Hold On Tight!

The other night I had a bad fall in the bathroom.  It was truly terrifying.  I'm ok, but bruised.  After finding myself in the floor and screaming for my husband's help, I discovered him there almost immediately.  He was there to rescue me, in my time of need, praise God!  He helped me to stand, but I held on to him for "dear life".  "Honey", I said, "I may pass out on you.  Hold on to me tight."


Now, don't miss this, because it is crucial!
I, for my part, was doing my best to hold on to him and to my wits as well.  If I had lost consciousness, there is no way I could have held on to him myself.  In the final analysis, he was the one holding on to me.

When I consider Hebrews 4:14-16, that incident comes to mind...

14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,^f Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

I always need my husband, but I don't know what I'd have done had he not been nearby the other night when I fell.  We always need the Lord, but there are some times when we REALLY need Him, you know what I mean?  Times of injury, times of fear, tempting times, times of deep grief that is unimaginable...

Life is unpredictable and can "turn on a dime", as the expression goes.

When we do encounter something we believe to be bigger than we are, we have the consolation and confidence that, no matter what it is, it is not bigger that He is.  We can reach out and with faith hold tightly to Him, because He will never let us go.  Whatever it is, He's "got this".

He stands ready, with mercy and grace, to walk with us through our heartbreak because He has been a human, lived as a human, while simultaneously and fully retaining His God-ness.  He knows us and knows what it is like ...

• to be tempted (Matthew 4:1-11)
• to be in grief  (John 11:35)
• to be in pain  (John 19:1)
• to be jeered at (Matthew 27:39-40)
• to be rejected and hated and even to submit himself to death (Matthew 27)

Because He lived through the worst this life can dish up,
He knows.

For He knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.  

Psalm 103:14

Precious Lord, what a comfort You are!  In smooth times, in hard times, You are always near me, and in me, with abundant mercy "at the ready", as soon as I call on Your name.  "Thank-you" does not even begin to cover it... In Jesus' name, amen.

Binding Up Broken Hearts

It is very late here at Casa del Hood.  The day ending has been long and arduous.  About 30 hours ago, I received an urgent call from an institution with which my church is affiliated.  A member of that group was dying, and the loved ones needed sustaining, loving care.  It was an honor to be asked to help in this time of intense sorrow.

The dear one has since passed on into the arms of God. Tomorrow, I will go again to share the love of Jesus Christ, this time with extended family as well as with friends.  I hope you will pardon my absence from this blog, in large part, while assisting in this critical situation.  There are opportunities to share the gospel and to comforting the hurting.  In other words, opportunities to "practice what I preach".  How blessed is that?

The irony was not lost on me that, in the last post, I wrote about death being the final enemy to be vanquished.  And then, a few hours later, this situation presented itself.  (Please forgive the lack of detail.  Many local people read my blog; for this reason, I must be sensitive to the needs of others.) Today, death claimed one more victim, although she was young, loyal, caring, sassy and determined.

But, death does not get the final word, nor the victory.

In just a moment, before heading to bed, I'm going to write the family a letter, to let them know what beautiful things I witnessed concerning their loved one today, what a privilege it was to grieve with their friends.  I pray that He will give me just the right words...words that will build a "caring bridge".

If you are reading this in "real time", please pray for me and for the others, connected heart-to-heart at this time.  Please pray that Jesus Christ will be glorified, that love will flow freely, that judgment will be banished, that memories will be shared, and finally, that hearts will find the beginnings of healing.  Thank you, friends.

He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Love Bus

My morning routine usually consists of reading about (favorite blogs) and watching (favorite news outlet) national and world events, succored by the large cup of coffee in my hand.  Then, as I'm doing now, I have my morning devotions and share with you via this blog.

A story that caught my eye this morning was a striking example of today's text, in action.

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law can be summed up in a single commandment, namely, “You must love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5:13-14

Paul is here in verse 14 quoting Jesus, who made the Galatians 5:14 statement in Matthew 22:39. Here's the verse, with context:

36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

Note that the first and second commandments are not called by Jesus "the greatest suggestions".  No, they are commandments, which even supersede "the 10".  That is not to say they nullify "the 10", but rather that they overshadow them.  In other words, you can be keeping the 10 Commandments 100%. But, if you are not loving God with all your heart and showing that love by loving "your neighbor", you are living in disobedience.

Ok, so what was the story today?  I'll link it at the bottom of the page, but basically, it was this.  Two churches in east Cobb county, a wealthy suburban area outside of Atlanta, GA, sent their church busses into a very poverty-stricken area of downtown Atlanta, to pick up homeless people. For those of you reading this out of current time, or who live far from me, it was "in the teens" here overnight. These churches picked up about 100 homeless people in their busses last night, to keep them from freezing to death.

<crickets>  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re72di5phM0

You see, I find today's passage very personally convicting, because I am most often focused on making my own life very comfortable.  And, there's nothing wrong with taking care of one's basic needs.  But, frankly, I take it far beyond the basic level, "using my freedom in Christ to indulge my flesh" - - spending most of my time and resources on my own selfish desires.

So, when I hear a story about a church that extends Christ's arms to those who are quite literally perishing, both physically and spiritually, I am prompted to a lot of self-examination.  I don't usually like what I find.

Look, whether we like it or not, this is the truth of what Christ commanded us, children of God! Instead of our customary approach, which is to indulge ourselves and occasionally toss some crumbs to those who are dying, He asks us to flip the pyramid, to radically change the paradigm.  What He calls us to is a life of service to others, giving ourselves (our flesh) the crumbs left over.

So, here's what I'm going to do and what I challenge you to do also.  I'm going to make a change (can you hear Michael Jackson singing in the background?), a change based on what the Holy Spirit has been saying to me about this passage.  This will not make me a Christian, because the Bible is plain that a person can't work oneself up into being one.  I'm a Christian because of my faith in Jesus Christ.  Period. What making this change will make me is (hopefully) more obedient to my Master's command. What my obedience will achieve (because obedience always achieves this) is a greater expansion of the kingdom of God, even in ways I'll never realize or see.

Father, how can I become more and more like my Savior unless I am obedient to Your Word?  So often I am tone-deaf to the Holy Spirit.  Lord, open my eyes and ears and hands, and not only mine, but those of your Church ... so that all may know Your love, the only love which transforms. In Jesus' name, amen.

Source:

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/church-gathers-homeless-get-them-out-cold/np7MW/

A Striving of the Bowels

Good morning,

An exemplary life is a compassionate life, a life marked by compassion for those who do not know the Savior.  

We read over and over in the New Testament that Jesus was "moved with compassion" (Matthew 9:36). Watch what the early 20th century evangelist Charles Spurgeon had to say about that phrase:

The original word is a very remarkable one. It is not found in classic Greek. It is not found in the Septuagint. The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists themselves. They did not find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, and therefore they had to make one. It is expressive of the deepest emotion; a striving of the bowels—a yearning of the innermost nature with pity. As the dictionaries tell us— Ex intimis visceribus misericordia commoveor. I suppose that when our Saviour looked upon certain sights, those who watched him closely perceived that his internal agitation was very great, his emotions were very deep, and then his face betrayed it, his eyes gushed like founts with tears, and you saw that his big heart was ready to burst with pity for the sorrow upon which his eyes were gazing. He was moved with compassion. His whole nature was agitated with commiseration for the sufferers before him.

His compassion was so deep there was not a Greek word for it, and Greek is a marvelously expressive language.  They had 3 different words for "love", for goodness sake!  Jesus - - - the Indescribable One.  He was heartbreakingly compassionate for the needs of others.  Remember how He cried as He was on the hilltop overlooking Jerusalem, just before the "triumphant entry" into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would have none of it!

Luke 13:34

I am so convicted by this because often my heart is unmoved by the needs of those who are suffering, who are needy, or lonely, or sick or shunned...or lost without Christ. 
I shut my eyes to the sight of their suffering and close my ears to their pleas.  I throw some money at them from time to time and think I've done my part, but God forbid that I should get my pretty clothes dirty.

What about that last group, the lost?  In the college Bible study group Hubster and I co-lead with another couple, we are studying a book called Erasing Hell, by Francis Chan. The author wrote the book because in modern-day American churches we have largely erased Hell from our vocabularies.  We don't preach about it, but more importantly, we don't live in the reality of it.  That is, if we really believed in an actual Hell, would we not be living differently?  Would we not have a severe "striving of the bowels" for those God has placed in our paths?  Would we still be afraid to share the gospel, for fear of being misunderstood or rejected?

Let's be honest.  What we need as Jesus Christ's Church is a heaping helping of compassion, not the phony compassion that gives lip-service to Him, not the kind where we go to church on Sunday to wave our hands around exclaiming how we "love the Lord!" and then live the rest of the week loving on ourselves. 

Lord Jesus, over and over we stand in church and sing about how we want to be like You, but I confess that I've not been a big fan of Your compassion.  I've been largely unmoved by the example you set...how Your poured Yourself out for "the unlovely".  I've been deceived into thinking that I've been living an exemplary life, but when I face this ugly truth about my hard-heartedness, I realize that I've got a ways to go.  Show me and lead me, Lord, to open my heart to the lost, the  "poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."  (Matthew 5:3).

Source:

http://www.spurgeon.org/sermons/3438.htm