WALKING INTO THE STORM

 

You've got to go through something you don't want to.

You know it's the right thing, you know it will be all good in the end... but still, it hangs over your head like an ominous cloud.

A visit to the surgeon, a difficult conversation... the dentist!

Jesus lived under a cloud His whole life.  He came for a purpose, to redeem the world, and it would cost Him dearly.  He knew it, and no amount of good days could ever truly shift that sense of foreboding, I'm sure.

He even shared this with His disciples.  He finished with the good news of His resurrection. He gave them the timeline - only three days of death, then glorious, miraculous resurrection!... but they didn't get that bit... the cloud had settled over their hearts and deafened their ears to hope.  

"After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies. He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”  And the disciples were filled with grief." (Matthew 17:22-23)

In many churches worldwide, Maundy Thursday is celebrated, marking the occasion of the last supper and Jesus' command to the disciples and us to love one another.

Last night, being Maundy Thursday, even though I was at home doing everyday things, I had a heavy heart as I imagined what it must have been like for Jesus on that night as He prepared His disciples for what was to come.

That heavy foreboding must have been almost overwhelming.  But remarkably, Jesus and His disciples could still sing a hymn as they left the supper table for the agony of the garden.

"As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.” And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice for many. I tell you the truth, I will not drink wine again until the day I drink it new in the Kingdom of God.” Then they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. (Mark 14:22-26) 

In so many ways, we feel a sense of foreboding as we observe the world's pain, still trying to emerge from a pandemic but in a far more fractured society. Then there is political upheaval.  Floods.  Homelessness, War.

We need to refocus our eyes on the last bit of the story.  Jesus did, in fact, rise from death three days after the cross.  This was not just a one-off miracle but glorious paving of the way for us who follow Him... He has conquered death!

He promised at that last supper that He would drink with us again in His Kingdom.  This points to the day He will return to put all that has gone wrong - right.  Yes, sickness, poverty, war and death will end as He visibly physically returns to take His throne as Lord of the Nations.

With that glorious hope, we can 'sing a hymn' even under a cloud of heaviness as we live in a broken, warring world, knowing that what He has promised, He will make good.

But let me tell you something wonderful, a mystery I’ll probably never fully understand. We’re not all going to die—but we are all going to be changed. You hear a blast to end all blasts from a trumpet, and in the time that you look up and blink your eyes—it’s over. On signal from that trumpet from heaven, the dead will be up and out of their graves, beyond the reach of death, never to die again. At the same moment and in the same way, we’ll all be changed. In the resurrection scheme of things, this has to happen: everything perishable taken off the shelves and replaced by the imperishable, this mortal replaced by the immortal. Then the saying will come true:

Death swallowed by triumphant Life!

Who got the last word, oh, Death? Oh, Death, who’s afraid of you now?

It was sin that made death so frightening and law-code guilt that gave sin its leverage, its destructive power. But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three—sin, guilt, death—are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God!  1 Corinthians 15:54-56 (MSG)

Until next time, keep singing in the storm, 

Lynda xx

LOVE ME? - PROVE IT!

It doesn't matter where you are reading this from; I'm sure you're familiar with 'isolation' or 'Covid'! It has been doing the rounds here and continues to do so. The question isn't so much, "who's had Covid?" but more, "Who hasn't had Covid?"

Last week one of my children came down with it and, of course, needed to stay home and isolate. I was glad because she tends to push the envelope a bit, and I knew that she would be forced to rest! 

But the other part of me was concerned because she lives in a different town, and I wanted to be there and feed her and make sure she was OK.

I needed to have at least SOMEONE there to be my hands and feet...

I needn't have worried as on her story feed came pictures of food being dropped off to her many times over.

At one point, I said to her, "Tell your friends I love them!"

Then the penny dropped.

Jesus said, "the least you have done to these, you have done to me."

He needs at least SOMEONE to be His hands and feet.

It's so easy to tell God we love Him, sing those songs, and raise our hands.

It's hollow when we don't care for the people around us.  

If we say we love Him, He says, "Prove it!"  

Be the hands and feet of Jesus for at least SOMEONE today. I don't pretend to be like Jesus, but I know that when we love people, it warms His heart, and His instinctive response may well be, to that person, "Tell your friends I love them!"

Until next time...

Lynda x

PATIENCE IS POWER!

 PATIENCE - Something we all like being on the receiving end of.   Something we wish we had more of!

"Better to be patient than powerful;  better to have self-control than to conquer a city" (Proverbs 16:32)

The power of patience - a self-controlled soul and mind are enormous in potential and power. Jesus exercised this in every situation He faced, whether with his friends or his enemies. He wasn't a doormat, but He was patient!

Aesops Fables has a famous story about the battle between the wind and the sun. The wind challenged the sun that he could remove a man's coat quicker than the sun. The sun was happy to embrace the challenge. The wind went first. He huffed and puffed and blew as hard as he could. The only thing that happened was the man tightened his coat around himself even more! Then the sun calmly shone on the man, and within no time, the man relinquished his coat happily.

You may remember me talking a bit about Jeff last week. He is flexible and patient. I tend to huff and puff a bit more!  

Church history has a powerful demonstration of the power of patience. It was right back in its early years under the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire, as we know, was huge and seemingly invincible. It was also ruthless and demanding.

The Church was a small and misunderstood group that didn't fit into the day's culture. They also aggravated the Empire because they refused to own Caesar as lord. The Empire huffed and puffed and cruelly tried to exterminate the Christians.  

The Christians calmly just went on being who they were. They loved indiscriminately, returned good for evil and forgave their enemies. Without any huffing and puffing on their part, eventually, they won the Empire over.

If that doesn't demonstrate the power of patience, I don't know what will! 

Imagine what would happen in our personal world, homes, health, relationships, dreams, and finances, to name just a few, if we actually lived this verse.  

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against things like this." (Galatians 5:22-23)

Human history has been re-written by this fruit... fruit that is absolutely available to us who trust in Jesus Christ. Imagine what it might re-write in our own personal lives if we allow it? Believe me, I'm talking to myself here!

With love,

Lynda x

MARGINS & STRAIGHT PATHS

My husband, Jeff, is an incredibly flexible man... patient and easygoing. This has been a real blessing to me as I've shared life with a man who is undemanding and chilled. His name means peace, and anyone who knows him knows that this word sums him up!

However, I tend to be an all or nothing kind of person. Black or white, right or wrong and so on. One of my mantras is "If in doubt - throw it out". Flexibility is not my thing...

I like to go for a walk FIRST THING in the morning. If I miss FIRST THING, I tend to not go. This morning Jeff encouraged me to go a bit later; it was still early, just not FIRST THING! It was well worth it. 

Because I'm all or nothing, I often fail to see opportunity when it is right in front of me. Recently I was praying about some dreams I have, and the idea behind the prayer was, "Lord, please clear the decks for me so I can do this thing". He answered my prayer.

He said, "Use the margins".

That sounds like something Jeff would say.

This has opened my eyes, and now I see many opportunities where I thought there were none because I can see the margins and utilise them!

Now for straight paths.  

Isaiah 40:3 Listen! It's the voice of someone shouting,

"Clear the way through the wilderness

    for the Lord!

Make a straight highway through the wasteland

    for our God!

Can you see where this straight highway is to be made? It's in a wilderness and a wasteland.

It feels like a wasteland when life is complex and can be hugely demotivating. Anxiety and depression can settle in like a dark wet blanket, and all our get up and go, gets up and walks out! It can feel just too hard to DO anything in that place. So we remain immobilised, waiting for the wasteland to transform all by itself.

However, that is precisely where God calls us to action! In that wasteland. We are by faith to carve a smooth straight pathway where He can begin to work in our lives and where we can begin to make progress. I have another mantra...

 "Action kills apathy".  

Just doing something can break the spell of depression that holds us in a state of inertia.  

Like my margin issue, when we are in a wasteland, it feels like there is no opportunity to make progress. My last mantra for today is...

"When you feel overwhelmed, just start anywhere and keep moving"

What are some things we need to do to make good highways? Well, I imagine there would be some ground clearing to do. That is an excellent place to start.

Is there some rough ground of hurt and unforgiveness? What about the uneven ground in our priorities? Perhaps bad habits and thought patterns?

Then we can put some materials in.  How about an attitude of gratitude? Prayer? Acts of kindness and generosity?  

However, the first step if we want to make a straight path for God in our lives is to come to Him in genuine humility and repentance. Receive His forgiveness and ask Him to fill our hearts with His love and power.  

Then remember that He is with us every day, in every moment, loving us and ready to give us all we need to succeed. And every new day presents a unique opportunity to do better!  

"Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning." Lamentations 3:23 

May you and I both use our margins and build our straight paths, and in doing that, see God fill our lives with joy and fruitfulness!

Until next time,

Lynda x

LOCAL CAVE OR GLOBAL VILLAGE?

If ever there was a time when we deeply sense that we are part of a global village, but might want to instinctively retreat to our local cave - it is now.  

Our hearts break and we feel so unsteady as we have been buffeted by a pandemic, controversy and division. Natural disasters such as here in Australia, devastating floods and fires. And now a tragic war is being played out in real-time on our devices and TVs.

A good question would be, 'What would Jesus say?'

Before I suggest what He might say, can we just place Him in the context of His world as He walked planet earth, fully identifying with us?  He was a Jewish man living when his homeland was under occupation by the brutal Roman Empire.  Understandably Jewish people were very defensive and passionate about this injustice.  As a Jewish man, He was one of the oppressed.

Towards the end of His life, He visits the Temple in Jerusalem and shockingly rails at the activity in that temple.

He said, “Doesn’t the scripture say, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations?"  Mark 11:17 

The temple was The Most Sacred place in all of Israel.  The nation had been singled out by God to be recipients of His Word and grace.  They lived a uniquely moral life in the midst of a pagan world.

But they had retreated to their 'local cave' and become exclusive and inward-looking... and who wouldn't in their circumstances?  They had forgotten their original mandate, stated to Abraham in Genesis 26:4... "through your descendants all the nations will be blessed".  They forgot they were part of a global village whom they were called to bless.

Fast forward to 2022.  We as believers are now 'The Temple', both individually and collectively. We, like the Jewish nation, are called to be a blessing to all nations.  

Matthew 28:18-20  Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The question I ask myself is this.  What am I taken up with?  Am I more focused on preserving my cave, exclusive and withdrawn?  Is my focus inward or outward?  Is my life filled up with frenetic activity or prayer?  And when I do pray, what is the focus of my prayer?

While we may not be able to do all things for all people, we can do some things for some people - and as we do, the ripple effect will extend to more.

And of course, our prayers cross international barriers like nothing else.

My prayer at the end of all this is, "Lord, may the temple that is my life be a place of prayer, not just for me and mine, but for all nations."

Until next time, be at peace, know you are deeply loved, and your prayers carry power!

With love,

Lynda x

THE FOOTPRINT OF THE SOUL

FOOTPRINT... 

It's a familiar word to us that has come to mean so much more than the dent we leave in the sand when we walk on the beach. It's not just about space, but about the effect we leave behind us, particularly on the environment. While this is something to consider as we are stewards entrusted with the planet that God created, I want to talk about the footprint of our soul on the world around us, the people we do life with. You know, the person lying on the pillow next to yours, or the person sitting at the desk opposite you, the child you just put dinner in front of.

I remember hearing someone talk about something dear and profound to them and thinking we are relatively small in physical space, but we each have a universe within our soul. Hopes, pain, joy and love run deep in us, and behind every face, there is a story that we don't know.

Here are a few lines from a poem that I love...

"The world stands out on either side No wider than the heart is wide; Above the world is stretched the sky, No higher than the soul is high.

The heart can push the sea and land farther away on either hand; The soul can split the sky in two, and let the face of God shine through.

But East and West will pinch the heart that cannot keep them pushed apart, And he whose soul is flat - the sky will cave in on him by and by"  

(Edna St. Vincent Millay - Renascence and other poems)

This poem is very affirming for those who are confident that they are big-hearted, but for those whose hearts are small, it's quite a challenge. And life can hurt at times; we go through times when our hearts shrink, through hurt, through troubles, through weariness.

I have good news! Jesus takes us as we come to Him with our shrivelled hearts and then heals and enlarges us.

"Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Happy are people who grieve, because they will be made glad. Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth. Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full." Matthew 5:3-6 (CEB)

I want to leave you with beautiful words in the form of a prayer that St. Augustine (354-430) prayed.

"Narrow is the mansion of my soul. Enlarge it, so that you can enter. 

It lies in ruins. Repair it."

That, my friend, is a prayer that I know God will listen to. I suspect this prayer is a prayer that can be prayed many times throughout our lives as we feel our hearts shrink through the various seasons we experience.  

As we allow Him to work in us, enlarge us, give us big and generous hearts, the footprint we leave on the lives of the people in our world will be kind, generous & beautiful.

Until next time, Much love,

Lynda x

WHY HERE - WHY NOW??

If you could live at any time in history (including now) when would that be?

Next questions.  If you could live anywhere in the world, including where you live now, where would that be?

I just finished reading a short novel called, "A Wagon Train Weekend" by Stephanie H McGee.  I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it to you.  The idea behind the book is that a couple finds themselves somehow transported to another time in history and then what they discovered about themselves in that context.  

I've always been a bit of an old-fashioned soul, and also a soul that is given to feeling guilty about things I can do nothing about!  (Hello Lynda - you're not God!!!)  

For instance, when my children were young there was severe suffering in Rwanda because of civil war and famine.  I used to look at the mothers and think they were no different to me, we all want the same things, being loved, and a secure environment in which to raise our children.  I felt guilty that I was living the good life with free health care, ample food, clothing and a peaceful neighbourhood. 

Then I heard Acts 17:26 "From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands."  

Although this verse talks about nations rather than individuals, it does tell us that He determines time and place.  In light of current conflicts this sound very harsh, like God is arbitrarily putting some people in horrible places.  That is not true, He determines the time and place, but what we do with that time and place is our decision, and seeing as each nation has leaders, they will one day answer to God regarding how they stewarded that trust.

However, it did settle my guilt, I didn't choose to be born in the land I was, but what I do with that privilege is my choice.

Back to here and now.  We have just come through the most difficult couple of years of our time, bookended by natural disasters of fire and flood.  Now we are witnessing a war between Russia and Ukraine that could potentially become an international disaster.

My concern is for younger people. You are carrying hopes and dreams for your future and trying to hold to those hopes and dreams in spite of all the hardship and controversy that we find ourselves in.  My concern is the fear and despair that threatens to creep in wont take over your hope and your courage.

I want to say this to you.... YOU WERE BORN FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS.  You carry the grace of God for YOUR time.  What you need, God will provide.  You are growing up in a different world from what I grew up in.  The grace you carry will be different to the grace I carried.  

God will meet your need in extraordinary ways.  He will make you equal to the task.  There will be a release of the supernatural power of The Holy Spirit in your lives that will more than match the challenges.  

The world we stand in right now is overcome with fear and suffering.  And yet, as Christ-followers we live under an open heaven.  The Christ who you follow is The One who walks on water and is in charge of the storm.  I like to say that Jesus is The ultimate 'Storm-surfer'.  

So as you look out at a world in a storm, don't let the waves of fear overcome you, put your faith in Him, hop on the board of His Word and ride the waves!  As you do, you will bring hope and life to those around you.

Let me leave you with some Scripture to stand on...

Arise, shine, for your light has come,  and the glory of the 
Lord rises upon you.

2 

See, darkness covers the earth

    and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you

    and his glory appears over you.

3 

Nations will come to your light,

    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.  (Isaiah 60:1-3)

 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;

    the Lord is enthroned as King forever.

11 

The Lord gives strength to his people;

    the Lord blesses his people with peace. (Psalm 29:10-11)

When you pass through the waters,

    I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

    they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

    you will not be burned;

    the flames will not set you ablaze. (Isaiah 43:2)

Read Daniel 3 and see how true this verse is!

Meanwhile, the disciples were in trouble far away from land, for a strong wind had risen, and they were fighting heavy waves.  About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water.  When the disciples saw him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!” But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage. I am here! Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.” “Yes, come,” Jesus said. (Matthew 14:24-29)

My prayer for you is that you would be just like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Esther and, Joseph.  What does that mean?  That you would be strong, righteous, courageous and influential in an ungodly world as you learn to surf the storms with Jesus!

You are going to see things that older people only dreamed about as you keep your focus on Jesus, your feet on His Word and make time to allow The Holy Spirit to soak your heart with joy.

With love,

Lynda xx