Posted in Meditations
A former student of mine sent out this Thanksgiving story:
Here's a thought for y'all, as we chow down on turkey and stuffing. It's the story of the hymn "Now thank we all our God," which many of us have heard and sung in church. Enjoy.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Aneesh
Martin Rinkart, a Lutheran minister, was in Eilenburg, Saxony, during the Thirty Years’ War. The walled city of Eilenburg saw a steady stream of refugees pour through its gates. The Swedish army surrounded the city, and famine and plague were rampant. Eight hundred homes were destroyed, and the people began to perish. There was a tremendous strain on the pastors who had to conduct dozens of funerals daily. Finally, the pastors, too, succumbed, and Rinkart was the only one left—doing 50 funerals a day. When the Swedes demanded a huge ransom, Rinkart left the safety of the walls to plead for mercy. The Swedish commander, impressed by his faith and courage, lowered his demands. Soon afterward, the Thirty Years’ War ended, and Rinkart wrote this hymn for a grand celebration service. It is a testament to his faith that, after such misery, he was able to write a hymn of abiding trust and gratitude toward God.
Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!
All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.
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Date: Oct. 29, 2005
God Is Our Shield
Posted in Meditations
"After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: 'Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield,
your very great reward.'" Genesis 15:3 Our pastor preached
on this passage last week. Christians are spiritual
children of Abraham and have God as their shield and reward. This
week, I have been reflecting on how God has protected my family.
I recently posted about how God protected my parents from loss of property and identity theft.
On Friday evening, my husband James, came home quite shaken from a close call that he had when driving home from work. Someone driving in the far right lane came to a sudden stop. In the line up behind that car, someone following too closely rear-ended another car, bumping it into the middle lane. A car in the middle swerved into James' lane, nearly colliding with his car. He jerked his car onto the shoulder, struggling to avoid hitting the cement barrier. He careened around the car that nearly hit him and back into the far left lane. Moving so fast, his car fish-tailed four times with tires squeeling. Thankfully, he did not hit any other cars! Praise God for His protection!!
This reminded me of God's protection of my mother last year when something similar happened to her. One day as she drove home from work, a multiple car pile-up occurred. A vehicle hit her car from behind, shoving it up underneath a pickup in front. The truck's tires went up onto the roof of her car! Her car was totalled, but she was not seriously injured and got out of her car on the passenger side. A fireman told her that she could have been killed if she drove a lighter-weight car. Here is a picture of the pickup on her car:
(James saved this picture from the internet article about the accident in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.)
Our family has other stories that we can tell, praising God for His protection in potentially serious car accidents. Three other incidents come to my mind as I type this.
Currently, my sister Jackie and her husband, Luke, are ill. Luke had to go to the E.R. last night and was diagnosed with viral meningitis. Thankfully, he is home now and it looks like he is out of danger. Please pray for God's continued protection of their family.
This week, our family read Daniel chapter 3, about God's protection of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. I love the trio's statement to the king before being thrown in: "...our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."
I'm not trying to draw a direct comparison here between deliverance from harm in a car collision and deliverance from harm due to persecution for one's faith. But in either case, glory is due to God for His sovereignty in salvation.
And what about when a Christian is not protected from harm...and even suffers physical death? Our hearts still grieve the death of our young friend, Michael. But we can still praise God for Michael's salvation and for the hope of the resurrection of his body. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians: "...it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (1:20,21)
God is our shield and reward in life and in death. Praise the Lord!
I recently posted about how God protected my parents from loss of property and identity theft.
On Friday evening, my husband James, came home quite shaken from a close call that he had when driving home from work. Someone driving in the far right lane came to a sudden stop. In the line up behind that car, someone following too closely rear-ended another car, bumping it into the middle lane. A car in the middle swerved into James' lane, nearly colliding with his car. He jerked his car onto the shoulder, struggling to avoid hitting the cement barrier. He careened around the car that nearly hit him and back into the far left lane. Moving so fast, his car fish-tailed four times with tires squeeling. Thankfully, he did not hit any other cars! Praise God for His protection!!
This reminded me of God's protection of my mother last year when something similar happened to her. One day as she drove home from work, a multiple car pile-up occurred. A vehicle hit her car from behind, shoving it up underneath a pickup in front. The truck's tires went up onto the roof of her car! Her car was totalled, but she was not seriously injured and got out of her car on the passenger side. A fireman told her that she could have been killed if she drove a lighter-weight car. Here is a picture of the pickup on her car:
(James saved this picture from the internet article about the accident in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.)
Our family has other stories that we can tell, praising God for His protection in potentially serious car accidents. Three other incidents come to my mind as I type this.
Currently, my sister Jackie and her husband, Luke, are ill. Luke had to go to the E.R. last night and was diagnosed with viral meningitis. Thankfully, he is home now and it looks like he is out of danger. Please pray for God's continued protection of their family.
This week, our family read Daniel chapter 3, about God's protection of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. I love the trio's statement to the king before being thrown in: "...our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."
I'm not trying to draw a direct comparison here between deliverance from harm in a car collision and deliverance from harm due to persecution for one's faith. But in either case, glory is due to God for His sovereignty in salvation.
And what about when a Christian is not protected from harm...and even suffers physical death? Our hearts still grieve the death of our young friend, Michael. But we can still praise God for Michael's salvation and for the hope of the resurrection of his body. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians: "...it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (1:20,21)
God is our shield and reward in life and in death. Praise the Lord!
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Date: Sep. 29, 2005
What Is God?
Posted in Meditations
This is the question we are studying this week from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, using the devotional: Training Hearts Teaching Minds (see sidebar) which uses the scriptures summarized in the catechism.
Last week, someone in a homeschool discussion group told the story about how the Westminster Assembly came up with the answer to this question. I remembered the story and told it to my family during our family worship this week. I can't remember now exactly where I read this, but I just did a google search and came across the account at reformed.org which I'll quote here:
"There is one anecdote connected with the formation of the Shorter Catechism, both full of interest and so very beautiful that it must not be omitted. In one of the earliest meetings of the committee, the subject of deliberation was to frame an answer to the question, "What is God?" Each man felt the unapproachable sublimity of the divine idea suggested by these words; but who could venture to give it expression in human language! All shrunk from the too sacred task in awestruck, reverential fear. At length it was resolved, as an expression of the committees deep humility, that the youngest member should make the attempt. He modestly declined, then reluctantly consented; but begged that the brethren would first unite with him in prayer for divine enlightenment. Then in slow and solemn accents he thus began his prayer: "O God, thou art a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in thy being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." When he ceased, the first sentence of his prayer was immediately written by one of the brethren, read, and adopted, as the most perfect answer that could be conceived, as, indeed, in a very sacred sense, Gods own answer, given to prayer and in prayer, descriptive of himself. Who, then, was the youngest member of the committee? When we compare the birth-dates of the respective members of the committee, we find that George Gillespie was the youngest by more than a dozen years. We may, therefore, safely conclude that George Gillespie was the man who was thus spiritually guided to frame almost unconsciously this marvelous answer."
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Date: Sep. 24, 2005
A Harrowing Experience
Posted in Meditations
Through connections at work, James met a family today who lost everything in the Katrina hurricane. The single mom and her two children arrived in our city late last night after a three day bus trip.
The family lived in New Orleans. The mom sent her children to stay with relatives before Katrina, but she herself was still at home when the storm hit. She had to escape to the attic as the floodwaters rose. The waters even rose into the attic as she used a hammer to loosen nails in order to escape through the roof. The waters continued to rise, until she just had her nose above water. Though she can't swim, she had to bob up and down in the water to ram the roof with her head so that she could break through the boards she had loosened. Her house actually began to float in the floodwaters and rammed into another house and then went under some power lines. At that point, just her head was through the hole in the roof and she had to duck to avoid the lines.
She waited on her roof for two days without food and water. Her only companion was a rat. She saw an elderly neighbor on a roof nearby and helplessly watched when he fell into the water. She saw other bodies in the water as well.
She prayed through this whole ordeal.
James didn't get the details of her rescue, but she and her kids ended up in Baton Rouge in a house with 56 people. They had to leave again with the threat of Hurricane Rita.
Her cousin, who works at my husband's place of work, had a rental property which was vacant and was finally able to get money to the family to buy bus tickets.
This woman's experience reminds me about how frail life is and how much we depend upon the mercy of God. I hope to meet her and her family sometime.
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Date: Sep. 22, 2005
The Hope That We Have
Posted in Meditations
Recently, I read the blog of a Christian woman (not a hsblogger) who commented, "...but I am still a hopeless sinner." I'm guessing that if she really thought about what she was saying, she'd probably rephrase that statement. She probably meant that she still struggles with sin in her life, which is true of any Christian on this earth. However, a follower of Christ can never be called a "hopeless sinner"!
In Romans 6, Paul asks in verse 2 "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" That is a rhetorical question. The answer, of course, is that we can't live in sin if we have died to it. Paul continues on with a discussion about our being united with Christ in His death and in His resurrection and concludes by saying in verse 11: "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." He is telling us to re-align our thinking.
In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 17 says: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." Verse 21 tells us: "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." That is a startling statement! In Christ, we are becoming the righteousness of God. This is a promise full of hope! We still struggle with putting to death the remnants of sin in our lives, but we have a guarantee that in Christ, we will someday be completely free of sin!
In the New Testament, believers are no longer called sinners, but saints. We must dwell on who we ARE in Christ and who we ARE BECOMING to help us in our battle against sin.
Romans 6 continues on saying in verses 12-14: "Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."
In a similar vein, Ephesians 4 tells us to "...put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (vs. 22-24)
The New Testament constantly reminds us to remember who we are in Christ Jesus and to live in a manner worthy of the calling which we have received. Continuing to use the label of "hopeless sinner" is in a way forgetting the hope and the freedom that we have in Jesus. While acknowledging the continuing struggle with sin on the one hand, we should always be ready to thank the Lord that He has already won the battle. As Paul cried out: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24, 25)
Date: Sep. 13, 2005
Bedtime Conversation
Posted in Meditations
It has been a little over two weeks since my kids' good friend Michael died. Sophie told me a couple of times over the past week that she felt sad and missed Michael. I couldn't tell as well what the boys were thinking or feeling. Last night, when the boys went to bed, I asked Evan what he was thinking about Michael. Right away, his tears came. He told me that his best memory of Michael was the fort that they worked on together. Both he and Matthew cried for awhile and I stood up and bent down between the two bunks, giving hugs. After a while, remembering how Michael's dad sang Psalms to Michael on his last night, I sang Psalms 23 and 139 out of the Psalm book by the light of the boys' night light. The Psalms quieted our hearts and we talked for a little longer before the boys went to sleep.
As a homeschool mom, I spend a lot of time with my kids during the day, but I need to remember that bedtime can often be a time of deeper reflection and personal conversation with my children.
And we all miss Michael.
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Date: Sep. 4, 2005
Sermon Reflection
Posted in Meditations
At one point in his sermon today, Bob reminded us of Andy McCracken's sermon at Horn Creek on the book of James. Andy said that good works are useless for our salvation, but necessary for our chief end. The Westminster Shorter Catechism words it this way: "Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." Andy gave an historical illustration which I'll tell here in my own words...
Donald Cargill was a Covenanter minister in Scotland in the 17th century. He was born around the time that the Pilgrims journeyed to the New World. He was a minister at the time of the Restoration in 1660, when Charles II was restored to the throne (after the time of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell). Charles II had promised to adhere to the Solemn League and Covenant which declared the church of Scotland to be Presbyterian. As soon as Charles ascended the throne, he began to go back on his promise, declaring himself to be the head of the church and installing his bishops over the Church of Scotland. This was repugnant to the Covenanters who stood for King Jesus' rights as the sole head over His church. Charles offered an Indulgence to the Scottish ministers, allowing them to remain in the church if they acknowledged his authority over the church. Many of the ministers refused to compromise and began preaching in conventicles, which were secret open air church services on the moors of Scotland. Cargill was one of the ministers who would not compromise. This was a time of great persecution for the Covenanters who were fined, pursued, imprisoned and martyred. Cargill himself died a martyr's death.
When one of the ministers who had accepted the King's Indulgence heard of Cargill's rejection of the same, he asked, "What needs all of this ado? We will get heaven and they will get no more."
When Cargill heard it, he replied, "Yes, we will get more; we will get God glorified on earth, which is more than heaven."
Revelation 4:11 says, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."
Salvation is important; the Christian life begins there. But as Christians we need to continue on, getting God glory by our lives.
I also want to include here one comment that Cargill made before he died. He said, "I have been a man of great sins, but He has been a God of great mercies; and now, through His mercies, I have a conscience as sound and quiet as if I had never sinned." What a testimony!