Through the Night with the Light from a Bulb

"The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; from His dwelling place He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works" (Psalm 33:13-15)

I cannot say with certainty, beloved, but I am pretty sure that it was my youngest sister who as a child once rewrote the words to "God Bless America," declaring that God guides this great nation "through the night with the light from a bulb."  Makes sense, doesn't it, at least to a child?

The unchangeable truth is, though, that God does indeed guide this land which is our home and for which we feel such gratitude and patriotic pride.  We do know, however, that He does not lead us with the light from a "bulb" but with a light from "above."  And that divine light of His sovereignty and His love has been guiding us throughout our history.  That single truth is what will see us through these difficult times in which we presently find ourselves as Americans.

What ever happened to the "pursuit of happiness"?  When did it become a line that you can stand in to receive what is owed to you by the right of citizenship?  What has happened to our entrepreneurial spirit and to the pride of personal accomplishment?  It seems to me that if the "pursuit" is removed, all that is left is the handout!  Is that really what the founding fathers intended for us as a people?

In the midst of all this chaos, we look about in search of one constant, just one, to which we may anchor our souls and the lives of our families.  We want one rock upon which we can plant our feet and stand for what is right and just and true.  And that one constant, beloved, is the fact that God is never-changing and that God is ever-ruling.  Come what may, God reigns over the affairs of men.  Whether we can see His hand at work or not it is at work nonetheless.  As the song says, when we cannot "trace His hand" we can "trust His heart"!

Let me encourage you, then, to set your feet solidly upon the Rock that is Jesus Christ and your faith in Him.  Let me urge you to stand with all your might for truth, God's truth, and nothing else.  Let me further encourage you to love what is still right about this country and to stand against what is wrong.  As the psalmist made so very clear, God "sees all the sons of men."  He sees and He knows and He ever moves to accomplish His purpose in our lives.

God bless America, land that I love!

Stand beside her and guide her

Through the night with a light from above;

From the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white with foam-

God bless America, my home sweet home!

Ron  

What Does God Think?

"For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, and the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.  The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him.  All his thoughts are, 'There is no God'" (Psalm 10:3-4)

We are being bombarded today, beloved, with words that sound to so many to be right and just and good.  Words like "EQUALITY" and "FAIR" are being waved in the faces of followers of Christ even as we are being touted as "narrow-minded" and "bigoted" and even "hate-mongers."  And it is all because we have taken a stand for the real "right" - not what man says is right but what God says is right.

And in the midst of this hullabaloo I personally have yet to hear a single individual shouting such political buzzwords ask one key question: "What does God think?"  The simple reason tragically is that no one cares.  Ignoring what God thinks has become a way of life in our society, beloved, and is certainly nothing that began with us.  Note here what King David of Israel said about the God-haters of his day.  He first boasted of his heart's desire.  Does that sound vaguely familiar to any one today?  It should!  Stop long enough to really pay attention to what is being said and you will quickly discover that man today thinks that this life is all about him.  What I want, what I believe, what I can rationalize is all that matters.  I am free, so they say, to do anything that makes me happy.  That, they say, is my "God-given right."

But David said also about sinful man in his day that in a haughty manner he refused to seek what God thinks.  David went on to say in later verses in this same chapter that, even for those who acknowledged the existence of God, his thought was that God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it (v. 11).  Very simply, beloved, no one is asking today what God thinks.

If ever there was a time in human history, especially here in our own society, for Christians to stand up for what God both thinks and declares in His Word, then that time is now!  You see, we serve God by serving those among whom He has placed us.  That is, after all, the reason for His putting us where we are!  When we ignore what is going on around us morally, when we go into our churches and shut ourselves in and the world out, we are not serving man.  And by not serving man among whom God has placed us and for whom Christ died, we are no longer serving God.  We are here to proclaim clearly what God thinks, beloved, and what God says.  We are here to proclaim the good news of God's grace and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

So what does God think according to you?  And even more important a question than that is: "What do others know about what God thinks because you as His messenger are not silent?"

Ron

Higher Ground

"Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13-14)

I think that I have recently had an epiphany, beloved.  Or perhaps "clarification" would be a better way to put it.  I was thinking once again of these words of the Apostle Paul to the believers in the ancient city of Philippi.  As these God-breathed words ran through my mind, I found myself focusing upon the word "upward" almost as if I had never noticed it before.  For most of my Christian life as an adult I have considered this word to refer to gaining heaven one day through faith in Jesus Christ.  "Upward" is a directional word indicating eternal life in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ.  And I am quite sure that such a divine final destination was uppermost in the apostle's mind as he wrote these words.

And here is where my "epiphany" of sorts comes in, beloved.  It occurred to me that Paul was not only talking about our final destiny in glory, but also about the upward journey we travel on our way to what God has so wondrously prepared for us.  As the full impact of this truth unfolded in my mind the words of an old hymn whose lyrics were written almost a century ago by Johnson Oatman Jr. came to mind:

I'm pressing on the upward way,

New heights I'm gaining every day;

Still praying as I onward bound,

"Lord, plant my feet on higher ground."

Lord, lift me up and let me stand

By faith on heaven's tableland;

A higher plane than I have found,

Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.

What God has made known to me about myself, beloved, and that which I want to share with you here is that I want to live my life on higher ground.  I want to walk daily before my King at a higher level of love and fellowship and service and, yes, even sacrifice than I have found so far.  And so the simple phrase "higher ground" has become my watchword, my inward prompt or reminder the next time that I find myself taking the lower path spiritually.  I want to be able to know down deep in my heart that I am in truth "pressing on the upward way."  I know that heaven is coming and that nothing and no one can keep us from that if we know Jesus Christ by faith.  But I am talking now about the journey.  I want so very much to have my Master plant my feet on higher ground.  How about you?

Ron  

Here, Use My Name 

"And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.  And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch"  (Acts 11:26)

 Have you ever been surprised to see your name appear on a movie marquee or list of credits, beloved?  Recently I was watching an old Clark Gable film and just scanning through the cast of actors and actresses playing roles in that production.  I was surprised to see the name of well-known actress Marjorie Main playing a character in the film whose name was "Mrs. Varner."  Now you must understand that I don't see our family name appear in many public venues such as that so it was a bit unusual and caught my eye!  It certainly made me wonder, since I had not seen anything but the end of the film, just what kind of character "Mrs. Varner" had been.

The history of the early church tells us that followers of Jesus Christ first began to be known as "Christians" in the city of Antioch in Syria.  Christians.  Now there is a name by which to be called!  It is as if Jesus has said to each one of us who have chosen to trust Him and serve Him, "Here, use My name."  And as idly curious as I may have been recently in wondering just what kind of character "Mrs. Varner" turned out to be, you can rest assured that the Lord Jesus Christ is imminently more interested in what kind of people we as Christians are in our living as we bear His name!

You see, beloved, when Jesus said to us, "Here, use My name," He wasn't just sticking a name-tag on our chest for all the world to see.  He was associating Himself with us as surely as we by faith through grace have associated ourselves with Him.  One reality that we seem to forget all too easily today, myself included, is that it is a big deal to be called by the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, there is no "bigger deal" in the whole world than that!  And do you know why wearing the name of Jesus is so important?  Because those early believers in Antioch did not get tagged with that name simply because a group of people got together one day and someone said, "Hey, I've got an idea!  Let's call these guys Christians!"

The early believers came to be known as "Christians" because of the way they lived, beloved, and for no other reason than that.  When you wear someone's name, you take on that person's interests and priorities.  That is precisely why Jesus told His followers what their primary goal in life should be.

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you"

(Matthew 6:33)

So Jesus has said to each one of us, to you and to me - "Here, use My name."  And in so doing He has the right to expect us to live up to that name, to live for the glory of the One whom that name represents.  He expects us to be everything that He in His heart desires for us to be.  I may not ever find out what kind of character Marjorie Main was in playing the role of "Mrs. Varner" in that movie, beloved, but I sure do know what kind of person I need to be as I wear the name of Jesus Christ as my banner before my world!

Ron   

Sweeter Than Honey

'How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103)

The power of God's word to nourish and uplift, beloved, came home to my wife and me this past week in a wonderful and heart-touching way! She was sitting in the living room and I working at my desk on some notes for an upcoming message. Suddenly, I stopped still and began to listen. My mother-in-law was singing! She was not merely repeating words said to her but was actually singing on her own as she lay in her hospital bed to which she has been confined for a very long time. You must understand that at this stage in her 92-year old life her bedroom is pretty much her whole world. For the most part she lies in bed either sleeping or watching television or eating a meal. That is her life. That is her world.

But it was not primarily the fact that she was singing that caught our attention as we both stopped what we were doing to listen in amazement. It was what she was singing! I rose from my chair and went to the door of her room, standing just outside in the hallway so that I could hear every word. Again you must understand that Bev's mom does not speak, not on her own anyway. All she can say in response to anything is "No way." But this time she was singing - her choice of words without prompting and her choice of song. Would you like to know what she was singing?

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away;
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.

Grammy was worshiping the Lord, singing to Him the love of her heart, and that with a body that has been greatly damaged by stroke and seizures. As limited physically as she certainly is, unable to do much of anything for herself anymore, she was demonstrating that her spirit knows no bounds, that her heart is as free and flying as high as it could possibly be. Instead of bemoaning her fate, she has chosen to sing to the Lord about her redemption and to glory in the cross that gave her that redemption.

I cannot tell you in words that will convey it the joy that flooded over me as I stood outside her door and listened to her song of praise. And as I have thought about that moment in the several days that have passed since it happened, these words of the psalmist came to my mind. In her own special way, Bev's mom was telling her Savior "how sweet" His words are to her taste, how much sweeter even than honey they are to her. How often have I, when suffering far less than what she has suffered, forgotten to give glory to God and to sing His praises in the midst of my circumstances. What a wonderful lesson I learned in that moment, beloved! I want to never again forget how sweet are God's words to my spirit, how even sweeter than honey they are to me. I want to focus all the time on what God in His grace and because of His mercy has done for me. I want to join Grammy in her song and praise His lovely name!

Ron