STARGAZER

 

¹⁴ Do everything without complaining or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the Universe as you hold out the word of life.” Philippians 2:14,15

I don’t know the names of many constellations or of many individual stars but I like to look at them and try to imagine what it’s like there.

I walk at night before bedtime. My best quiet time, best Jesus time, best prayer time. I look up at the stars shining, appreciating the One who made them, the One who walks the night here with me. I wish I could know the names of them all.   

In the Millennial Kingdom, Earth will still be the old Earth, the Universe the old Universe. I look forward to walking under the stars there with Jesus, asking Him to name them all for me. I’ll be in my new body then. I’ll have my sharp new mind, too.  

But on the New Earth, Jesus will be the only Light we’ll have, the only Light we’ll need. No night sky. No visible stars. No beautiful dark velvet setting.

I’ll really miss that.

But everything there will be way better than we can imagine. I asked Jesus: “What can be better than walking under the stars with You?”

And that verse above hit me. People!!!

Our new bodies will be like His resurrection body. He could walk through a closed door anytime He wanted to just because He wanted to. Same with us. If we want to go to the bottom of the sea, just think and we’re there. If we want to go to the top of the sky, bingo! People all over the sky, shining like the stars in the Universe! Because our new bodies might have a glow to them. If not in themselves, then certainly as reflectors of His own glow.

What stories we’ll have to tell, individual stars and constellations. How did you meet each other on Earth? How did you help others to write their stories? How did you help each other to live them out?

My new eyes might be able to see them all at once. My new mind might be able to wrap itself around all of them. I might have enough brain power to know—and remember—every single name.

But we don’t have to wait until then to shine like the stars. We’re not supposed to wait. Supposed to shine like stars into the darkness of the world of here and now.  We can’t leave anyone to wander around in the dark here and miss the door, because the more who make it to Heaven, the brighter that sky will be and the greater God’s glory will be. Don’t let Satan rob Him of even one soul.  

I won’t have to miss the stars, after all Avi. I’ll be walking there with You, looking up at all the people who want to check it out! All the saints up there exploring the new universe, the sky full of them, reflecting the light of the Son, shining like stars in the Universe!

But for now, help me, help us. Wipe off any dirt we’ve picked up from this broken world so we can shine, shine, shine!  

In Your Holy Name, Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BEST IS YET TO COME

…because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 NIV

News headline: “2020—the worst year ever!”

Definitely not. Several years in my past give 2020 a run for the money. With the recent elections going the way they did, the next few years also promise to be in the running—but for me, no contest. 2020 was just a wrinkle in time. I’ve already been through the worst I’ll ever have to go through—because I’ll never again have to go through anything alone. Even if I lose everything I have here, even if I lose the entire family God has rooted me in, I’ll still have my Heavenly Hope. The love of the One who holds me so safe is way bigger and stronger than anything or anyone else in the whole of His creation.

In the meantime, He’s got big plans for me, plans to prosper and not to harm. (Jeremiah 29:11) Nothing can happen to me unless He lets it, and if He lets it, He has a good reason.

So, no matter how bad it is or how bad it gets, I have this forever hope:

Jesus loves me, He will stay

Close beside me all the way

He's prepared a Home for me

And someday His face I'll see

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

For the Bible tells me so. 

Avi, so many today are chasing the elusive little gods of money, fame and power, running over any and everyone who happens to be in their way. So many are hopeless, looking for a way out that just doesn’t seem to be there. Blind leading the blind, blind chasing the blind, stumbling over the blind, no guide dogs in sight. You are the Light of the World, Avi. You are the God who came to live among us, to heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, the brokenhearted. Help us now, Avi. Heal our nation. Heal our churches. Draw us back to You.

In Your Holy Name, Amen.

 

 

HOSPITALITY

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. By this all men will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34,35 NASB

Just listened on-line to a pastor who’s guest preaching for us next Sunday. His subject was the nature of the church, the mandate to fellowship, to communion, to hospitality. All true for all of us. But each of us is given different talents, different personalities, different pathways and opportunities to express and exercise that mandate.

I’m thinking that preacher is going to be pretty disappointed in me.

The basic difference in extroverts and introverts is in how they re-energize and refresh themselves. Extroverts draw energy from social interaction, introverts from quality solitude. Especially, for the believer, solitude with God.

Every one of us finite beings has a bucket of social energy, different sizes, different shapes. Every bucket loses energy through evaporation. An extrovert’s bucket may be wide or not so wide, but it’s deep and strong and tight. Even if a major kick should make a dent and slosh some energy out, the bucket seems to have an inner pump that only fails in times of too much aloneness.

Introverts' buckets, on the other hand, are of a more delicate material. While all are wide for maximum evaporation, they vary in depth according to how severe the “disability”* is. All have pinholes, few or many, that accelerate the energy loss.

Normal—and doable.

But if someone comes along and kicks a hole in that fragile bucket, especially if the kick lands low, all the energy floods out and is gone. It can take a long time to let Jesus repair and refill it.

I’m a strong introvert with a peculiar assignment: to touch individuals with hands, heart, voice, pen. I like people, care about them, enjoy them very much in small doses. But too many people at once, or just one or two for too long, especially if they’re gathered in my only place of solitude (no escape), or if they’re pressuring me to spend myself in ways they see fit, then I’m flat out empty. The first thing to go (faster these days) is my priceless creative energy. Too long without that and I’m sucked down a whirlpool and spat out of my own bucket. Nothing left to give to anyone.

I’m a one-on-one person. When I hear stories of hunger or abuse or persecution far or near it touches me—but it doesn’t touch me. I can’t relate to faceless masses on an emotional level. But when it’s one face, one heart, I go to a level so deep that many people would drown.

My spiritual gift is mercy. My personality type is INFJ. My focus is my God—but when I’ve permitted people to drain me, when I’ve failed to allow for my own legitimate needs, when I’ve had no time or space or energy to think and process whatever life has handed me (or thrown at me), I’m not good company even for Jesus.

Hospitality wide and general, or hospitality more keenly focused? Which is more important?

Trick question. It’s neither.

Avi, toda. Thanks. Seems like my vocabulary is pretty limited here, but since that’s one of Your bestest, most favorite words, I’m thinking You’re OK with it. Thank You for the way You’ve made me and gifted me with so much to share, too much for me to carry. Thank You for carrying it for me, for doing the work I cannot do (Psalm 138:8), and for pointing out people who need Your touch through me.

In Your Holy Name, Amen                                                  

* Myself, I consider this “disability” an amazing major strength, an advantage that has drawn me into a deeper dependence on and closer relationship with Jesus.

THE SONG IS WRONG

Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, “Abba! Father!” Galatians 4:6 NASB

Listening to an old Rusty Goodman song, “Who Am I?” * Two questions in there. Who? And why? Who am I to deserve what my God did for me? Why would He go to the cross for me? The song reaches a conclusion: “The answer I may never know.”

The song is wrong.

The answers to both questions are so simple that even the youngest child knows them instinctively. The second question first. How could he ever love undeserving me so?  

How could He not love me? It isn’t about me; it’s about Him. He is love and love finds its only true substance in Him. He can’t not love. He cannot be untrue to Himself. (II Timothy 2:13)    

The harder question is, “Why me?” Again, the answer slaps me upside the face. I’m His kid.

I can hear my argumentative nephew now: “Well, tell me this then. When He died, you hadn’t even been thought of. Your great, great, great grandpappy hadn’t even been born. And after you were born, you weren’t His yet because you hadn’t accepted Him…”

But I had been thought of. I was already known. He knows my heart, all the way through. He made that heart, especially and on purpose, and with a custom-made purpose. He gave it to me, taught me to feel and know it. He knew me before He made me, and He knew how much I’d want and need a Father. He knew that in this world I wouldn’t find father or mother or friend able to satisfy my deepest need. Way before I had any name for that hunger, I longed for Him—and He’s always been looking for me, lost lamb, lost child. I’ve always been his child. Now I’m his forever child all the way through—and He knew all that before He even made me.

Yes, the answer is too simple for the wise. But the understanding? That will take all of eternity--even for the simple.

Avi, it’s so good to be known by You, and to know that in Heaven no one will ever again feel misunderstood. No one will ever again feel invisible and written off. I’m looking forward to learning who my brothers and sisters really are, to see their hearts. But most of all, I look forward to spending eternity making new discoveries about You. I can hardly wait to start. Show me more of You here.

In Your Holy Name, Amen. 

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFilnKaA8a4

WHOSE?

  The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.           The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the LORD said, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.”  So, Moses reached out and took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand.”                                 Exodus 4:2-4 NIV

I’ve been struggling with discouragement lately. Hard to balance people and responsibilities in my life and have any creative energy left over for these books that just keep growing. Counting down the days left to me, counting up all I have left to write. Trying to come up with an answer that equals productivity.

“Oh, LORD,” I ask with Moses, “do You have anyone else for this task? The older I get, the harder the writing gets (and the bending over it long enough) and the less I can handle distractions, and the more distractions there are. I want to run from it. Think I could catch Moses?”

His answer to Moses: “What is that in your hand?”

His answer to me: “What’s that in your hand?”

“This old hand?”

“Well, duh.”

“A pen—but, uhhh, I think it’s empty.”

“Throw it on the ground.” Fertile ground. Holy ground. His ground. I stand there barefooted.

“Listen! Quit trying to do it in your own strength. “Throw – It - Down. Rest under My wings while I give new strength to your wings. Then pick it up by the tail, right where you left off.”

Thank You for scratching that cowardly prayer, Avi. I’d way rather You give me the RoundToIt and the UpToIt to finish my job myself, and to finish well. So here it goes. “Down, Pen!”

Think my snaky book can sneak up behind the enemy and bite his heel? No—but Your book through me can. Thank You for not giving up on me, Avi, and for not letting me give up.

In Your Holy Name, Amen.

STAR KING

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.    Romans 8:19-21 NIV

Can you imagine a perfect creation’s pain when it was broken by man’s sin? Can you imagine how this unceasing pain has plagued creation through the grinding centuries?

Close your eyes. 

Now…

See sudden light shatter the darkness

        When angels sang to shepherds.

Hear all creation cry, “Hosanna!”

        To its Hope, its Redeemer.

See them dance, Abraham’s holy stars,

        Dancing bright in the night sky.

They whirl to the music of angels,

        Glad light in broken darkness.

The greatest star stoops to the manger;

        Soft glow caresses the Babe.

Mute voice of all, the Star-King whispers,

        “Wondrous Child, my Creator…”

Then, hurled by inexpressible joy

        Into the highest heaven,

He shouts, “Tremble, thou Earth,

        At the Presence of the God of Jacob!”

And wise men draw near. 

Avi, thank You for the message of the stars.* Thank You for putting eternity in our hearts, for giving us a hunger for what we do not know. Thank You for giving us the small measure of wisdom we needed to seek You. Give us more hunger, more wisdom, that we might draw even nearer to You. We need You—and those of us who know You love You.

In Your Holy Name, Amen.

*Romans 1:20

HOUND OF HEAVEN

He answered and said, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” Genesis 3:10 NIV

I was taken to Sunday School and taught that God is love. I believed that—but I didn’t believe God or anyone else could love me because I couldn’t live up to legalistic standards. Love had to be earned, and the rules for getting it were always changing.

God chased me through the years, through all the brief pleasures and interests I tried to find purpose and relationship in. (Mainly crafts, pets, books.) Still trying to live up to legalism, I even tried church once when I first went away to school. Very bad experience, long story.

The last valley was my first marriage at 40. Six years of control freak temper tantrums came close to convincing me I really must be worthless. At the end of that time I wasn’t a pile of broken pieces; I was a pile of dust.

Two things got through to me.

One: my ex would watch the beginning of Jimmy Swaggert’s TV program, then turn it off when the preaching came on. I liked the music, but what really pulled at me was what I saw in John Starnes’ face as he sang. Whatever it was, I wanted it.

Two: If something mattered enough for me to talk back to my ex, he’d choose one small detail and hammer at it for days: “Why did you use that word and not this one?” One day I got so frustrated I just threw up my hands and said, “Oh, God!” He snapped back, “You’d better call on somebody you know a little better.”

That cold shock was the end of it. God had me up a dead end alley with nowhere else to run from Him—and I was still scared of Him. But when I screwed up my courage to turn and face what I knew was coming from this angry God, His arms were wide open, His tender hunger for me unmistakable. What was left of me just finished crumbling. I didn’t yet know Wayne Watson’s song, Rose-Colored Glasses, but I felt one line of it all the way through me: “I am my God’s desire.” *

There were no words between us, no “sinner’s prayer”, but He could hear the words of my heart. I was dead, rotten all the way through, and I wanted to live. I wanted love, the real two-way kind.

Now I know I’ve already been through the worst I’ll ever have to go through—because I’ll never again have to go through anything alone.

Saint Patrick said, “Belong to God and become a wonder to yourself.” That’s true. I’m real now; I’m what I was supposed to be all along. And that pile if dust I was? He put His Light in there, and the pile started glowing warm and bright, coming together in a clean new vessel. It’s still inside this old jar of clay, but it’s there. And one day after all the days are gone, everyone will get to see it. And for now, other people get to warm up at His fire in me.   

Avi, again I have no words but the words of my grateful heart. Hear me, and know how much I love You. In Your Holy Name, Amen.

·         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEQ5jxLV14g