Waters Gone By

By Michelle Lim –

Life is seldom predictable, but one thing we all face is hardship. For some it seems as if hardship is an everyday companion. At those moments, it is difficult to keep a faith-filled perspective.

Every time I think I deserve a better shake I think of Job. The man lost all of his possessions, his family, and his health, but still served God. Even though his friends told him to curse God and die, Job chose to believe that God had never left him.

How bad would things have to get before you would curse God and die?

I hope you never have to find out, but each day when we spend time getting to know God, we build the balance of our rainy day fund. No, not in dollars and cents, but in faith. All of the verses we learn and words of Jesus we read give us the ammunition to fight our own doubts and fears when things are at their absolute worst.

Job 11:13-14 gives us a formula for surviving and coming through adversity with victory:

1. Devote our hearts to God and worship Him. Reach out to Him in our struggles as well as the good times.
2. Get rid of sin that is in our lives. Both the things that are in our homes and our hearts. When we don’t allow evil to have a foothold, it gives God the territory.

When we do these two things, God gives us strength and hope. It is counsel far wiser than Job’s friend who said he should curse God and die. It builds up our faith so we are ready when trouble comes. It keeps us from doing things that would separate us from God, when times are tough. Following this formula we will find the strength to face our struggles with a faith perspective.

“Then, free of fault, you will lift up your face; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by” (Job 11:15-16 NIV).

The Power of Kindness

By Rosemary Flaaten –

Holding the door for the young mom pushing a stroller and keeping two toddlers in tow.

Waiting with uncommon patience while the clerk looks up the produce code for my purchase of artichokes.

Sitting with a young couple as they wait for their one year old daughter to return from having a cancerous tumour removed in surgery.

Stocking the pantry with food my teenage son’s friends can devour as they hang out at our home.

Complimenting an elderly woman that she looks like a million bucks in her fur-collared coat.

Acts of kindness.

I’ve been on a mission this spring to be the purveyor of kindness. A purveyor is someone who provides, supplies or makes available. My mission has been to ooze with kindness, to seek out opportunities to show kindness and to do so to a variety of people.

On the days that it seems easy to show kindness to the total stranger at the grocery store, it proves a struggle to come home and speak kindly to the loafing family member. Other times, I’m unwittingly overlooking the person beside me and their need for a kind gesture in favour of a self-absorption that doesn’t allow me to look past the end of my own nose.

To live out the commandment found in Mark 12:30 to love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength I must love my neighbour as myself. The age old question of delineating who might fall into the category of neighbour was fully explained when God became Incarnate and moved into our neighbourhood even though our neighbourhood was characterized by hostility and abandonment. God chose us as His neighbour and He showered us with kindness and love.

Kindness is the quality of compassion and generosity. It’s what spills out of us when we’re filled with God’s Spirit. It cannot be manufactured but it can be practiced. Choosing to discipline ourselves to be someone who seeks out opportunities to show acts of kindness will impact three realms:
1) it’s an act of worship to the God who acted kindly to us
2) it will impact the recipient – who knows how God might use that act of kindness to draw that person to Himself?
3) we’re blessed through obedience –“It is a sin to despise one’s neighbor,
but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy” (Proverbs 14:21 NIV).

Prayer: Lord, gives us eyes that are like Yours so that we might see the needs of people around us and a heart like Yours to be purveyors of kindness.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32 NIV).

Millstones

By Cheri Cowell –

At the ruins in Petra lie a large set of stones. This “mulos onikos,” literally, a mill turned by an ass or donkey, is what the Bible refers to as a great millstone. On top of the conical-shaped stone rode a second hollowed-out stone or handstone. The upper stone was probably turned with handspikes in much the same way as an old-fashioned ship’s wheel was turned. The material to be ground was fed into the upper cone which formed the hopper. As our parable for today states, the upper millstone of a handmill would be more than sufficient to sink the condemned, and the punishment would be more easily carried out.

The occasion of this discourse was an unbecoming contest among the disciples for precedency. “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matthew 18:1). Hearing this Jesus offers the following parable. The connection is clear: pride is a millstone around our necks and if we don’t remove this weight, it will sink us.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell” (Matthew 18:6-9 NIV).

PRAYER: Thank You, God, for such wonderful visual examples in Your Word. Help me identify prideful attitudes in my own heart that not only weigh me down but have the potential to drown me in the sea of sinfulness.

Yet Without Sin

By Cynthia Ruchti –

In all the artwork—paintings, sculptures, etchings, stained glass—of the crucifixion, have you ever seen Jesus on the cross with a smile on His face? The art comes from artists’ imaginations, clearly, since there was no photography at the time. But did any change the natural grimace into a grin?

It seems a ridiculous question. Who would expect Jesus to have smiled through that kind of agony, despite how courageous, strong, and divine? It would seem closer to insanity than joy if He had been laughing His way through being crucified, or had cracked a smile while the crown of thorns cracked his skin open. How would it have served His Father’s purposes if He had treated the crucifixion lightly, even if He could have risen above the pain to “give His mama a little grin”?

But did the sober, tortured, pained expression on His face mean He’d lost His faith? Of course not.

Then why do we judge others when they feel their anguish deeply and walk through seasons when the pain of their situation puts a tortured expression on their faces?

Years ago, a woman told me that when her mother died of a sudden heart attack, she and her sister—both young moms at the time—traveled together by train to the funeral. The woman telling the story said her tears flowed softly and freely most of the train trip. Her sister chided her to stop crying, shaming her for being sad. “Mom’s in heaven. Get a grip. We should be celebrating for her. Quit with the tears.”

The woman heeded her sister’s rebuke, wrongly thinking her tears were a sign of weak faith. It was decades before she allowed herself to cry again.

Jesus felt the full brunt of the agony He bore, but we’re told even then He was without sin. Grief and sadness are natural reactions to pain. We trust God with our lives, trust Him in dire circumstances, trust Him in the blackest of moments—as Jesus did—and still experience deep grief.

A recent news report told the story of yet another prominent figure—a person of profound faith—whose son committed suicide. I pray no well-meaning person tries to tell that dad and mom to quit crying. Their agony is not sin. It’s the human heart’s response to tragedy. Faith can remain strong, even when the tears flow.

PRAYER: Jesus, I’m in awe of how much Your cross is still teaching me, all these years later. Father God, Your Word tells us there is—there IS—a time to cry. Increase my sensitivity to those around me who wear their anguish on their faces. Help equip me to be a better listening ear and leaning post until their tears subside.

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15 ESV).

A Mother’s Love

By Judy Davis –

For over 30 years, my friend Janice prayed for her son who was addicted to alcohol. She took him to his first rehabilitation program, bought his first Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) book and went to meetings with him. She visited him in the hospital, rehab programs, and detention centers.

The years have come and gone. Janice has reflected on her son’s past many times. She knows alcoholism and drugs destroy lives. What more can she do? What more can she say?

The only way to arrest alcoholism is total abstinence. It’s up to her son to quit for good. Janice can’t blame anyone but her son. She didn’t cause it, can’t control it, and can’t cure it. There are medications now that can help and she hopes he will call a local hospital or clinic and ask them for assistance. She stressed the importance of him stepping out and getting help. Janice knows in her heart it will take God for her son to be totally healed. He will meet us at our point of need.

God’s Word is powerful! Janice said sitting in His presence reading His Word each morning for years has been the key to overcoming the pain in her heart. She allows the Holy Spirit to help her as she reads the Word.

Reading devotional books and commentaries are not the same. Let go and let God speak to you personally through His Word. He will make the Scripture come alive as He reveals words of wisdom through revelation. As we meditate on what we read, pray to comprehend what God is saying and then submit to His divine direction.

Pray for your children and talk to them about accepting Christ into their lives. Help them to turn their heart towards the light. That light that shines brighter and brighter as we live closer and closer to Christ. Most important we should do all we can to love them through the situation and be there for them.

PRAYER: Father, please help those loved ones facing alcohol, drug, and other addictions to overcome this sin. Please help the parents of those caught in this bondage. Only You can give them peace in the midst of the storm.

“Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck” (Proverbs 1:8-9 NIV).

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