There are so many people struggling to find hope and light in this world.
Especially at this time of year, when it seems that everyone else is having a “holly jolly Christmas” those who can’t find even a spark of joy in their hearts feel abandoned and alone.
Read the rest here: Chasing the Darkness
After two days of eating, eating, eating, I’m hardly hungry.
But no matter how full my stomach gets, how snug my pants may fit, my heart longs for more than this earth can provide.
Even before Dominic ran ahead to Heaven I knew that this world was not my home. I was well aware that nothing here could satisfy the deepest ache in my soul for a place where justice reigned and death no longer ruled.
Now that longing is magnified. And I cling to the hope that Christ gives.
Mary didn’t understand everything about the baby she carried in her womb. She (I pray) was unaware of exactly how He was to usher in this new kingdom of God.
But she knew enough.
She knew that because of Jesus-The LORD saves-things were going to be different.
So, like Mary, I lean in and trust. I hang on and hope. I reach out and reassure my heart that the Mighty One of Israel will fill the empty with good things.
Even the empty places in a grieving mama’s heart.
And Mary said:
My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abaham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.Luke 1:46-55 NIV
Invincible made vulnerable,
Lord made lowly,
Not above me
Not below me
Beside me-
Emmanuel–God With Us, God with ME.
Love took on flesh to walk among us barefoot over the broken shards that bruise our hearts and make our feet bleed.
He knows my pain
He knows my frame
He loves me.
He didn’t have to do it. He could have decided that it wasn’t worth the cost. He could have wiped the slate clean and begun anew-He made the world the first time, He could have made it a second time just as easily.
But the God of the universe chose-He CHOSE-to purchase the broken and battered, the weary and worn, the wounded and limping for His treasure.
He’s still here. As near as your next breath.
Are you empty?
He will fill you.
Are you broken?
He promises to restore.
Are you weary?
He will give you rest.
Open your hands, open your heart and receive the Real Gift of Christmas.
I wake before the morning light. Every. single. morning.
I get my coffee, sit in my chair and wait for sunrise.
I never worry that today it might not happen.
I’m never concerned that after all these years of faithfulness, this day may be the one where daylight fails to make an appearance.
There is no fear in this darkness because I know it will not last forever.
Morning is coming.
Morning. Is. Coming.
And that’s the hope I cling to in this longer darkness of the Valley of the Shadow of Death-no matter how many years it may be, the Valley has an end.
The same God Who keeps the earth in orbit around the sun has ordained that death will not have the last word.
Light will triumph.
Darkness will have to flee.
I look forward to heaven, where everything that the enemy has stolen will be redeemed and restored.
I’ve been reading The Jesus Storybook Bible-it is a remarkable way to re-imagine and re-engage with God’s Story.
My very favorite part is a paraphrase of Revelation 21:4:
“And the King says, ‘Look! God and his children are together again. No more running away. Or hiding. No more crying or being lonely or afraid. No more being sick or dying. Because all those things are gone. Yes, they are gone forever. Everything sad has come untrue. And see-I have wiped every tear from every eye!’”
An eternal morning is coming.
Morning. Is. Coming.
My children grew up surrounded by life and by death.
On our small farm they got to see puppies, kittens, goats, sheep and horses take their first breath. We watched turkeys and chickens hatch-struggling in that last great effort to throw off the shell.
And we also witnessed life’s end.
Every. time. it feels wrong. Every. time. it feels like defeat.
And it is–we were not made to die.
God didn’t create this world to be full of endings. He made it to be full of life and fellowship and love and for His glory.
But we live in a broken world.
When the first man and first woman looked away from their Loving Creator and embraced temptation, death came in through sin.
That longing we have, that sense that death is WRONG-that death is not the way things SHOULD be-that’s the spark of God’s Spirit speaking to us.
It’s the Father’s call to our hearts to turn to Him.
God the Father has made provision for eternal life with Him through Jesus the Son.
Yes, this world is full of death-it has touched my life in a very personal and awful way.
But my heart and God’s Word tells me that death is not what we are meant for-that there is MORE.
We who have known only futility, decay, homesickness, and exile, have found strong encouragement to hold fast to our hope because we are no longer helpless and alone. He’s already gone before us, trail blazing straight through exile and death into life as our Captain. Yes, I know this is true. I can hope even in the midst of doubt.
Through his death and resurrection, he has flung open the gate, torn the curtain that divided us from God’s presence, and done it all as the incarnate Son of Man. God has not forever abandoned his creation. Mankind is still his good work. In the body of Jesus, Man has gone into the presence of God, to his throne room, to the company of myriads of angels dressed for a party (see Hebrews 12:22). I’m in a form of exile now, but exile doesn’t mean abandonment. Jesus has made sure of that.
~Elyse Fitzpatrick, Home
As we move toward celebration of the birth of Christ, I pray we look also to His life, death and resurrection and the promise of hope He has placed in our hearts.
A close family member is facing a difficult, scary and extensive surgery.
It’s one more reminder that we live in a broken world.
The victory Christ gained is real. But we do not yet have the full benefit of all its fruit.
We still face death.
We still bear pain.
We still long for that day when ALL will be made right.
Until then, we Live Between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
Oh, we mamas are experts at waiting.
We wait for nine months to hold that little person growing inside us. We wait for them to learn to crawl, walk, talk and read. And then we wait to pick them up at school, for piano and dance lessons to be over and ball practice to end.
As long as our children are with us, we are always waiting for something.
We never expect to be waiting to join them in heaven.
But some of us are.
And this waiting is real hard-not like the other times when I knew about when the waiting would end. Even though it was sometimes tiresome, lessons and practice wouldn’t last much longer than the appointed time.
I guess I believe there is an appointed time for this waiting to end as well.
I do believe that God has my life in His hands. When my work here is through, He will call me home, just as He called Dominic.
Trouble is, I can’t find a clock that tells that time. I can’t look at a calendar and know for certain THIS will be the day.
And not knowing how LONG I have to hold on is a huge part of what makes it
so.
very.
hard.
Sometimes I want to give up. Sometimes I want to let go of hope and dive into despair.
Some days I am afraid I can’t keep on keeping on.
Not. one. more. step.
But God has promised to meet me even here.
His Word tells me that there is a reward for those who wait with hope, who trust even when it seems foolish and who lean in even when they would rather run away.
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.Psalm 33:18-22 NIV
The Amplified Bible renders that last verse like this: “Let Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, be upon us, in proportion to our waiting and hoping for You.”
In proportion to my waiting and hoping, God will fill my hurting heart with HIS mercy and loving-kindness.
He will strengthen me regardless of how many days I must walk in this waiting.
If I hold onto the hope I have in Christ, He promises not to let go of the other end.
I know many who wonder about the eternal destiny of loved ones.
God in His mercy extends grace to everyone who believes.
NOTHING can separate us from the love of God:
God promises that HE holds on to US–HE finishes the work He began in us.
“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
Philippians 1:6 NLT
Even if the last choice someone made was a foolish one, or a desperate one, The Good Shepherd brings all His sheep home.
“My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life. They are protected from the Destroyer for good. No one can steal them from out of my hand. The Father who put them under my care is so much greater than the Destroyer and Thief. No one could ever get them away from him. I and the Father are one heart and mind.” ~Jesus
John 10:27-30 MSG
The Fall Feasts of Israel are a beautiful reminder of Who God is and what Christ has done for us.
Beginning this evening and continuing until sunset tomorrow, Jews around the world are observing Yom Kippur or The Day of Atonement.
According to Scripture (Leviticus 16), The Day of Atonement was commanded by God for Israel to remember the terrible debt of sin and the only acceptable payment–blood.
The high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and apply blood to the horns of the mercy seat, thus covering over for another year the individual and corporate sin of Israel.
According to Jewish tradition, God inscribes each person’s fate for the coming year into a book, the Book of Life, on Rosh Hashanah, and waits until Yom Kippur to “seal” the verdict. During the Days of Awe, a Jew tries to amend his or her behavior and seek forgiveness for wrongs done against God and against other human beings. The evening and day of Yom Kippur are set aside for public and private petitions and confessions of guilt. At the end of Yom Kippur, one hopes that they have been forgiven by God.
Yet year after year, this sacrifice was not enough.
The blood of animals is insufficient to pay the debt owed by men to a perfect and holy God.
But the blood of the Perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ, has completely paid the debt I owe-I no longer cower in the shadow of my sin.
When I chose to apply that blood to my heart by faith, I was made right with the LORD.
As a believer in Jesus the Christ, I have a High Priest that has offered His own blood as the Perfect Sacrifice once for all (Hebrews 9).
I can rest assured that I’m not sealed only for a day, or even a year, but for all eternity!
Because Jesus is the eternal and sufficient propitiation for my sins, I need not fear death.
It is sin which gives death its power, and it is the Law which gives sin its strength. All thanks to God, then, who gives us the victory over these things through our Lord Jesus Christ!
I Corinthians 15:55-57 PHILLIPS
We do not have to bring a sacrifice to the altar and hope that our sins are forgiven. The Law holds no power over us who believe-Jesus fulfilled its every obligation.
But it is a good thing to take a day to reflect on the cost and the gift
Too often we grasp the gift and forget its cost.
Today, remember what the LORD has done for you. Remember the burden He lifted by His sacrifice. Remember His claim on your life–the life He purchased with His blood.
Remember.
If you are withholding grace and forgiveness–remember, and repent–give to others what God has graciously given to you.
If you are walking outside the will of God for your life–remember and repent-fall back in step behind the Lord Jesus and let Him guide you.
If you are dabbling in sin–remember and repent-turn from your wickedness and back to holiness.
Remember and be thankful.
“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”
~Psalm 32:1
It’s easy to develop the habit of hurrying.
An inner voice screams, “I’ve got to do it NOW, I’m running out of time!”
When I talk to people, or overhear others’ conversations, they say, “I just don’t have time” or “I’m so busy, I don’t know what to do”.
I have said it myself more than once.
For most of us in America it seems that we rush from place to place, from event to event, from meal to meal, from crisis to crisis.
But when I read the Gospels I don’t feel a sense of rush at all.
Jesus expressed urgency when proclaiming that the kingdom of God was near, but He was never in a hurry.
He walked everywhere He went even though His was the most important ministry ever executed on the earth and it would have been much more efficient to choose a faster mode of transportation.
The message I receive from His life in this regard is that the journey is as important as the destination.
We justify our lifestyle by claiming we have no control.
We just can’t help the fact that our cell phones ring, that we have to go here or there and that we can’t seem to get a handle on our schedules.
I think that as Christ followers, God would say: “Choose!”
We do have control over how we spend our time.
It is true that we have to fulfill our God-given responsibilities and that may include work-hours we can’t choose. But even those who work full-time have many hours that they direct.
How many conversations do we neglect with the very people God has put in our path because our minds are focused on the next thing?
How many times are we multi-tasking with our phones or Ipads and missing a divine appointment to show the love of Jesus to someone right in front of us?
God has not called us to be a people out of breath, with no energy or heart for the ministry He has given us.
He is the Lord of the Sabbath-the King of Peace and the Giver of Rest. He invites us to join Him and to take His yoke upon us-a yoke neither heavy nor cumbersome.
In Jeremiah, God called Israel back to Himself with these words:
Thus says the Lord; Stand by the roads and look; and ask for the eternal paths, where the good, old way is; then walk in it; and you will find rest for your souls
Jeremiah 6: 16
Our techno-toys should be used as tools not as taskmasters.
The activities that fill our calendars should be evaluated in light of the greater call God has on our lives, not chosen just because our friends are doing them.
We need to do “first things first” and make room for people before things and conversation before commerce.
We are free in Christ to choose.
Abundant life is a gift of God to be experienced right now, right where we are.
When we refuse to get sucked into the “busy-ness” of our culture, we open up a world of possibility to be the people God has called us to be.
thelifeididntchoose 