May 24, 2010

Giggles, Grandma then Glory

We had a gorgeous evening one day last week. There was a breeze pushing the perfect temperature through the trees with background music from birds "singing for their supper."  I grabbed my little girl's hand and said, "Let's take your ball outside and play until the mosquitoes come to visit."

I threw a football through the trees for the dog while kicking a giant pink orb high into the air. Some made up game ensued and jiggling giggles began to fill the back yard. Every now and then, there would be a pause so dandelion seeds could be blown into the air or a bug could be watched like the paparazzi.

Then out of nowhere, that 3 year old threw her head back to the sky and thrust her bear-hugging arms out wide and shouted, "GOD, I LOVE YOU!" And as her arms dropped, she just stared at the sponge-painted clouds in the sky for a minute and whispered "That's heaven up there mommy."

Pure, spontaneous love. We were quiet for a while...

That night, as we knelt by her bed to pray, in the midst of all kinds of blessings invoked for family, friends, stuffed animals and toys, she said "And thank you God that Nani (her grandma that went to heaven 6 months ago) has joy in heaven and you sing with her."

How did she know that? What did she hear as she stared so long into the heavens?

The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zeph. 3:17

May 19, 2010

Glory Follows Suffering

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

Romans 8:18, NKJV

Bad things do happen to those Jesus loves. But remember this spiritual principle: Glory follows suffering, and life follows death.

Miss Audrey Wetherell Johnson was a woman greatly beloved of God. Born in England, educated in Europe, delivered from agnosticism, and transformed by God's grace into a gifted Bible teacher and preacher, she answered God's call to the mission field in China during the 1930s. After years of teaching pastors and church leaders in a theological seminary in Beijing, Miss Johnson was scooped up with other missionaries and placed in a Japanese concentration camp for three years of intolerable and unmentionable suffering. Yet once again we glimpse God's glory when we learn that Miss Johnson was finally released, came to America, and began Bible Study Fellowship, an international ministry that now has approximately one million men and women who use her material and format to study God's Word each week.

If something bad has happened to you, would you look forward to the glory that IS coming?!
(This devotional was taken from Anne Graham Lotz)

CLICK HERE for the song "The Way to Joy" by Sherri Youngward. 

May 4, 2010

Cup Wars

Mark 14:36 And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will." (NKJV)

John 17 is truly an amazing passage to me and one in which the Holy Spirit continually brings to remembrance. I will never fully comprehend the depth of unity Jesus spoke of which He had with His Father and the Father with Him. A unity that is perfect, pure, unhindered and undiluted in its intimacy, yet one in which He prayed that EVERY believer would have with one another and with Himself.

Taking this into account, what we read about in Mark 14 shows us that we have a Savior absolutely acquainted with all of our ways¹. He loved His Father, did nothing independently nor outside of His Father’s will, yet He did not want to take the “cup” that the Father was giving to Him. We are fairly detached, being only an outside observer, of the wrestling that took place in the garden of Gethsemane. It can even be hard to imagine when we read about Jesus sweating great drops of blood.

We know the work of the cross was accomplished when Jesus said, “It is finished,” yet the victory came before-hand, when He said in the garden “nevertheless.” Just a reminder...in case you’re wrestling in agony with a “cup” that you’ve been handed. It’s ok to wrestle, as long as our heart bows in submission to the same word of victory. Then, like Jesus...after the cross, will come the power of His resurrection. “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured...”

¹Ps. 139:3