." Thomas Brooks. 

  Simply put, spices put out their fragrance most when disturbed or crushed.

      So be encouraged, step out in faith and God will use your adversities to spread the dormant graces within you.  

 

   I like this photo, and I like people like this, and I'd like to be this way; but there is a restlessness within me. I certainly enjoy times in the woods alone or with a companion, but it's not long before my spirit starts to stir, and I want to get back into the fray! Jesus sought times alone, for prayer and no doubt deep reflection; but we see Him most in the midst of the crowds of needy beings. The time was short, the work was great, and to quote Him, "the fields are ripe and ready to harvest, but the workers are few." So as much as I'd like to sit quietly and peacefully, I hunger for the battles in the souls of humanity, yes, there's drama, grief and sorrow, but the victories are sweeter than honey, or the honey comb. 

  

"Jerome, when writing to a sick friend, said this - 'I account it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity; I judge you to be miserable, because you have not been miserable.' 

Freedom from punishment is the mother of security, the step-mother of virtue, the poison of religion, the moth of holiness, [Bernard] 

God's corrections are our instructions, His lashes our lessons, His scourges our schoolmasters, His chastisements our advertisements." Sanctified afflictions opens men's ears to discipline, and turns them from iniquity, which is a piece of learning that a Christian can never pay too dear for." Thomas Brooks. 

 

The following piece is so well written, describing the difference in two work ethics. One is he who exploits and the other who nurtures.  

“Let me outline briefly as I can what seems to me the characteristics of these opposite kinds of mind. I conceive a strip-miner to be a model exploiter, and as a model nurturer I take the old-fashioned idea or ideal of a farmer. The exploiter is a specialist, an expert; the nurturer is not. The standard of the exploiter is efficiency; the standard of the nurturer is care. The exploiter's goal is money, profit; the nurturer's goal is health -- his land's health, his own, his family's, his community's, his country's. Whereas the exploiter asks of a piece of land only how much and how quickly it can be made to produce, the nurturer asks a question that is much more complex and difficult: What is its carrying capacity? (That is: How much can be taken from it without diminishing it? What can it produce dependably for an indefinite time?) The exploiter wishes to earn as much as possible by as little work as possible; the nurturer expects, certainly, to have a decent living from his work, but his characteristic wish is to work as well as possible. The competence of the exploiter is in organization; that of the nurturer is in order -- a human order, that is, that accommodates itself both to other order and to mystery. The exploiter typically serves an institution or organization; the nurturer serves land, household, community, place. The exploiter thinks in terms of numbers, quantities, "hard facts"; the nurturer in terms of character, condition, quality, kind.”
Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture 

 

I read this piece on aging by a woman about the same age as me, and I could totally relate to the following, it was interesting to hear from someone my age.

"I am nearly seventy-one years old. I always thought I should love to grow old, and I find it even more delightful than I thought. It is delicious t be done with things, and to feel no need any longer to concern ourselves much about earthly affairs.

I cannot describe the sort of done-with-the-world feelings I have. It is not that i feel as if I was going to die at all, but simply that the world seems to me nothing but a passageway to the real life beyond, and passage ways are very important places.

My wants seem to be gradually narrowing down, my personal wants, I mean, and I often think I could be quite content in the Poor-house!

I do not know whether this is piety or old age, or a little of each mixed together, but honestly the world and our life in it does seem of too little account to be worth making the least fuss over, when one has such a magnificent prospect close at hand ahead of one; and I am tremendously content to let one activity after another go, and to await quietly and happily the opening of the door at the end of the passageway, that will let me in to my real abiding place. So you may think of me as happy and contented, with unnumbered blessings, and delight to be seventy-one years old." Mrs. Pearsall Smith.

 

 

 

Jer. 4:22 "....... They do not know how to do good." 

  In all ministries there are many things to learn. If one serves Christ working with the sick, or children with special needs, or the addict there are countless things to learn before jumping in and trying to help. I worked as a volunteer Chaplain in nursing homes for years and there is much to learn, and many mistakes to avoid. Even giving a cup of water to a resident can be a grave error if they are on a special diet. Moving someone in a wheelchair has protocol; and preaching, where many have dementia, requires a level of training.    I fear in many churches today there are to few mentors teaching new Christians how to do a 'good thing well', according to the revealed will of God, from a heart of love to God. 

   Sharing the Gospel, consoling the downcast, teaching Sunday School, restoring the one who's lost their faith, comforting the grieving and even giving money to the needy, as well as the countless other acts of faith and love, all require training.  

 

  "Surely you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. 

Your words have lifted up him who is falling, and you have fortified the feeble knees." Job 4:3-4

 

 These words were spoken of Job, and as Christians we too are to make disciples, to mentor, to lift up and strengthen others. Paul tells us to examine ourselves, to see if we are in the faith. When I review the year, have I lifted up even one who was falling? Have I instructed many? Or any?

   "But you smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians. O that you would be completely silent! Job 13:4

 When I read that I couldn't help to be reminded of when I was a new Christian, with more zeal than wisdom. I found myself in conversations, more like arguments, with so many people that bore no fruit whatsoever; and often left us more divided than when I began. 

I was, "unfaithful and unskilful; prescribing bad remedies and: misapplying good ones." 

It's to be expected I suppose; but I fear overall Biblical literacy in the church is far lower that it should be, and many think they know all about the end of the world but little about the spirit and teachings of Christ.  

Last night the downtown Portland Mission chapel opened up for the first time in nearly two years, and I, joined by Sarah, a graduate of the Mission, were there to give the message. As we walked to the mission doors we saw a few familiar faces and one woman in particular looked up at me and smiled and waved. I remember talking with her about two years ago, and I remembered her bright aqua eyes, one cloudy, but the other shone bright. A woman near sixty, although street life ages one terribly. We connected two years ago, as she shared her story of sorrow with me. I was heartened she remembered me from one short encounter. I invited her to chapel and after meeting some of the guys in the program, and the Executive Director, the time to begin arrived.

I preached on "the precious and magnificent promises of God", and the faithfulness of God revealed itself as the Holy Spirit descended with almost a palpable presence.

When we finished and exited the door to the streets, there were many people outside. All ages, all conditions, brimming with street life activity. One person shouting at the air, people lying on the street against the building, and the air was absolutely filled with desperate need. Midway to the car I asked Sarah to stop, my heart gushed with emotion. I wanted to pray, and then I wanted to cry. The atmosphere is so thick one can almost feel the heart cries of the homeless and addicted in every atom. At that moment I felt there was nowhere else on earth I would rather be.

My meager little contribution to the few souls I spoke to was amplified and magnified in my soul to almost bursting! I felt like all of heaven was watching us with heartfelt approval; shouting into my soul, "Yes, your contribution was small and the needs are great, but trust God to multiply and send it where it needs to go!"

It occurred to me as I tried to understand what it is I feel when I'm down in the midst of such need and apparent sorrow; I realized where I live it is very rare to see someone in desperate need. I can go a week and not see one person that looks poor. The area I live in has a slightly above average household income and all the cars driving along look new or near new, the stores are filled with people that look prosperous, so, when I walk Downtown Portland by the mission, where the streets have little tents set up, or people are huddled in doorways, others sleeping on the sidewalk, it is such a dramatic difference that I'm immediately swept up into a state of pity and compassion.

As we walked back to the car we saw probably thirty people in two blocks. Two fortyish women passed us to the car and both were obviously high on Meth, and the one trailing was showing symptoms of what is called "tweaking" where their body is flailing and contorting from the drug, and she was walking in her underwear. As odd as that seems, it's not unusual there. But from the moment my feet hit the sidewalk and my eyes surveyed all the needs, I felt such a whelming flood of heavenly mercy and compassion, best described as a surreal experience, words fail to explain it, but it is drenched in the Holy Spirit.

Photos by Cedric Hayes on the streets of Portland.

 

 The problem with false prophets is not that they twist the scriptures, but that the listener fails to study, investigate, read and show themselves approved. If we read our Bibles the false prophets will dwindle, their churches will empty, and their voices will be silenced. So don't spend time blaming the deceivers, blame the deceived. 

 

When we show ourselves faithful to the basics, God will illuminate and broaden our understandings. I'll never forget when I worked at Adult and Teen Challenge, and as I was walking up front I heard a girl as she examined some books on sale, she sounded about fourteen, talking with a voice we recognize as mentally deficient. Now I had never felt any particular compassion or concern for the mentally challenged, it wasn't that I didn't care, but I had no burden, no interest in working with them in any way. But as I was walking towards her, a sudden gush of love just poured over me. I was shocked and didn't know what to do with these gushing feelings of affection and love I felt for this strange little girl! I approached her because I knew the Lord was doing something powerful, but for the life of me I had no idea what! I clumsily tried to engage her in conversation and look for an opportunity to somehow express these whelming emotions; I wanted to just embrace her and give her a huge hug! But of course, that would never be understood and it would probably cause chaos! So after I made small talk for a minute or two, I just left her puzzled at what was happening. As I walked back to my office I felt the Lord saying, "Fred, I know you have no particular care or love for the mentally challenged,.................. but I just wanted you to know how I feel about them."

It was a moment in life I'll never forget.

 

"..... I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." Phil. 3:12

  I was considering this part of the verse and I think we are "laid hold of", or apprehended, to be saved from sin and to grow in fellowship with God and grow in purity and sanctification. But this isn't the end, and we can only go to so many Bible Studies, prayer and
praise times, and listen to so many sermons and read so many devotionals before we sense the need to get up and do that for which we are called.           

One commentary put it this way "A man away in the backwoods will spend a couple of years after he has purchased his acreage, felling and burning trees, and rooting out and destroying the weeds. But is that what he got the clearing for? That is only the preliminary to sowing the seed." 

 Without Christ our hearts are hard and scarcely know how to love; but Jesus saves us to share His love that is growing within us; it is our "talent, light, salt",  however it may display itself. Christ in us, the hope for ourselves and a lost world. We are laid hold of to shed the love of God to humanity in deeds, actions, associations and in personal sacrifices, starting in the home and reaching across the globe. 

 

 

  "St. Bernard calls Christ, the Bridegroom of Bloods, because He betrothed His church to Himself upon the bed of the cross, His head soiled with a pillow of thorns, His body drenched in a bath of His own blood. To turn your backs upon this bridegroom of bloods will certainly cost you the blood of your souls."  Thomas Brooks 1611. 

Humility

 

  "Ah, Christians, did Christ stoop low, and will you be stout, proud, and high? Was He content to be accounted a worm, a wine-bibber, an enemy to Caesar, a friend of publicans and sinners, a devil, and must you be all in a flame when vain men make little account of you? 

Was He willing to be a curse, a reproach for you, and will you shrug, and shrink, and faint, and fret when you are reproached for his name. Did Jesus Christ stoop so low as to wash His disciple's feet, and are you so stout, proud and sturdy that you cannot hear together, nor pray together, nor sit at the table of the Lord together, though you all hope at last to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven? Shall one heaven hold you at last; and shall not one house, one table, one church hold you here?" Thomas Brooks.