Canaan's Rest

One day I had just finished reading from Mark 4, about Jesus being by the lake with his disciples when crowd gathered to hear Him and he spoke to them in parables. The disciples didn’t get it, and couldn’t understand the meaning of the parables without Jesus teaching them. It reminded me of the words in a song: “Jesus calls us o’er the tumult of our life’s wild, restless seas; Saying, ‘Christian follow me.’”

When the Lord seems to change how He relates to us, it may seem like a restless sea, and yet He is teaching us in a more hidden way to follow Him so we need to pay attention. He calls the shots not us, and His presence can’t be judged by our feelings. In a way, it is like walking through the desert wilderness to the Promised Land. The Lord begins to unveil things in our lives that we shouldn’t ignore but give our attention to if we truly want to grow. It is a gift to see the truth so we can lay down those things that separate us, that we can be transformed more into His likeness. We may find we are self-centered and maybe unaware of some idols we have.

As the song continues: “In our joys and in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease, still He calls, in cares and pleasures, ‘Chrisitan, love me more than these.’”

Let us hear His call and prayerfully say or sing, “Give our hearts to your obedience, serve and love you best of all.”

Too many times, our hearts are divided as we choose to pursue earthly glory. Jesus sought the will of His Father, saying in John 5:44, “How can you believe when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes only from God?” When we care more about what other people think than to do God’s will, we are seeking glory from man. But the thing about that is that man’s opinion of us can change from day to day. If we don’t do what they want us to do, or think the way they think, they may cancel us. We hear of more families that are divided just because they don’t agree on everything. How sad!

Whatever we seek in this worldly life is so inferior to what matters in light of eternity. The enemy likes to keep us focused on many things that distract us from the Lord. Teens especially may feel they have to have a certain look and need the right clothes to fit in. Adults may seek a prestigious job or luxury cars. But we can’t take anything with us when we die. I have never been to a funeral where they said the person dressed right or had a fancy car, but rather how they served and loved. Let us put our focus on the Lord, be rich toward Him and pursue what is lasting.

Hope you have a great weekend!! Today is Party Day here and Al and I will be going to Costco to get the Birthday cake and setting up. 

We each have deeply ingrained messages we learned from our family: some things were spoken, but also unspoken rules. As I was reading Pastor/Dr. Peter Scazzero’s book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, I see we can’t move forward in our Chrisitan lives if we aren’t also willing to go back to see how the past impacts our present. If we are unwilling to do that, our baggage will be passed on to our children and their children’s children as well.

Joseph grew up in a blended family, number 11 of 12 children. He was favored by his father and hated by his brothers, who sold him to become a slave. Yet through the hard circumstances of Joseph’s life, he recognized God’s hand on his life and though he grieved, he was able to forgive his brothers who had betrayed him. He saw that God had used him to save the lives of many, including his own family, during the years of famine. He named his sons Hebrew names that meant “forget” and “fruitful,” for he knew God had rescripted his life.

No matter what kind of a family we come from it doesn’t determine our future, for when we know the Lord we are adopted into the family of God and loved by Him. We learn from our past but in a sense, we are re-parented by the Lord. We experience more and more freedom when we are willing to examine and intentionally work on our past and move forward in Christ, letting Him direct our lives.

Hope your day is lived in His power. We had a good message from a lay person at our Lenten service last evening and a yummy soup supper. Today we have Bible study and I hope to get into a new book that Al ordered and came yesterday! 

God many times sends angels and they are mentioned more than 300 times in the Bible. I have heard from friends who give accounts of what certainly seems to be an angelic visitation. In our Bible study on Acts, Paul writes about how and angel of God stood beside him and told him not to be afraid. (Acts. 27:23-24) Angels are messengers and also powerful warriors. I memorized Psalm 91 and especially like verses 11 & 12, “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Missionaries tell stories of not being robbed and beaten, as those who intended evil have seen a host of warriors around their car.

We don’t need to fear when we keep our eyes on the Lord. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for protection, but our eyes are to be on the Lord and not dwelling on the enemy. There are times I recognize the enemy’s tactics, as things get blown out of proportion and people’s responses are so magnified. It is good to just stop, pray to bind the power of the enemy, and ask for God’s protection. Sometimes I even sing a song about the blood of Jesus or call out his name. Yes, there is an unseen world around us, but we have a mighty God who hears our cries and responds in power and authority.

The church is under attack today and many are simply apathetic towards it. But we must remember that to love Jesus is to also love His church, and we are to serve the church. No church is perfect, and the worse the condition of the church gets, the more we need to work on its behalf to bring change. The church is a fellowship of believers who come together to obey, to worship, and listen to the Word. Jesus is the center and only way to salvation. We are His disciples who receive the Lord’s supper and communion, want to grow spiritually, and reach out to the poor and lost. The church is far from perfect and needs fixing today, but why not help rather than talk negatively of it? If we want our children to follow Jesus, we need to include them at a very early age in helping the church. Our youth especially need the church, for there are so many worldly pursuits to grab their attention.

I remember reading that as the times get worse, we need to have an ark. As Noah had an ark that kept him safe during the flood, the church is our lifeboat and ark. Of course, life inside the ship is not perfect, but life outside the ark is far worse. Pastor Gary Thomas writes about how the church is an extension of Christ’s body, and when the church suffers, Christ suffers. (I Cor. 12:21-31) The church is built on the backs of faithful and even suffering believers, serving in many ways like teachers, elders, worship leaders, youth ministers, those feeding the hungry, giving in tangible ways, greeters, etc. Let us all find our place to serve and build Christ’s church.

to have fish that a friend caught and gave to us to enjoy. 

We can begin knowing our true selves by listening in quietness and letting the Lord speak to us. Also, we can let ourselves be known by trusted friends, mentors and counselors. They can help us be honest and not be self-deceived. The bottom line, of course, is to die to the old self and “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:24)

Let us not resent the times of trouble when they come, but to know that God in His love is using them to help us become more like Him and knows the best means. He gets our attention when we are hurting and wants our dependence to be on Him, rather than searching for ways to get out from under our situations right now! Instead, it is to be a listening time to surrender to the Lord and learn the benefit of the struggles we are experiencing. He has so much to teach us, and it helps if we are willing students who yield to Him.

The enemy is sure to tell us that God is against us or has forgotten us, and makes us question why we are holding on to Him. But rather than complain, we need to listen to the Lord and trust Him, even if we don’t fully understand the reasons at the time. I was reading what Thomas Brooks had to say about the benefits to be gained from our afflictions including: clear sight of our sins, softening of our hearts, removal of worldly influence, less pride and greater humility, growth in holiness, God revealed to us, thoughts fixed on eternity, and equipping us to help others who have troubles. That is a lot of pluses, and hopefully we are led to trust God’s power and to know it is in His love that we go through afflictions. He is not out to destroy us, but to free us. We may not love what we have to go through, but let us love what results from His refining in our lives.