HE HAS RISEN

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay."

Matthew 28:5-6

Today we are celebrating the resurrection, clinging to our hope, and believing Truth by grace through faith.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

Ephesians 2"8-9

One of our favorite CDs:

 

Our favorite song from the album, Behold Our God:

 

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16

"Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

John 14:6

FAITH LIKE A CHILD

I don't think I've ever been more blessed by a photograph. After days of no phone, not seeing or speaking to Brodie, praying for his heart all the while, I received this from his travel companion:

 

My own heart swells and overflows with thanksgiving that God would allow this opportunity; that God would speak through an emptied vessel to 300 orphaned children in the "Warm Heart of Africa"; that children back home here had the chance to make and give the very bracelets that he is using to share the gospel; that God is so BIG and so personal to every single person He has created here, there....and the world just got smaller.

Thinking of a children's song, I sing in my head, My God is so BIG, so strong and so mighty. There's nothing my God cannot do! And then I tell myself over and over and over, Faith like a child. Faith like a child. Faith like a child.

"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Mark 10:15

Do you see the eyes of those children in the photo above? They are filled with hope, full of trust. They believe with innocence. They listen intently. They hear His voice. 

 

Faith like a child.

 

Will we?

I CAN DO NOTHING

"I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him,

he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."

John 15:5

It is true. Painfully true. Apart from Him, we can do nothing...and that's just how this morning began.

Brodie landed in Malawi today (after 2 days of flying) and we realized that his phone was not going to work. At all. As the reality sunk in that I would probably have no contact with him for his whole trip, my first instinct was to cry. Fortunately, my second instinct/God's wake up call was to trust in the Lord with my whole heart knowing that He is all I ever need and He is in control of all things...even the little details like phones not working.

So, I'm accepting this new twist in the plan by God's reassuring grace and trusting that He will be all sufficient. How could I ever doubt that? He has proven Himself to me time and time again.

I sat up praying last night (unable to sleep as Brodie flew from South Africa into Malawi). I also read through Sally Clarkson's Seasons of a Mother's Heart and the Lord used the last few chapters to minister to me in such a special way. Read them! You won't regret it. Her words confirmed what God has been teaching me: His grace is enough. I must remain connected to the Vine. I must maintain an eternal perspective. God is worthy of my praise! Prayer is my most crucial parenting practice. He is all I need and all my children need. My fruitfulness comes from Him.

"I am like an evergreen cypress; from me comes your fruit."

Hosea 14:8

Although I am desperately missing my best friend, I'm keenly aware that my true Best Friend is with me always, with me now. He is with Brodie under the same blanket of stars across the globe. And even though I can't do anything about fixing the phone problem and God has chosen to allow it to stay so, what I can do is cling to Christ. What I can do is praise Him anyway. I can pray and trust and follow Jesus the same way as if I were talking and texting with my husband so many miles away...all the more in fact.

If I'm connected to the Vine...then I'm right where I should be. He supplies my everything and I am never alone. I praise God for His faithfulness and friendship. And I'm glad that I'm here in this place of relying solely on Him where it's perfectly clear that apart from Him, I can do nothing.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction,

with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

2 Corinthians 1:3

Yes, He does...and I pray that I may do the same for another.

"I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:3

He has not. He will not. I believe.

ALONE WITH GOD

Never have I grown closer to Jesus than when I've been alone...even lonely. When I ended up alone with God I found Him, or I guess it would be more accurate to say He found me...revealed Himself to me.

 

He was never gone.

 

He is always here, with me, with you.

God has lovingly, graciously, and sovereignly chosen to strip away every person of security in my life at one time or another, sometimes more than one at a time. Clearly, He wanted me to learn to trust only Him...to look to only Him...to lean on only Him. So I did. I fell hard right into His loving, Fatherly arms and I found Him. I found what was missing. I found what had been masked by the comforts/distractions of my world before. 

"But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Galatians 6:14

It's funny how we lose our taste for the world when Christ becomes our world. He has a way of blotting out everything else. He has a way of filling us up to the point of overflowing so that we run out of room for the other space-fillers of life. And yet, we end up more satisfied than we ever were before when we filled and filled and filled with what the world had to offer.

Alone with God. When Brodie got alone with God in China, he returned to me a changed man. It was his week alone in the middle of nowhere, sent out on a fire, that God spoke to his heart of our sons. He returned home from that week convinced and urgent to begin our adoption. I guess God needed to get him all by himself to be heard most clearly. It was obvious, he had been with Jesus.

"Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus."

Acts 4:13

I want to be like that and if I do, I'll need to be with Jesus too.

Alone with God. Jesus often retreated to be alone with His Father God. Jesus chose lengthy, isolated times of communion with God. He needed it.

"And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark,

he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."

Mark 1:35

There are times of intense aloneness at length (days, weeks, months, years) and there are the times of intense aloneness for an hour or two (or more) with God and His Word. Both have their place and both can't be replaced by anything substitutionary. Just as Jesus needed to be alone with God, so do we. We need to need Him. Sometimes that requires getting uncomfortable and often times it means getting intentional.

Alone with God. How often do we dare to get alone with God? Really alone. I know it can be intimidating, but God is perfect peace. I've felt how isolating it can be, but God is the perfect Friend. Yes, it can be uncomfortable, but God is the God of all comfort. Loneliness is lonely, but only without God for God is love.

So, I ask myself, when I meet Jesus face to face, will He know me? Will Jesus say to me, "I knew you"? Will I have been with Him as were Peter and John?

I'm looking forward to the next time I get to be alone with God. I'm anticipating good things from the next time my husband gets to be alone with God. And, I pray that God will beckon my children's hearts to get alone with Him...and I pray that they say yes.

Will you?

 "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you."

James 4:8

IT IS WELL

I remember my mom in the final days of her life repeatedly singing the hymn, It Is Well With My Soul, and it was.

She sincerely accepted God’s sovereign choice to take her home when He did. Being a teenager myself, it was most definitely not well with my soul at the time, but God had a journey of purpose in mind for my life, little did I know.

I spent almost a decade and a half being unable to listen to that song. It was just too painful. But God, in His persistence, would every now and then allow me the opportunity to face my pain. It was only in recent years that I have come into a new understanding of how the Lord works all things for good so that I can finally say, over a decade and a half later,

“It is well with my soul too.” Can I say it again, please? It feels really good.

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL!

What a breakthrough it was for me the first time I sat through a church service and actually sang out the words to that song!

I trust the Lord now in a way that I didn’t comprehend before. I see more clearly how He knows what He is doing and I believe that He is purposeful and loving in all of His actions. God is always good. He is faithful to every generation!

“But you remain the same, and your years will never end.

The children of your servants will live in your presence;

their descendants will be established before you.”

Psalm 102:27-28

I hope I can somehow convey this important truth to my own children in such a way that they can have the advantage of meeting the events of their lives yet to come with a biblical perspective that chooses to see God's faithfulness in everything.

By His grace, may we come to know how loving and wise He is in all things, so that we can honestly say...it is well.

“In faithfulness you have afflicted me.”

Psalm 119:75