Suspended time

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. (Luke 2:25 NIV)

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray." He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death," he said to them. "Stay here and keep watch." (Mark 14:32-34 NIV)


Today is Holy Tuesday for Christians, which means...well, what? It's the Tuesday between Palm Sunday and Easter and there are lectionary readings assigned for this day. But, I was thinking today that Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday of Holy Week are kind of like suspended time for us - nothing much going on yet.

There are other instances where time seems suspended.

In the suspended time of what seemed to be slow motion, I watched an elderly woman fall backwards down the steps.

In the suspended time as Job listened to the "advice" of his "friends," he didn't know if or when his trials would be over.

In the suspended time of decades of faithfulness, Abraham and Sarah did not know how God would fulfill his promise to give them descendants.

In the suspended time of waiting and wondering, the family of the Iraqi-American contractor kidnapped in Iraq did not know if or when their loved one would be returned.


There's a saying in the church: "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming." In this instance we equate the Friday with the crucifixion or some life calamity. And we equate Sunday with the resurrection or relief from the calamity. But the original friends of the earthly Jesus did not know on Saturday that "Sunday's coming." They knew only that Jesus was dead. Dead as in beaten, crucified, pierced. Dead as in "in the tomb." Dead. That was Saturday. The first day of a world without Jesus. The first day of time suspended.

Two thousand years later we know that the Jesus story does not end there. By Sunday there is an empty tomb, empty gravecloths, an angel messenger, some women & some disciples running to tell the others that Jesus is alive. And that is good news.

But, go back with me for a moment to the suspended time of Saturday.

How would you pray?

What would you do?

What would you say to other believers?

There are people in this world today who live in such suspended time. A variety of circumstances, choices, or attitudes mean they are living in "Friday" and have no idea if or when there will be "Sunday."

Hear these words of the Psalmist:

1 The Lord is my light and the one who saves me.
So why should I fear anyone?
The Lord protects my life.
So why should I be afraid?
2 Evil people may try to destroy my body.
My enemies and those who hate me attack me,
but they are overwhelmed and defeated.
3 If an army surrounds me,
I will not be afraid.
If war breaks out,
I will trust the Lord.
4 I ask only one thing from the Lord.
This is what I want:
Let me live in the Lord's house
all my life.
13 I truly believe
I will live to see the Lord's goodness.
14 Wait for the Lord's help.
Be strong and brave,
and wait for the Lord's help. (Psalm 27 NCV)

So, today we pray for people - including ourselves - living in suspended time....

Creator God who spoke and there was a universe, who set the planets into motion, who knows the number of hairs on our heads: thank you for being all powerful, all knowing, and more than able to rescue your children. Thank you for the strong examples of people like Simeon, Abraham, and Sarah who, no matter their faults, trusted in your promises. Help us to also be filled with your Holy Spirit and trust in your promises. Thank you for the examples of people like Peter, James, and John who, no matter what their strengths, still abandoned you when you asked them to wait with you. Help us to learn from times we turn our backs on you and, instead, to stay close to you.

God, there are many people in this world, including ourselves, who are living in suspended time. It's Friday but they (we) don't know when or if Sunday will come. So, for those looking for jobs...facing surgeries....searching for lost loved ones...praying for children who are not believers...waiting for unborn babies...searching for a new pastor...waiting medical tests...and for so much more...

So, today we pray for people - including ourselves - living in suspended time....Help us to trust and live out your promises.

You are our light and the one who saves us. You are the Lord who protects our lives. Why should we be afraid? Let us live in your house all our lives. We truly believe we will live to see the Lord's goodness. We wait for the Lord's help. We will be strong and brave, and wait for the Lord's help. We trust that even if today is Friday, Sunday is coming.... In the strong name of Christ we pray: AMEN.

Word of God, Speak

Sometimes we go through seasons in life when our prayer or Bible reading/study seems to be less energetic, less intense, maybe even of less interest. Every so often, I think, it is helpful to "be still" before the Lord and just listen to what He has to say to us. Lately, I have found several scripture verses resonating with me. So, my prayer this week is that God's Word would speak to each of us. [all scriptures are from The Message by Eugene Peterson]

Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness
Word of God speak*


Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (from Eph. 5)


God is strong, and he wants you strong....Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued...Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. (Eph. 6)


So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. (Php. 1)


Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God's energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give him the most pleasure. (Php. 2)


Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! (Php. 4)


[Fill] your minds and [meditate] on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. (Php. 4)


God not only loves you very much but also has put his hand on you for something special. (1 Thes. 1)


Receive and experience the amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, deep, deep within yourselves. (Php. 4)


Love mixed with faith be yours from God the Father and from the Master, Jesus Christ. Pure grace and nothing but grace be with all who love our Master, Jesus Christ. (Eph. 6)


I'm finding myself at a loss for words
And the funny thing is it's okay
The last thing I need is to be heard
But to hear what You would say*

So, speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.

Amen.



*by Bart Millard & Pete Kipley; (c) 2002 Simpleville Music, Songs from the Indigo Room, Wordspring Music

Hands full

Last week one of our new neighbors came over to introduce herself and, in the course of the conversation, I mentioned we have four boys age five and under. Her response was one that I've heard from lots of people: "WOW! You have your hands full!!"

Even though the phrase gives me a chuckle, I know that when someone says this they are acknowledging the busy-ness of caring for four young children, the effort that goes into that, and the tasks that have to be performed. (Like the current pile of laundry awaiting me....) But the phrase itself struck me as interesting. What does it mean to "have ones' hands full?" I mean, really, isn't having our hands full a good thing?

I think it is. Aren't we blessed to have these four young lives to guide to physical, emotional, and spiritual maturity? Aren't we blessed to have our hands full with a new, larger home and the work that comes with it? Aren't we blessed to have our spiritual hands full in the ways we are challenged by Jesus to care for the lost, the ill, the broken, the enslaved?

In Psalm 23 the Psalmist says that "My cup overflows." Isn't that pretty similar? My hands are full, some days with kitchen counters of dishes, baskets of laundry, and (right now) piles of boxes to unpack. Yet, my cup is overflowing - with snuggles, hugs, kisses, and "I love you, Mom."

Sometimes having your hands full is not a good thing - there's "too much on your plate," or "too many balls in the air," or life is just "throwing lemons at you." But, sometimes having your hands full is a reminder of the blessing of the abundant - full - life Jesus calls us to in John 10:10. God doesn't give us more than we can handle with his help - whether the "more" is goods stuff or hard stuff. And when it's good stuff we should rejoice! Our cup overflows and this is God's mercy and grace upon us! Amen & amen!

God, Goodness and mercy do follow us through our lives; thank you for the gift of grace upon grace. Thank you for lives that overflow - with health, energy, calling, and giftedness. Thank you for cups that overflow - for homes, families, friends, and blessings. Thank you for hands that are full and lives that can serve you. When we feel like we wander in desert, keep us mindful of how you kept the hands of the Israelites full of manna & quail as they wandered in the desert. Keep us mindful of how as Mary "pondered these things in her heart," she held in her hands the Son of God - and, we too, should ponder the gifts we are given. Keep us mindful of you and how your hands were full of our sin when you hung on the cross. Remind us that whatever our hands are full of, you as the Creator of the Universe, indeed, have the whole world in your hands. Thank you for being our provision, our guide, our comforter, our strength, and our Light. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

The Stand
You stood before creation

Eternity in Your hand

You spoke the earth into motion

My soul now to stand

So I'll stand

With arms high and heart abandoned

In awe of the One who gave it all

I'll stand My soul Lord to You surrendered

All I am is Yours

You stood before my failure

And carried the cross for my shame

My sin weighed upon Your shoulders

My soul now to stand

So I'll stand

With arms high and heart abandoned

In awe of the One who gave it all

I'll stand My soul Lord to You surrendered

All I am is Yours

© 2005 Hillsong Publishing (Admin. in U.S. & Canada by Integrity's Hosanna! Music)
Joel Houston

Truth, Hamas, Evolution

A truthful witness does not deceive,
but a false witness pours out lies. (Prov. 14:5 NIV)

Last weekend there were two news stories that especially caught my attention, specifically for their relevance to Christian faith.

The first was an article in the Wall Street Journal entitled "They Need to Be Liberated from Their God." ** Needless to say, the title first caught my attention. The article itself was about the son of one of the founders of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. This 32 year old Mosab Hassan Yousef was raised in a devout Muslim family but secretly embraced Christianity and became a spy for Israel. When asked "why," he replied that the motivation was to save lives.

"I converted to Christianity because I was convinced by Jesus Christ as a character, as a personality. I loved him, his wisdom, his love, his unconditional love. I didn't leave [the Islamic] religion to put myself in another box of religion. At the same time it's a beautiful thing to see my God exist in my life and see the change in my life. I see that when he does exist in other Middle Easterners there will be a change.

"I'm not trying to convert the entire nation of Israel and the entire nation of Palestine to Christianity. But at least if you can educate them about the ideology of love, the ideology of forgiveness, the ideology of grace. Those principles are great regardless, but we can't deny they came from Christianity as well."

Love, forgiveness, grace. Hmmmm....sounds pretty good for all of us, I think.

The second article was "Top Home-School Texts Dismiss Darwin, Evolution" *** on FoxNews.com. Because the home schooling community in the U.S. consists mostly of evangelical Christians - people who are likely to believe in Creationism - their textbooks do not take evolution as fact. The article says,

Two of the best-selling biology textbooks stack the deck against evolution, said some science educators who reviewed sections of the books at the request of The Associated Press.

"I feel fairly strongly about this. These books are promulgating lies to kids," said Jerry Coyne, an ecology and evolution professor at the University of Chicago.

As a mom and a Christian, I can say "fairly strongly" that the secular classrooms are "promulgating lies to kids" when they don't allow Creationism to be taught.

Probably the thing that unites these two articles for me is the concept of TRUTH. Yousef found the Truth of Jesus in an unlikely way - and then that played out in his life in some unusual and amazing ways. Secular schools and publishers embrace "truth" in hypothesis like evolution, not willing to see the possibility of Creation being Truth. But Jesus was very explicit that HE was the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. In fact, over and over he said "I tell you the truth..." So, let us seek God's truth as we seek to be God's Light, Grace, Forgiveness, & Love.

So, God we pray for revelation of your truth.

⁴ Show us your ways, O LORD,
teach us your paths;

⁵ guide us in your truth and teach us,
for you are God our Savior,
and our hope is in you all day long.

⁶ Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old.

¹⁰ For you are great and do marvelous deeds;
you alone are God.

¹¹ Teach us your way, O LORD,
and we will walk in your truth;
give us an undivided heart,
that we may fear your name.

¹² We will praise you, O Lord our God, with all our heart;
We will glorify your name forever.

AMEN.

(Psalms 25, 86 NIV, alt.)

** http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703915204575103481069258868.html

*** http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,588260,00.html

Fit together

Last night I was putting together an antique lawyer's bookcase - the kind where each side, each back, each shelf, each front are all different pieces. As I was trying to get one layer to stay together - and not having much luck - I was thinking about how the bookcase is kind of a metaphor for the Body of Christ. Each piece of the bookcase is critical to the whole thing holding together. Put all the pieces together and you have a beautiful, solid, strong piece of furniture. The Body of Christ is similar - each piece is critical to the whole.

In his treatise on spiritual gifts in 1 Cor. 12 Paul includes this:

¹²The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body...

Unlike my bookcase, which is held together puzzle-like by fitting pieces and some gravity, the Body is held together by the Spirit. Whew! So the ways in which I can't see how this piece or that piece "fit" are ways in which the Spirit is already putting us together.

These past two weekends I've had experiences of God's love poured out through the people of his Body, the Church. Both Saturdays our family moved our belongings to a new home and we had wonderful help for the physical move, for cleaning, painting, and repairs, and for child care.

Last Sunday at church was Youth Sunday and part of the message was highlighting the mission trip to Honduras. Those that go on the mission trip come back telling of how God connected them to other mission trip participants and to the people they went to serve. Knit together by God's Spirit, the Body does great things.

So, my prayer this week...

God, help us remember you chose each of us to be a part of your Body. Thank you for this gift of salvation and abundant life. Help us appreciate how we fit into that Body and how others do, too. Fit all of us together for fruitful Kingdom work. By your Spirit help us do great things. Amen.