Tag: Faith

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Saturday April 24, 2010

Steven and I were very blessed to attend a conference at one of our sister churches, about raising our children to face the future, full of faith and unafraid. The speakers were Doug and Nancy Wilson. The sessions were incredibly encouraging and convicting. What a blessing!! Lots of talking about loving our children, educating them, and disciplining them rightly. It was so excellent.
I’ve typed out some of my bullet-point notes, and hope you may glean some blessings from these as well. I may elaborate more on a couple of these points in the near future. Although, really, you should just order the cds of the conference to get the full measure of blessing. 🙂

  • The promises of God for the Kingdom are fulfilled over the course of generations, but more to the point, they are fulfilled by generations.
  • Proper eschatology gives us an arc of time, so we know where we are and where we are going. Since God’s promises are fulfilled over time, Christian child-rearing and education are intimately related to eschatology.
  • God is the Master Storyteller.
  • Comedies tend to culminate in a wedding — so does the Bible.
  • Covenantal mercy (i.e. in Psalm 103) is not a reward for being a perfect parent.
  • These promises are given to us by grace.
  • Generational connectedness = history.
  • You are  bringing up eternal beings.
  • Repetition in parenting does not mean you’re failing! God repeats Himself all the time! (Have you ever read Proverbs?)
  • In contrast to our feeble existence, the mercy of the Lord is not feeble. (Psalm 103:13-17)
  • Child rearing is generational training.
  • Things we do now matter forever.
  • God set eternity in our hearts; we are supposed to get the big picture.
  • One of the ways God grows us up into maturity is having us raise others up into maturity.
  • Are you training your progeny to be leaders or followers?
  • You want loyalty from your kids, not cookie cutter response.
  • The Law doesn’t grow you into maturity (alone) — grace does.
  • Respond to your kids the way God responds to you.
  • Over time sin matures; obedience matures; righteousness matures.
  • Young children thrive in an environment of strict, loving, predictable, and enforced discipline.
  • The only way your covenantal influence will extend over generations is if your biblical standards are internalized.
  • You don’t just want your kids to follow the standard, you want your kids to understand and love the standard.
  • All your parental efforts must themselves be ground in God’s grace, appropriated through faith.
  • You can extend grace to your children because you are a non-stop recipient of it (Eph 2:8-9).
  • If you don’t have a solid grasp of God’s sovereignty, you will parent in fear.
  • Godly Christian parenting looks an awful lot like hard work. But take into account God‘s strength and His enabling grace.
  • Grace accumulates, grace multiplies, grace grows richer & deeper.
  • It is grace to grow accustomed to grace.
  • The Scriptures are all of grace. The world around us is all grace. The breath in your lungs is grace, and the warmth of your feet right now is grace. The children around your table are grace. Receive them as grace, and give to them as grace.
  • Faith the size of a mustard seed in the right object (God) is enough — enormous faith in the wrong object (anything else), however, will not get you anywhere but disaster.
  • When your faith is weak, don’t take it out and look at it — it will grow weaker. Look to Christ. Look outside yourself and your circumstances.
  • Pray with big faith in your big God; don’t use escape hatches in your prayers (i.e. “if it be Your will.”) This is not praying with big enough faith. Ask big of Him.
  • When you’re motivated to discipline, you aren’t qualified; and when you’re qualified, you frequently aren’t motivated.
  • Motivation to discipline must come from another source than annoyance (i.e. your own obedience to God’s commands, and an overwhelming love for your children).
  • Grace is an everlasting waterfall with no top, no bottom, no sides, no front, and no back.
  • What is the thing that makes life hard? A misunderstanding of grace.
  • Psalm 127’s reference to children as arrows is not cutesy — it shows us that children are weapons. They go with us against the gates of Hell.
  • You want to bring up children who will stand with you in the gate.
  • Having more weapons (children) is not the point — having excellent weapons is.
  • Academic work is preparation for life, and preparation for life is a character issue.
  • The most difficult sins to see are the ones you thought were your virtues.
  • You need to raise kids with three qualities in mind: Loyalty, Courage, and Content.
  • Hard teaching produces soft hearts; soft teaching produces hard hearts.
  • School is boot camp — not the war.
  • You must shape and steer your child’s soul and spirit, not break it.
  • Love your children to pieces — this secures their loyalty.
  • Put them in situations where they can fail — and teach them what to do when they fail, how to get back up.
  • Courage is secured by sending your kids out.
  • Courage is not a separate virtue, but the testing point of all the virtues.
  • One of the principal glories of education is learning how to throw down with biblical standards and in biblical ways.
  • Mothers must put on honor, strength, integrity, and courage in order to smile at the future. (Proverbs 31:25)
  • Worry is not limited to motherhood. As women, it is our tendency. We must have faith instead of fear.
  • God suits our afflictions to the needs of our souls.
  • God is going to give us tests over the material He is teaching us. But His tests are all open book!
  • God loves to bless us in our children and grandchildren. (Psalm 112:1-2)
  • We give our children to God even before they are conceived, and we continue to give them to God.
  • Our children are to grow up knowing who they are. Not only blood family, but church community. Who are their people?
  • As far as your earthly ministry goes with your husband, your central and first priority is always your kids.
  • Emphasize to your children that they come first (not before the marriage relationship, but before other relationships, before the laundry, before your hobbies, before your perfect house, before your perfect schedule). Let them know they are your priority.
  • We are raising up the next generation, and that is so much bigger than we can see.
  • We must view our home as an oasis for our husband and children. It must have an aroma of grace and fresh bread.
  • We want our children to grow up in a place that is friendly to them.
  • A worrisome mother will either become repellent to her children, or just plain ruin them.
  • Be mindful not to instill fearfulness into others. Encourage instead.
  • Doubts and fears don’t have answers.
  • Learn to distinguish between the voices of the Devil and the Holy Spirit.
  • Get to know your vulnerabilities so you can control them.
  • Pray preventatively. Strengthen the walls that are weak in your city.
  • Dress yourself in submission to God and to your husband.
  • Do not engage fear. Ignore it. Don’t let it in when it comes knocking — it’s hard to evict once you let it in.
  • God never gives us commands without the means to do them.
  • Leave your children an inheritance of joy: memories, stories, integrity, Sabbath tables, laughter, forgiveness, humility, grace, etc.
  • The duties of a godly parent are profound and challenging.
  • Parenting is completely dependent on the grace of God (like everything else).
  • Parents should love mercy.
  • Mercy is principled, tough, courageous; not lazy, slack, or relative. Mercy is mercy!
  • You can correct your kid because you love him too much to let him grow up that way (the right reason), or you can correct your kid because you’re annoyed and have a headache (the wrong reason).
  • When we stumble or offend little ones, we are refusing to let mercy triumph over judgment. (James 2:13)
  • Faithful parents = full of faith parents.
  • Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises in the Bible. His coming fulfilled God’s faithfulness to generations.
  • Promises to parents are based on the unchanging character of God.
  • Psalm 102:25-27 doesn’t tell us what God can do, but what He will do. This is based squarely on His unchanging character.
  • Parents should always desire to be like God in their relationship to their children. But when we think to apply this, we gravitate to what we think God is like instead of what God reveals Himself to be like.
  • Keep life simple. Keep the rules simple and easy to memorize.
  • Don’t multiply opportunities for disobedience.
  • Reduce the number of commands you issue by about 90%, and then enforce all those commands. Don’t exasperate your children. Remember their frame.
  • A parent who disciplines effectively is refusing to allow his child to make himself unlovely.
  • Discipline is corrective, and it is applied for the sake of the one receiving it. It is not punitive, and it is not rendered for the sake of the one giving it.
  • Discipline, rightly understood, is not an exception to the rule of delighting in your children, it is a principal expression of it.
  • All who love, discipline (Proverbs 13:24). But it does not follow from this that all who discipline, love. A child must grow up in, be surrounded by, and be nourished in, the love of God revealed for His people in the Word Incarnate and the Word revealed. This is the context in which godly child-rearing occurs, and outside of which it cannot occur.
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Thursday April 22, 2010

Psalm 6

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments; according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.

O LORD, rebuke me not in Your anger,
   nor discipline me in Your wrath.
(My God and Father, be merciful to me. Disciple me according to Your grace, and deal gently with my heart. I feel so vulnerable and weak, but I desire to seek after You and Your kingdom.)
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing;
    heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled.
(Please, Lord, yes, be gracious. Languishing means feeling weak and feeble; Lord, my heart and my spirit feel that way. Even my hands and body begin to feel it. Like David, I too am troubled down to my marrow. I seek Your healing, both physically and spiritually.)
   But You, O LORD— how long?
(My Lord and King, it feels like You tarry. Please make haste!)

Turn, O LORD, deliver my life;
   save me for the sake of Your steadfast love.
(Save me from grief, save me from sorrow, save me from Satan’s wiles. Turn the direction of my heart, my longing, my life toward You and conform my will to Yours. For the sake of You and Your kingdom, please do these things, but also for my good, dear Lord, as Your daughter upon her knees.)
For in death there is no remembrance of You;
   in Sheol who will give You praise?
(Give me remembrance of Your mercy, and give me strength to praise You wherever I go.)

I am weary with my moaning;
   every night I flood my bed with tears;
   I drench my couch with my weeping.
(It seems as though I should be properly dehydrated like a raisin by now. I am so tired of crying myself to sleep, and awaking in the morning to terrible dreams that simply bring tears afresh. Grief and sorrow are wearing. Physically and emotionally tiring. Please give me strength, for the tears keep coming.)
My eye wastes away because of grief;
   it grows weak because of all my foes.
(My eye, my discernment, my seer of beauty – it fades. Grief makes it hard to discern, hard to see the beauty. I want to discern rightly according to Your will, and I want to see the beauties of Your hand all around me. But My foes feel too strong: Satan attacks when he knows my armor is weakened. He is wiley and cunning. He sends pangs into my heart when I do not desire the arrows or stings. These foes must be fought! Dear God, enable me.)

Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
(Yes, Lord, enable me to banish Satan and his army!)
   for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
(Oh Father, listen to my cry; do not turn me aside!)
The LORD has heard my plea;
   the LORD accepts my prayer.
(Thank You, my King, for the assurance that my pleas and prayers do not fall upon deaf ears. Thank you for hearing me and accepting me.)
All my enemies shall be ashamed and greatly troubled;
   they shall turn back and be put to shame in a moment.
(Oh Lord, this is victory indeed! My enemies of Satan, sin, and death shall fall into their own snares! You have overcome them all! When You but speak the word, they shall crumble and disintegrate, and oh how glorious! Put them to shame. Trample them under Your feet. You have conquered sin and death. Satan is thrown from his throne. Comfort my heart with this knowledge. And bring it to mind when I feel my enemies overtaking me. They have no power over me. I am Yours.)

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Tuesday April 20, 2010

All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong
Ye clouds that sail in Heaven along,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou rising moon, in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
Make music for thy Lord to hear,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright,
That givest man both warmth and light.

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Dear mother earth, who day by day
Unfoldest blessings on our way,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
The flowers and fruits that in thee grow,
Let them His glory also show.

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

And all ye men of tender heart,
Forgiving others, take your part,
O sing ye! Alleluia!
Ye who long pain and sorrow bear,
Praise God and on Him cast your care!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

And thou most kind and gentle Death,
Waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
And Christ our Lord the way hath trod.

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship Him in humbleness,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One!

O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

~Francis of Assisi, cir­ca 1225 (Can­ti­co di frat­re so­le, Song of Bro­ther Sun). He wrote this hymn short­ly be­fore his death, but it was not pub­lished for al­most 400 years. Trans­lat­ed to Eng­lish by William H. Draper for a children’s Whit­sun­tide fes­ti­val in Leeds, Eng­land; first ap­peared in the Pub­lic School Hymn Book, 1919~

Thou hidden source of calm repose,
Thou all sufficient love divine,
My help and refuge from my foes,
Secure I am if Thou art mine;
And lo! from sin and grief and shame
I hide me, Jesus, in Thy Name.

Thy mighty Name salvation is,
And keeps my happy soul above;
Comfort it brings, and power and peace,
And joy and everlasting love;
To me with Thy dear Name are given
Pardon and holiness and Heaven.

Jesus, my all in all Thou art,
My rest in toil, my ease in pain,
The healing of my broken heart,
In war my peace, in loss my gain,
My smile beneath the tyrant’s frown,
In shame my glory and my crown.

In want my plentiful supply,
In weakness my almighty power,
In bonds my perfect liberty,
My light in Satan’s darkest hour,
In grief my joy unspeakable,
My life in death, my Heaven in hell.

~Charles Wesley, “Hymns and Sac­red Po­ems“, 1749~

Psalm 4
(With interspersed thoughts by me, praying this psalm, in italics.)

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness!
(Sometimes I feel like I am literally begging You to answer. And sometimes I can’t tell if you do.)
   You have given me relief when I was in distress.
(You are my only relief. My distress chases me daily. Continue to be my relief!)
   Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
(Hear me, please. Listen to the cries of your maidservant. Have mercy on my humble estate.)

O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
   How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?
                    Selah
(Oh Lord, sometimes I feel like my own honor is shameful. I feel tempted to love vanity and lies, as it is sometimes easier than loving righteousness and truth, for the devil is sugar-coated and cunning. Cause me to be honorable. And cause me to not only seek righteousness and truth, but to love it with every bone in my body.)

But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for Himself;
   the LORD hears when I call to Him.
(Lord, I am Yours; You have called me and adopted me as Your child. As my Father, hear my prayers, my calls, my cries, my pleas.)

Be angry, and do not sin;
    ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
                     Selah
(So often, Lord, I feel anger bubbling up inside. Sometime it is righteous anger, and sometimes it is not. Forgive me, Father, for sinning in anger. Teach me to have anger only as You do. As I silently lie here and ponder You and Your kingdom, Your people and Your ways; teach me righteous love, righteous compassion, and righteous anger. I am angry at sin, at death, at their consequences.)

Offer right sacrifices,
   and put your trust in the LORD.
(I bring you a broken spirit, my Lord, a broken and contrite heart. Be please to accept these sacrifices, as I praise You both in joy and in tears. Cause me to trust You more and more each day, and lead me paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake.)

 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
    Lift up the light of Your face upon us, O LORD!”
(People have asked me recently why I trust You. And how I know that You lift the light of Your face upon us. Of this I am confident, though: You do, and You will. Show us some good, my Lord, according to Your great measure of mercies.)
You have put more joy in my heart
   than they have when their grain and wine abound.
(The joy in my heart comes from You, from Your salvation, from Your promises to me as Your child. All the promises of earth and vanity are nothing but vapors and lies. Remind me daily, my King, to drink from the well of joy You have placed in my heart by Your grace.)

In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
   for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.
(Thank You for peace, for rest, for eternal safety in Your bosom. Thank You, my Father, for these blessings! Bless and keep us, and make Your face to shine upon us, lift up Your countenance upon us, and give us peace. You are our shepherd and captain. Keep us mindful of Your careful, gentle hand; show us Your mighty protection and wise guiding.)

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Wednesday April 14, 2010

I needed these beautiful, powerful little reminders today, and thought I would share them with you.
Emphases mine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know all created power should sink under me if I should lean down upon it,
and therefore it is better to rest on God than sink or fall;
and we weak souls must have a bottom and being place,
for we cannot stand out alone.
Let us then be wise in our choice and choose and wail our own blessedness,
which is to trust in the Lord.

Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that makest deep furrows on my soul?
I know He is no idle husbandman, He purposeth a crop.

How sweet a thing were it for us to learn to make our burdens light
by framing our hearts to the burden, and making our Lord’s will a law.

It is not the sunny side of Christ that we must look to, and we must not forsake Him for want of that;
but must set our face against what may befall us,
in following on till He and we be through the briers and bushes on the dry ground.
Our soft nature would be borne through the troubles of this miserable life in Christ’s arms.
And it is His wisdom, who knoweth our mould, that His bairns go wet-shod and cold-footed to heaven.

My shallow and ebb thoughts are not the compass Christ saileth by.
I leave His ways to Himself, for they are far, far above me…
There are windings and to’s and fro’s in His ways, which blind bodies like us cannot see.

He taketh the bairns in His arms when they come to a deep water;
at least, when they lose ground, and are put to swim, then His hand is under their chin.

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Wednesday April 7, 2010

Lord of the brooding blue
Of pleasant summer skies,
Lord of each little bird that through
The clear air flies,
‘Tis wonderful to me
That I am loved by Thee.

Lord of the blinding heat,
Of mighty wind and rain,
The city’s crowded street,
Desert and peopled plain,
‘Tis wonderful to me
That I am loved by Thee.

Lord of night’s jeweled roof,
Day’s various tapestry,
Lord of the warp and woof
Of all that yet shall be,
‘Tis wonderful to me
That I am loved by Thee.

Lord of my merry cheers,
My grey that turns to gold,
And my most private tears
And comforts manifold,
‘Tis wonderful to me
That I am loved by Thee.

~Amy Carmichael~

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Monday April 5, 2010

2 Corinthians 12:8-10
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.


I have been feeling emotionally weakened the last couple of days.

I am searching for sufficient grace.
I am glad that I don’t have to look far.
I don’t honestly even have to look at all.
God provides it.
Christ’s power may rest on me & fill me in my weakness.

So here I am.
Weak in spirit, and about to feel very weak in body. (it’s infusion week!)
I am not afraid to proclaim it.
For Christ is sufficient.
And His grace is abounding.

I am weak.
Therefore I am strong.
Amen.

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Sunday April 4, 2010

CHRIST IS RISEN!
HE IS RISEN, INDEED!

Praise to the Lord, our Father, our Savior, our indwelling Spirit ~ He alone has triumphed over sin and death, conquering even the grave. Rejoice, for He and His people are free of bondage to death, free to eternal life and perfect resurrection. Amen!

~~~~~~~~~~

Now let the vault of Heav’n resound
In praise of love that doth abound,
“Christ hath triumphed, alleluia!”
Sing, choirs of angels, loud and clear,
Repeat their song of glory here,
“Christ hath triumphed, Christ hath triumphed!”
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Eternal is the gift He brings,
Wherefore our heart with rapture sings,
“Christ hath triumphed, Jesus liveth!”
Now doth He come and give us life,
Now doth His presence still all strife
Through His triumph; Jesus reigneth!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

O fill us, Lord, with dauntless love;
Set heart and will on things above
That we conquer through Thy triumph,
Grant grace sufficient for life’s day
That by our life we ever say,
“Christ hath triumphed, and He liveth!”
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

Adoring praises now we bring
And with the heavenly blessèd sing,
“Christ hath triumphed, Alleluia!”
Be to the Father, and our Lord,
To Spirit blest, most holy God,
Thine the glory, never ending!
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

~Paul Strodach (1876-1947)~

~~~~~~~~~~

The promise of the resurrection is especially precious to us this Easter, as we have more children in heaven this year than we had ever previously imagined. While the worship service this morning was beautiful (complete with trumpets, trombone, organ, piano, choir, singing, Scripture, Lord’s Supper…), it was also cutting. Speaking of resurrection is always bittersweet for us. It reminds us of our children. It reminds us of future hope. And hope is just so hard right now that it is hard to pretend anymore. I am thankful for Christ’s death, because it lead to resurrection ~ and because it is a reminder that my children, who are ultimately His children, have also triumphed over death. And someday I too will succumb to the dust of the earth, and I too will overcome death for life.

Resurrection.

Anastasis.

Today I am especially thankful.

Praise the Lord! Alleluia! Amen!

~~~~~~~~~~

1 Peter 1:3
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…!”

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Saturday April 3, 2010

I feel like the feelings of ‘today’ rather epitomize where I am in life.
Yesterday was Good Friday.
Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday.
How do you keep faith and hope alive during Saturday?

That’s when Jesus’ followers thought all was lost and they were overwhelmed by grief, for they had just buried their Son/Brother/Teacher/Friend. (Did they know they had just buried their Savior??) Did they know the Resurrection was coming?

Saturday -today- is that time of waiting between the terrible darkness of Good Friday and the glory of Resurrection Sunday truth. When Jesus’ people did not know whether or not there would be glorious resurrection.

In some ways, this last year has felt like one long Good Friday for me, and now I am in the Saturday of waiting. Wondering what is going to happen. Knowing that there will be some sort of resurrection (when I die, if nothing else), but wondering where, when, how…

How do I keep faith and hope not only in God but in His works and in His people, when I feel like the grief is too fresh and any sort of resurrection is beyond my reach or too far away??

I want to experience His power and glory apart from getting the desires of my own heart. I want to know His power and glory even in my weakest and darkest moments.
Because, ultimately, I want His people & the world to see my joy is because of who He is and what He accomplished at THE Resurrection — not just my joy if/when He fulfills the desires He has put in my heart.

So today as we prepare for and await Resurrection Sunday, remember that today is a day of wondering, a day of fresh grief, a day of the unknown.

I feel, still, like it is a day that epitomizes this season of my life.

May God be glorified. May He be close.
May we praise Him rightly tomorrow, in glory and truth and righteousness, as we remember Jesus’ resurrection, as we look ahead to the final Resurrection, and as we look for little resurrections in our lives!

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Saturday March 20, 2010

“Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.”
James 5:13

The New Testament has numerous references to suffering in relation to Christ & His Kingdom: sharing His sufferings (2 Corinthians 1:5, Philippians 3:10, 2 Timothy 2:3, 1 Peter 4:13), suffering for the Kingdom of God (2 Thessalonians 1:5), suffering for the Gospel (2 Timothy 1:8). And these, of course, are just the first instances that pop up; there are many more, should you wish to study it out more in-depth.

But anyway, Scripture talks a lot about suffering — nobody can dispute that. One of the biggest books in the Bible is all about it: Job. Scripture connects suffering to glory (Romans 8:18, Ephesians 3:13, Hebrews 2:9, 1 Peter 1:11, 1 Peter 4:13, 1 Peter 5:1), mostly in reference to Christ but also in reference to His people. So this morning I have been pondering how my own suffering is connected to glory.
In the midst of suffering, it simply feels -well, honestly- sorrowful. It can feel shameful. Even overwhelmingly dire. I would, most days, just rather give up altogether. Where is the glory?, we wonder. It is future glory. Gold is beautiful and glorious, but while it is in the refining fire, beware: it is brittle and hot and not to be envied. It is the after-effect that is shiny and precious. (Zechariah 13:9 and 1 Peter 1:7 refer to this.)

I don’t like suffering. (Who does?) But the fact is, we all suffer. In different ways, at different times.
Sometimes I wonder how the Scriptural references to suffering impact me and my own suffering. It talks about suffering with Christ, but am I being physically mocked, persecuted, and tortured because of my faith? It talks about suffering for the Kingdom and suffering for the Gospel, but -again- is that what I am doing?
Sometimes it is hard to see the connection.
It is hard to see how my suffering (or your suffering) is sharing in the sufferings of Christ, is suffering for the sake of the Kingdom of God, is suffering for the sake of the Gospel.

But I am sharing in the sufferings of Christ — I am suffering -grieving- because sin inhabits this world, and death came through sin (Romans 5:12). My suffering produces Christlikeness.
I am suffering for the sake of the Kingdom of God — I am suffering as we pursue growing the Kingdom of God, in Heaven if not on earth (Matthew 19:14, Luke 18:29). My suffering preaches the Kingdom.
I am suffering for the sake of the Gospel — the Gospel is all about Resurrection (John 11:24-25), and there is nothing I speak of more often & intently than that (Romans 6:5, 1 Peter 1:3). My suffering proclaims the Gospel.

In my suffering, there is nothing I want more than to bring glory to God because of His faithfulness and endurance. He has overcome the world (John 16:33). Amen!

This is what it is to share in Christ’s sufferings, to suffer for the Kingdom and the Gospel — to faithfully endure by the power of God’s grace, and to proclaim it to the nations.

So today while I sit here suffering, grieving for my children, may I also be enabled by the power & grace of God to look ahead toward future glories. May I somehow see through my vale of tears that there is a glorious hope, redemption, and resurrection. There may yet be these things here on earth ere I die. And if not, if the Lord should see fit to fill each one of my remaining days with suffering & grief, may He still cause me to praise His name for the knowledge that there is heavenly hope awaiting me. And that, if nothing else, is glorious beyond measure.

John MacArthur (not always, but sometimes, a good read) and Toby Sumpter (not just sometimes, but always, a good read) have thought-provoking, excellent things to say on the subject of Christian suffering. Go take peeks. And join me in prayer today. Is anyone among you suffering??

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Monday March 15, 2010

Opening a can of worms can be so… wormy. 🙂

I guess my previous post was meaning to clarify myself, but maybe it was just digging further into the can. That’s quite possible (and that’s okay – I’d love to learn how to eat fried worms, lol). In my experience, it is desperately hard to tell tone, inflection, and even meaning sometimes when something is written. You can’t see facial expression or always discern sarcasm. And although sometimes I use italics, sometimes I use them too often or not enough. And aren’t you left sometimes thinking, “is she talking about me?!” (or not). So yeah – wormy. 🙂

Blogs are funny. There are lots of different kinds of blogs, and my blog tends to fall somewhere into the realm of an online journal. Pictures and personal updates, things I read, things I cook, thing I make – yep, I guess it’s pretty much all about me, me, me. That’s how most personal blogs end up being, when you grind them down to brass tacks. All I am doing is sharing my experience. That’s all I know. So it’s all I feel comfortable sharing about here – my experience.

If you look at my recently created little “tag cloud” (as I think my hubby called it), you’ll notice that “grief” is pretty  much the largest word. That’s because it has the most tags. And that‘s because this last year has been a year of grief for me. People tend to blog about their experiences – and as I said, I fall into that category. I blog about what I am doing, thinking, reading, cooking… and so yes, for right now, a large part of my blogging falls into the grief category. Because that is where God has me. I am learning to be thankful for that, and God’s enabling grace causes me to resist becoming bitter. And I give all the glory and praise for that to God! I sincerely hope that my tag cloud will change one day soon. That the word grief will become smaller amongst the other words. And that it will not be the majority of my experience, and therefore the majority of what I share. But for now, that’s a large portion of what you get here on my blog. Pray with me that it won’t be like that forever. 🙂

I love to pray for people. I love to encourage people.
Those are what some people call my “spiritual gifts.”
I inherited that from my mother. 🙂
And no, I don’t always have the right words (if you’ve ever gotten an “encouraging” note from me, I frequently say that flat-out), and I don’t always know what you are feeling, suffering, or going through.
And yes, I too love to be prayed for. I love to be told that I am being prayed for. I love getting flowers, cards, emails, hugs, coffee, muffins, dinner, blog comments — those are a few ways people have reached out to encourage me when the times are tough. And I just simply love it when people reach out to encourage me – because I know that takes faith, courage, and love. I know that, and I am thankful. So THANK YOU. 🙂

The hard thing is: everyone suffers.
And everyone suffers differently.
God gives us different problems and different experiences. And even if we go through the “same” pain or suffering, we each handle it differently. For instance, if two women lost their husbands in the same head-on automobile collision, the two wives would likely grieve very differently, handle it very differently, and experience two different things – even though on the outside it would look like the same thing.
So when I say “you can’t understand” what I am suffering, it’s true. (To an extent.) Just like I can’t understand your own suffering. That isn’t a bad thing, and I never mean it to come across as vindictive or accusatory. Simply a fact. We will never wear each others’ shoes.

In the online forums in which I participate, I have met with hundreds of women who have lost babies. Some have lost many more than I have, some have only lost one, etc. And although sometimes we know the right thing to say, oftentimes we don’t. And that’s okay. We are reaching out with the comfort with which we have been comforted. And that’s all anyone (including our Lord) can ask of us. I’ve never asked more than that from any of you, my friends & family.

I have a couple of friends whose husbands have been out of work for over a year.
We know a family who has to sell their house ultimately because the husband is out of work.
I have a dear friend whose mother has recently fought through her second bout of breast cancer.
There are three different families we know who have children in rebellion, who have been excommunicated from the covenant community.
One couple we are friends with always has premature babies: they’ve had three babies (two have been in the NICU) in the last 35 months.
One of my friends suffers from Crohn’s disease.
A family at our church is trying to adopt twin boys while raising support for the mission field.

These are just a few forms of suffering that are effecting people that I know and love. These are people that I minister to, encourage, and pray for although I have never been in their shoes.
I do it imperfectly.
I don’t know if it is honestly encouraging for them or not.
But the Lord has called me to encourage them and pray for them in my imperfect ways, and I make an effort to do so, praying that God would give me the words and the timing and the resources to be a true comfort.

So sure, you may not “completely understand,” as that would be impossible (and I am not asking you to). But you try. And you take me before the throne of our Heavenly Father. And that is beautiful. And I can’t tell you how thankful I am for that. And how thankful I am that you tell me. Because otherwise, I just wouldn’t know. 🙂

And yes, some people are called to share their trials (and blessings) with others (like I am), while some do not feel that calling. My personal experience is that I feel called to it. I said that I could never ignore the lives of my children, but I didn’t mean to imply that someone who keeps a miscarriage (or another form of suffering) to themselves is necessarily ignoring or forgetting their child. My family, and our experience, and what the Lord has called us to – that’s all I was referring to. I can’t pretend to know the intricacies of anyone else’s losses, sufferings, or pains. Even if someone else’s suffering is because of miscarriage. Some people call me an expert on that, but I’m not. Certainly we all have different experiences, different callings, and different coping mechanisms. I am the first one to accept that.

So why do I share my experiences? Why do I share my grief? Why do I share the lives of my children with you?
To bring glory to God.
To show His faithfulness both at midnight and at noonday.
So that someday when I am no longer walking through the valley, you can rejoice even more with me when I am dancing on the mountaintops.
And in case someone else in a similar situation to mine comes by my blog, maybe I can even offer practical advice (from my experience) that other women wouldn’t be equipped with. Who knows.

May God use me –even me– and my feeble little blog to show forth His praises, His providence, and His comfort.
It’s all I can share – it’s my experience