Charis

For Easter, I received Mother Angelica’s Little Book of Life Lessons and Everyday Spirituality, and so far I am very much enjoying it. It’s organized into topical chapters, and each chapter is a collection of sayings from Mother Angelica. Some are several paragraphs, but most that I have read so far have been fairly short, only a few sentences. Take this one, from the second chapter, “Your Mission, Your Purpose”:

Like the apostles, we Christians are arguing among ourselves when we should be out changing the world. We let filth proliferate and the darkness move in. Who do you think is going to change it? What are you waiting for? You are that somebody! The Lord God has no one else but you. You’d better get off your lead bottoms and go out there and change this pagan world.

And then there’s, “You have been chose twice: first to be, then to know Jesus. What are you doing with that fantastic mission? You have been created by God and know Jesus for one reason: to witness to faith, and hope, and love before an unbelieving world.”

I like this one very much: a “fantastic mission”! When was the last time you considered your life a mission? Continue reading »

I’ve been listening to and teaching with Gregory Dickow’s 2-lesson series, Absolute Freedom from Anger. for the last few weeks in our marriage small group. It’s a great teaching for a number of reasons. Dickow provides strong, clear, biblical instruction on how to deal with anger, and he also highlights the many reasons we need to confront our anger and master it. For those who need motivation beyond Paul’s injunction to “put off anger” (Colossians 3:5), Dickow discusses the physical and emotional toll that anger can exact from us and those who become the objects of our anger.

He finishes with a discussion of Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” I’ve never heard a good explanation of meekness, and I confess that when I heard the word in the past, I thought of “Jesus, meek and mild” and the wimpy-looking figure presented as Jesus in children’s Sunday school handouts. Dickow is quick to confront the stereotype of meekness as weakness. Continue reading »

I took Zachary to see Amazing Grace yesterday afternoon–wow! I was deeply moved, challenged, and encouraged. I had heard of Wilberforce through my studies of British literature, but I didn’t know much about him. It was exciting to see a man of faith and conviction portrayed as a hero—and he should be, because he did something profound. I also appreciated the opportunity to learn more about Olaudah Equiano, the former slave; I’ve read and taught parts of Equiano’s autobiography in my American literature courses, but I was not aware of the extent of his involvement in the anti-slavery movement in England.

I’ve wanted to see the film since it opened, and I wanted to take Zack, but he was not particularly interested, and I hadn’t found a good time to go. As usual, though, the timing was perfect, and I can see that the Holy Spirit had a hand in it. I had just finished reading about having a vision for one’s life in Live Your Calling, which Teddie and I are using in a small group we attend this semester, and Amazing Grace shows vision and calling in action in a spectacular way. It is good to be reminded that one person can change the world—though I’m mindful that Wilberforce didn’t work alone, and the film makes that clear. He was surrounded by those who shared his vision and labored with him. Still, it was his persistence and determination—dogged determination is more apt—that bore fruit.

Amazing Grace is just the sort of film that I want my children exposed to: I want Zack to see the power of vision and passion, to see the legacy that a man of conviction can leave, and so to stir his vision for what he can do. I know it did that for me.

You can learn more about the film and Wilberforce at the official site for the film.

I’m continuing to read George Müller’s Answers to Prayer, and I find myself encouraged and challenged at every turn. I’m encouraged because Müller’s story is such an incredible testimony of God’s faithfulness, not once or twice but over decades. And I’m challenged because I realize how far I have to go in learning to pray and trust as Müller did.

Müller tells how, in the 1860s, he needed workers for his third new orphan home that he had built. He had already been praying daily for several years, while the home was built, that God would provide the right people to serve in all the various positions required to run the home. That’s lesson number 1: Müller didn’t wait until the need was at crisis level to pray; as soon as he recognized the need, he brought it before God, and he continued to bring it before God every day. Yet, as the opening approached, and he considered the applicants, he came up short. He writes: Continue reading »

Allow me to share a testimony of God’s faithfulness and provision:

We’ve had some financial difficulties since last October, and though we are making progress, we still have a ways to go before everything is back to normal. We have tried a number of conventional solutions—refinancing and so forth—and none of them has worked out, though it seemed like they should have. And each time, I was not surprised, because I’ve concluded that God wants to work in our finances in a different way than the conventional. And that’s okay, though it has been a challenge at times when it seems like a simple loan approval would have taken care of everything. I’ve seen enough of God in action to know that often He has bigger plans than the immediate need, and so I’m willing to see how He wants to handle things and be blessed by and in the process. In the meantime, we’ve worked on bringing in more money, being careful with our spending—making the changes we need to enact to be good stewards.

In the process, we have seen God increase His provision through Teddie’s drapery business and sewing classes; she has had a record income since the first of the year, mostly through her classes. But even with this increase, I saw that it would not be quite enough to take care of February’s bills. For one, our car tags are due in February, and then we’ve had sick kids with doctor visits and prescriptions. (And yes, I know that we should have budgeted monthly for the car tags and for medical expenses—we haven’t done that in the past, but we’re getting there! Part of God’s bigger plan in this is teaching us stewardship skills that will eliminate the need for loan-getting skills.)

For the past week, I’ve been praying daily over our finances, bringing specific bills and amounts before God, because it was more than we could naturally expect to come in from Teddie’s work or any other “normal” source–I knew God would have to move supernaturally. And on almost a daily basis, we’ve seen God provide through Teddie’s work; for instance, on Sunday she had seven students show up for a demonstration class, when she had expected only three—in other words, God more than doubled the expected income from that class. Continue reading »

Last night over coffee, a group of us were talking about God’s plans for our lives and learning to wait while the plans unfold. The conversation turned to Joseph and Moses, who both knew God had called them to something great and yet waited a long time to see it come about.

What did these men do while they waited, Joseph in slavery and prison, Moses in the wilderness? Did Moses have aspirations to one day return to Egypt and free his people, or did he settle down into family and work, assuming that was all that was left for his life? We’re not told how Moses knew he was to deliver Israel, but Stephen tells us that “He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand” (Acts 7:25); clearly, Moses sensed a divine destiny.

In contrast, Joseph had two vivid dreams that showed him he was destined for great authority; he knew from God that something was ahead. Continue reading »

Last time, I wrote about the names of God, looking at a handful of psalms for the ways that God is described. As I meditate on and come to believe that God truly is “my stronghold, my refuge, my light, and my salvation,” I will find it easier to experience the perfect peace that Isaiah promises to those who stay fixed on God.

It’s knowledge of God that allows us to trust Him, and knowing these names is one way to know Him better. The Psalms also reveal His nature in more detail as David and other writers praise God at length for different aspects of His character. Today, I want to point you toward just a few psalms that can build our faith in God.

Need a reminder that God is able? Take Psalm 29, as an example; David begins with “Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.” The rest of this psalm describes God’s majesty and power. For instance, David tells us: Continue reading »

Several months ago, I wrote about calling on the name of God, citing a number of passages that talk about the power of God’s name. What I didn’t do was point you toward passages on the names of God. This seems like a good time to do that; in yesterday’s post, peace: a matter of focus, I wrote about knowing God as a key to trusting Him, and by extension, a key to having peace. We looked at Isaiah 25, which tells us that God is “a stronghold to the poor.”

Psalm 9 links these two concepts, God’s name and God as stronghold: Continue reading »

Last time, I wrote about God’s perfect peace that comes to those who stay focused on Him. We find this wonderful promise of peace in Isaiah 26:3:

You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.

According to Isaiah, the key to keeping our minds stayed or fixed on God is to trust God. Sounds simple enough, and those of us who have been in church for long know we ought to trust God. This is one of those times, though, when it’s easier said than done. Circumstance gets in the way, and many things compete for our attention. My work is not going well: do I keep my mind fixed on that problem or on God? Money is tight, my child has a health problem, a tragedy has occurred to a close friend—the list goes on. As the commercial says, “Life comes at you fast.” And with each problem, we are tested in our focus.

And it really is a matter of focus. Continue reading »

In my previous posts, I’ve touched on the role of our thinking in regard to peace: the peace of Christ rules in our hearts when we submit our thoughts and feelings to peace (Colossians 3:15), and the peace that passes understanding can guard our hearts and minds when we let go of anxious thinking and submit ourselves to God through prayer and thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6–7). This leads me to Isaiah 26:3:

You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on You,
because he trusts in You.

What a beautiful promise!

My first thought in reading this was “What does Isaiah mean by perfect peace?” And, of course, I thought of the hymn I grew up singing, “Peace, Perfect Peace.” Continue reading »