Death Is Not the Final Answer

"While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, 'Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?'"  Mark 5:35
 

When I was about five years old, I remember my mother holding my face in her hands and saying with all seriousness, "Now Shannon, if you can't separate reality from what you are watching on TV, I'm not going to allow you to watch anymore. You get entirely too upset."

To this day, my tendency to "hyperfocus" can either serve as a curse or a blessing, depending on the circumstance. But one thing I love to do in my devotional time, is turn my telescopic, microscopic, hyperfocusing optics on the gospels. There's nothing in them but life and truth and I don't want to miss it.

In this portion of Mark 5, picture if you will, what it must've been like to be Jairus. A Daddy with a love for his little girl that has his heart entwined around her pinky. All she has to do is bat her curly eyelashes over twinkling eyes that reflect his image as she looks up at him, and there is nothing that he wouldn't do for her. Especially now as her twelve year old body is beginning to die from sickness. As this Daddy has found Jesus and knows that He alone can save her, he leads the Lord as quickly as possible through the stifling crowds towards home. Home...where his heart is breaking and death is standing at his doorstep. Time becomes an enemy. Distance becomes torture. People become obstacles.

Pain has a way of making even the most scatter-minded individual focus. Pain, fear, and sorrow are just a few heart magnets that will pull at your attention like nothing else. Have you ever sought the Lord's help in prayer like Jairus did in reality? You knew there was no one and nothing else that could come to your rescue, but something in your life was hurting, sorrowing, sick...dying...and needed the Lord to intervene before it was too late. But then word comes. The Lord didn't seem to get to your need in time. He did not answer; did not arrive on the scene and now it seems hopeless. Maybe the words that echo in your mind are, "______________ is dead. Why trouble the Lord any longer?"

There are times when I have wrongly applied a promise to my circumstance and my heart has been broken by wrong expectations. I've come to learn out of it though, that when I hold the Promiser higher than the promise, I will not be moved by outcomes. His character is consistently good and everything He ever has done and will do is steeped in His lovingkindness. And in this portion of the word, when you look at Jesus, He knew that Jairus' report of death brought hopelessness, fear, and an attack on his faith. How? Because Jesus responds, "Do not be afraid. Only believe."

If you keep reading, because I don't want to make you keep reading my words, you'll see that Jesus had to cast out those who mocked Him and did not believe. It's what He wants to do in our lives also...remove our thinking that mocks in disbelief. He'll want to remove whatever and whomever stands and laughs in the face of faith and a heart that has childlike trust and belief. Jesus is life. And His definition of this particular circumstance was that it was "lifeless", but not dead.

If you have something in your life that you have held onto the Lord's hand about in prayer...something that you have anxiously been pulling Him to come rescue, heal, change, deliver, or resurrect...do not lose faith. Do not grow frustrated with seeming delays, nor angry at other people that may appear to be getting in the way. You are grasping the hand of the  Lifegiver. Deuteronomy 32:39, "Now see that I, even I, am He, And there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive." And if life will bring Him glory and is according to His will, do not be afraid. Do not listen to the scoffers. Do not rehearse the words of those who doubt what Jesus can do and wants to do. Only believe.

"Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?" Jeremiah 32:37.

Only believe...read on for yourself!

"Your Ship Will Come In"

“Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’?...” 

John 12:27a

Have you ever been reading through the Word and your eyes get stuck on a verse like a flip-flop on parking lot gum? Bad analogy. But I was glued on the red letter words of Jesus and immediately thought, When my soul is troubled, I find all of the Psalms about deliverance. I begin to echo David's words as I climb up the alpine Rock that is higher than I (Ps.61:2). When my soul is hurt from others, I'm crying to You Lord, my tower of safety and refuge (Ps.18:2), to make them stop. When my soul is surrounded by dark shadows, I'm hanging tightly to Your hand anxiously wanting to get out of deaths valley (Ps.139:10, Ps.23:4). When my soul is troubled...when my soul is troubled...I don't like it.

So as I sipped my coffee and meditated on His desire NOT to be delivered, I was melted anew by His love. A love that embraced the suffering I'll never have to endure, rejection I'll never have to feel, and pain I'll never begin to experience. How grateful I am, the extent that Jesus would go to deliver my soul from eternal hell and all that came with the cross. My soul Deliverer... for all of eternity...I love it.

Then I read in Mark 3:9, "So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him." Our Jesus Who knew that His time had not yet come and walked through a crowd that wanted to throw Him off a cliff? Our Jesus Who knew the prophecies that He had yet to fulfill in His ministry? Yes, He's our relatable Jesus Who also had an angel sent to minister to Him after His warfare in the wilderness. And now it's significant for us that He has His disciples prepare a place He can go so the multitude doesn't crush Him. Did you get that? "Lest they should crush Him."

He understands when our "multitudes" of problems, trials, troubles, pains, fears, tears or sorrows can crush us. He sees our thoughts that scan the hillside of our days covered in obstacles and impossibilities without number. And when His plan for us is not to "get in the boat and row to the other side," away from the multitude, you can rest assured that He's provided a small boat of safety. It's a place where He waits to deliver you in SPITE of the multitude. A place that puts you at a safe distance from the dangerous possibilities of the multitude. Those who put their trust in Him will never be ashamed (Rom. 10:11, Ps. 34:5).

I stood up from the couch with visions in my thoughts of all the places and times God has provided a boat...and nearly did a double-take to see if the carpeting underneath me was actually wood.

Seeing Grace Through the Fog

Coffee has been rendered inoperative this morning. Even at higher doses, there is only so much a person can imbibe without crossing the line and fulfilling the definition of an "addict."

Nevertheless, after a few quick dozes through prayer, I opened the Word and found the Lord waiting. He didn't mind the fog that permeated my thoughts. The Lord said in 2 Chronicles 6:1 that He would dwell in a thick cloud, so I was merely trying to be a gracious hostess and provide the thick cloud part.

You're probably familiar with the scene in Mark 3:1-5, when Jesus walked into a synagogue filled with critical eyes and fault-finding attitudes. Have you ever been in a crowd like that before? I'd rather do the polar plunge in the Antarctic than revisit some of the churches of my past. But here Jesus came and He brought a change in temperature. His eyes of grace and compassion found a man with a withered hand. I don't know how long this man may have been going to the synagogue, but in a place where psalms were sung, blessings given, and the scriptures read, he sat with a significant deformity. Whether he was born with this or it happened by some event, can you think of the implications it had in his life?

We use our hands to work, write, feel, touch, fight, love...the list is endless. But I've known what it's like to sit in the midst of a fellowship of believers, sing worship, hear the word of God, watch blessings given and received, and yet have this place in my soul that was withered and weakened. For me, a place that had been so wounded that reaching out, embracing, helping others, and even "feeling", seemed nearly impossible.

But then Jesus came. Religion and tradition didn't keep Him out. He can walk into any situation, any bar, any church and speak, teach, and touch people that need Him. And that day, He asked the man in the synagogue to no longer sit hidden among the others, but stand before all to see. Stand before the powerful eyes of criticism, spiritual pride, accusation, and legalism, and risk embarrassment or worse...in order to be touched, blessed, healed and strengthened by Jesus Himself. The man didn't realize that those spiritual leaders were actually much more handicapped than he. Their spiritual pride, arrogance and hypocrisy withered their character, atrophied their relationship with God and blinded their sight to truth.

May we never lose our vision of grace and truth that come by Jesus. May we never become so filled with the Word of God that we become proud of what we know rather than Who we know and who WE are in His light.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

"Break Through to Jesus"

"When they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was. So when they had broken through...". Mark 2:4

Second service ended, the sanctuary doors flew open, and within seconds, the lobby of the church resembled my last experience at Walmart on a Black Friday. I know I'm not the only one who longs for more space. Ever since I was nearly trampled by a stampede of people in Chicago years ago, my instinct is to avoid wherever crowds gather.

Not good for a pastor's wife.

But there are many pictures given to us in the gospels where people would have to make a brave decision to press through, crawl under, climb above or shout over the crowd of people that surrounded Jesus to reach Him. I can just imagine Zacchaeus hoisting up his Pharisaical robe, strapping his leather sandals tighter, and getting a splinter while climbing up a road-side tree to get a divine view. Can you feel the pointed pebbles and dust that pressed into the knees and scraped the palms of a woman weakened by years of hemorrhaging, merely to touch the hem of the Savior's seamless robe? I can hear whispering condemnations and feel the disapproving glares that a sinful woman had to endure as she wept in front of a crowd. Her perseverance enabled her to hear Jesus' audible affirmations of forgiveness that blanketed her shame with grace and rebuked all self-righteous and religious rejection.

What do you need to press past today to get to Jesus? What obstacles stand in seeming defiance to your reaching Him? Are you craving for a spiritual "break through"? Though the Lord's presence fills heaven and earth, even Jesus would rise before dawn to go to a solitary place to be with His Father (Mk.1:35). Every day will have its obstacles, (maybe not a rooftop that needs to be disassembled) but I pray your heart presses past, through, over and above to meet with Him. The One that has and is and always will be; the answer to every problem, the supplier of every need, and the filler of every longing in our soul.

"And there I will meet with you, and I will commune with you 

from above the mercy seat...of all things..." Exodus 25:22

What Is Love?

A little lisp snuck up behind me at the kitchen sink and said "I have a thur-prithe (surprise) for you Mommy! Squash your eye shut!"

The out of breath commander just lost her first two teeth and every word snares my attention. With both eyes obediently shut, I spun around with exaggerated excitement and responded, "Is it another dead worm?! Or a cool bug?! How about a stick..."

"Mommy! Thtick out your handth!"

It wasn't the familiar texture from the soft, spring dandelions I wanted to see, but the crooked-toothed smile beneath eyes yanked so wide open, it was easy to gaze on her perfect hazel eyes fully encased in white.

"WOW! These have to be the most beautiful spring flowers I've ever seen" I said honestly.

(Presume lisp) "Put these in water quick or they'll die. I picked them because I love you. More than the whole wide world. They're like the flowers in Edam and Ave's garden."

"Oh, I see. The same Edam and Ave you studied in Sunday School?" I asked with a restrained giggle.

But now I was talking to the back of a pink OshKosh shirt running away waving goodbye. I chased her with "I love you" and something sounding similar echoed in return. Didn't matter though. I got flowers.

I plucked down a shallow glass bowl from the cabinet to plop the flower heads in, added water and watched as the sunlight prismed (it's a new word) on the deck when i set it down. So this is love. It couldn't be more beautiful to this Mama's heart and yet such a perfect picture of MY love to my heavenly Father. A mixture of well-intentioned weeds with delicate flowers.

I smiled up at the sun and bathed in the grace of that thought. Then a dandelion prayer of praise with a bouquet of thanksgiving came from my heart as I handed it to my Father and said "I picked them because I love you."

A Worthy Audience to God

Have you ever started your morning in a half-dazed fog of reflections with aimless butterfly thoughts only to find that your time to spend with the Lord has come and gone?


Thankfully, it wasn't one of those mornings. That was yesterday. 


I actually slept well so I was able to identify the foreign white sprinkles scattered about the lawn while I stirred different white sprinkles in my syrup-thick coffee. Some use flat irons...I drink coffee grounds.


I took my usual position at the end of the couch and poured my heart out to the Lord in prayer. When I finally opened my Bible, I read through some of Exodus, echoed David's heart cry in a Psalm and started to travel to the gospels when my Bible dropped. It fell open to Haggai's powerful prophecy in chapter 2:4-9 and THEN my thoughts took flight and reflections of past conversations replayed like a video.

"...be strong says the Lord...for I am with you, says the Lord of hosts. For thus says the Lord...I will fill this house with glory...the glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts: and in this place will I give peace..." (excerpts)

These words were given to me by a godly saint many years ago as a word from the Lord for what He was going to do. I remembered all of the ways I thought the fulfillment of this prophecy might appear: the church filled with His glory, greater than ever before? Then the Lord's tender voice grabbed my attention as He said "the former days had thousands in the pews, expansions in construction, problems with space, abundance of activity, infectious joy, newly saved sinners being added..." and as I felt like I knew what would come next, the eyes of my heart turned away because I didn't want to hear about the area of ministry I was responsible for now in comparison to the past. Ouch.

"Shannon, what were your thoughts muttering prayerfully before you fell asleep last night?" (I was reading Ex.33)

"Moses spoke to you face to face Lord. I echoed his desire that craved Your Presence to never leave him. That he would know You and Your ways...and then, because he found grace in Your sight, You showed Him Your glory."

And then I remembered verse 21, "And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me..." and as He tucked Moses next to Him on a rock and covered him with His hand, God brought a manifestation of His glory; His goodness, to pass right in front of him.

"Shannon, for an audience of ONE, I displayed My glory. My glory...for the heart of ONE that loved Me, that loved My Presence, that desired to know My ways and interceded for the good of My people...I displayed My glory." 

And then the words "for the audience of one" echoed over and over again until it broke me. I understood the glory of His Presence in my own life...this audience of one (1 Cor.3:16, 6:19). And oh my..because of His grace...His Presence, goodness, and glory is continually seen in our church. His peace...not only fills my heart, it fills our home and church as well.

"And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped." Ex.34:8 


And so did I...this audience of one.

"For you are the temple of the living God." 2 Cor. 6:16b

Once There Was a Girl

About 4 months ago, I sat on the floor of my hotel room with Sherri Youngward, listening intently to her friend tell a story. Within minutes, my eyes welled up with tears while I listened to her tender, childlike rendition of the gospel. Suzanne Fischer will be going on a missions trip to Russia and could use financial support, but the last thing she would do is beg for money. If you'd like to go to her website to find out more or download this precious story for free, CLICK HERE.