This week I had the unbelievably wonderful privilege and joy of remembering what God has done for us on the cross. Daryl and I went to Fairfax, VA so he could serve on a panel for the National Science Foundation, leaving me with time alone to study the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what that means for me and for you.
What a joy! I read through CJ Mahaney's book, "Living The Cross Centered Life" which I highly recommend to you. (www.sovereigngracestore.com)
He so kindly reminded me of God's immeasurably personal love for me (and for you!) by expounding on Jesus' time in the garden of Gethsemane, His death on the cross and His resurrection. Not to mention my own sinfulness.
The most humbling part of the book to me, the part that most caused me to worship, was CJ's teaching on the garden of Gethsemane. CJ discussed how Jesus knew always that He had been sent to earth to pay for the sins of mankind, and how He never wavered in the face of persecution and trouble, but how He suddenly was completely distressed in Gethsemane.
"Why?" writes CJ.
"Here's why: In this garden, our Savior is beginning to confront as never before the ultimate and deepest agony of Calvary - an agony that will go infinitely beyond any physical aspects of His sufferings.
For Jesus, the cross will bring incomparable and unprecedented suffering of wrath and abandonment. His downward path into those unspeakable depths begins to plunge steeply in this garden called Gethsemane." (p. 79 of The Cross Centered Life)
The astounding thing here is that the cup Jesus kept asking to be removed from Him - the cup of complete wrath from God the Father that was anyways so that WE could drink from full the cup of salvation.
Jesus could have yelled to the men mocking him from the bottom of the cross, "Drink your own cup!" and gotten down, but He didn't.
Why?
According to Galatians 2:20 He suffered the complete wrath of God that belonged to me and to you because He loved me and you.
Amazing.
It is this demonstration of God's love that I must continue to study and focus on because it is here that I remember that God certainly loves me and all of mankind and here that I am moved to worship and here that I motivated to live for Him and here that I am inspired to tell others about Him. It is here at the cross; the most wondrous place in all of history.
Have you looked upon it today?
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Written in memory of Falwell
I don't claim to be best friends with Jerry Falwell, in fact, he wouldn't have even recognized if he had bumped into me last week even though one night I had hot cholcolate with him and his wife in their home after we disturbed their evening with Christmas carols!
But during my 4 years at Liberty Univeristy I at least saw him 3-5 times a week, and here's what I saw:
I saw him teach and encourage us (and yes, sometimes I thought, "Jerry, why did you go there?"). I saw him cheer at basketball and football and volleyball games and talk and laugh with the students and families who gathered around him. I saw him hug his wife and take his grandkids out to lunch. I saw him sit on a platform at my friends' graduation the year after I had received my diploma from him, and shake each of their hands and congratulate them even though doctors had advised him not to because of his health.
I saw the fruit of the spirit in him - kindness, joy, peace and confidence, generosity, and gentleness.
And I received much from this man as well. He provided me many a free meal when we would eat in the same restaurant and he would find out we were LU students. I was the recipient of many of his prayers as an LU student and RA. And yes, despite his verbal blunders, I received much wisdom on him about how to live life, love people, and love our God.
I'm writing this blog because frankly I feel the media and even some Christians (out of ignorance, I'm sure) are cutting him an unfair deal and honestly I'm upset. Of course his reward is in heaven and Scripture teaches clearly that when you follow Christ the world will hate you, but I for one would like to stand up for Jerry.
Sure he said some incorrect things. Sure he screwed up and yes he even sinned. We all do. And praise be to God that there isn't a spot light always on me like there was on him or I'd be counted even more controversial, screwy and sinful than he.
I would like to hope that people would search for the evidences of grace in his life and remember him for the good things - his laughter, his hope, and his fight for truth. Jerry often protected us against much of what Satan would have liked to accomplish when the rest of us would have maybe liked to but didn't know how.
God bless him. He surely was a blessing to me.
But during my 4 years at Liberty Univeristy I at least saw him 3-5 times a week, and here's what I saw:
I saw him teach and encourage us (and yes, sometimes I thought, "Jerry, why did you go there?"). I saw him cheer at basketball and football and volleyball games and talk and laugh with the students and families who gathered around him. I saw him hug his wife and take his grandkids out to lunch. I saw him sit on a platform at my friends' graduation the year after I had received my diploma from him, and shake each of their hands and congratulate them even though doctors had advised him not to because of his health.
I saw the fruit of the spirit in him - kindness, joy, peace and confidence, generosity, and gentleness.
And I received much from this man as well. He provided me many a free meal when we would eat in the same restaurant and he would find out we were LU students. I was the recipient of many of his prayers as an LU student and RA. And yes, despite his verbal blunders, I received much wisdom on him about how to live life, love people, and love our God.
I'm writing this blog because frankly I feel the media and even some Christians (out of ignorance, I'm sure) are cutting him an unfair deal and honestly I'm upset. Of course his reward is in heaven and Scripture teaches clearly that when you follow Christ the world will hate you, but I for one would like to stand up for Jerry.
Sure he said some incorrect things. Sure he screwed up and yes he even sinned. We all do. And praise be to God that there isn't a spot light always on me like there was on him or I'd be counted even more controversial, screwy and sinful than he.
I would like to hope that people would search for the evidences of grace in his life and remember him for the good things - his laughter, his hope, and his fight for truth. Jerry often protected us against much of what Satan would have liked to accomplish when the rest of us would have maybe liked to but didn't know how.
God bless him. He surely was a blessing to me.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Simon
This is my dog Simon.
I inherited Simon upon marriage. Although I had always considered myself a dog lover, when I actually had to live with a 100 pound, black hair shedding, inconsiderate Doberman, I started questioning if I really loved dogs at all.
Sure I liked Simon. I liked Simon outside. I liked Simon cuddling on the couch. I liked Simon when people saw us out and said, "Wow, that's a cool dog."
But I hated constantly having black hairs stuck to my socks, water drops on the kitchen floor, and his incessant staring while I lie in "his" former spot on the bed. I did not like Simon in those moments. I did not like Simon when he stunk, when he drooled or when he bowled me over coming down the stairs.
And yet somehow, at some point, Simon won my heart.
Perhaps he won it when he wiggled his stubby little tail and spun around when I came home from work. Or perhaps it was when he leaped and played with me in the yard. Perhaps it was when he very clearly warned me that there was a strange man in our yard and barked ferociously to let that strange man know he shouldn't pull any funny business at Simon's house. Perhaps it was when he looked at me with those big sad eyes at dinner for just a little bite. Perhaps it was when he snuggled with me on the couch or groaned with contentment when I rubbed his ears or the back of his legs. Perhaps it was when he started visiting my side of the bed each night and lying his head by mine for one last pet. Perhaps it was when he started following me everywhere like he wanted to be near me - even in the laundry room. Or perhaps it was the other day when he got off his leash while being attacked by little crazy yappy dogs (seriously - they were obviously crazy - they attacked someone 5 times their size) and stood still until I could replace. Perhaps it was at one of those moments, but I believe this love I have for Simon has been in process since the first day that I met him.
Who couldn't love him? He even smiled for the camera.
Proverbs 12:10a, "A righteous man regards the life of his animal," has always applied to my gracious husband, but not so much to me. I'm beginning to think that maybe God is using even Simon, a big hairy dog, to help make me a little more righteous. God does work in mysterious ways.
So Simon, this blog entry is for you...
Sunday, May 06, 2007
It Is Sown in Dishonor, It Is Raised in Glory
An article I found quite timely from John Piper on his DesiringGod.org website...
May it bring clarity and comfort to us each as we evaluate life and death and all that is in between.
It Is Sown in Dishonor, It Is Raised in Glory
By John Piper October 10, 2000
Romantic death is rare. More common are involuntary groanings and screams of pain. The ignominy of dying is pathetic. It is more often hellish than heroic. The apostle Paul uses two words to capture death's degrading assault. The first is "dishonor." He says that the death of our physical body is like a seed being sown in the ground. How is it sown? "It is sown in dishonor" (1 Corinthians 15:43).
During my college days, my father's mother died, leaving my grandfather very alone in Pennsylvania. His youngest son, my father, brought him to South Carolina to live with us. I was glad, and my mother was gracious, as always. Over time, his condition worsened and my mother was unable to care for him in the absence of my dad, who traveled as an evangelist.
So the painful decision was made to move him to a nursing home. There I watched him decline from the strong tool-maker-turned-pastor to skin-and-bones. The last time I saw him alive was with my father while I was home from seminary. We drove to the nursing home together, expressing the expectation that this would be the last time I would see him alive. It was.
There he lay in a diaper, curled up in a fetal position. His eyes were glazed over and crusty. His breathing was labored. My father spoke with me about his dad for a few minutes and then suggested we pray very loudly by putting our mouths next to his seemingly deaf ears. Ignoring the others in the home, we almost shouted our prayer. When my father stopped, his father heaved with all his fading might and said, "AMEN!" That was the last sound I ever heard him make. If I had ever seen a body sown in "dishonor," this was it. And there are millions like him.
Then there is another word that Paul uses to describe the humiliating condition of death. In Philippians 3:21 he says that Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (KJV). The word "vile" translates the Greek, tapeinoseos. Before the New Testament transformed this word into a virtue, because of Christ's glorious "lowliness," the word had only negative connotations of "humiliation, debasement, defeat" (Liddell and Scott).
I recall reading a biography of Julius Schniewind, a German New Testament scholar who was born in 1883. He became deathly ill in the summer of 1948, but few knew how serious it was. Hans-Joakim Kraus was with him when he taught his last "lay Bible hour," and heard him groan as he was leaving, "Soma tapeinoseos! Soma tapeinoseos!" - the phrase from Philippians 3:21: "Body of humiliation! Body of humiliation!"
Christianity is deeply aware of the humiliation, degradation, and dishonor of the body in death. The death of Jesus stamped forever our expectation. Is the disciple above his Lord? Should we expect anything better? His back was torn from scourging, his face swollen from punching, his face bloodied from the thorns and beard-pulling, his hands and feet swollen and mangled with the spikes, his side pierced with a large spear. And he was shamefully naked. He died with a "loud cry" (Mark 15:37).
How precious, therefore, to all followers of Jesus, that he rose from the dead with a "body of glory," never to die again! And how precious is the promise of Romans 6:5 that, "If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection." And the promise of 1 Corinthians 15:43, "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory." And the promise of Philippians 3:21, "He will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory." And the promise of Matthew 13:43, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
O let us learn how to help each other die! It will not be easy. But, by grace, we will help each other say in our final pain, "To die is gain."
Preparing with you,
Pastor John
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee
/ByDate/2000/1162_It_Is_Sown_in_Dishonor_It_Is_Raised_in_Glory/
May it bring clarity and comfort to us each as we evaluate life and death and all that is in between.
It Is Sown in Dishonor, It Is Raised in Glory
By John Piper October 10, 2000
Romantic death is rare. More common are involuntary groanings and screams of pain. The ignominy of dying is pathetic. It is more often hellish than heroic. The apostle Paul uses two words to capture death's degrading assault. The first is "dishonor." He says that the death of our physical body is like a seed being sown in the ground. How is it sown? "It is sown in dishonor" (1 Corinthians 15:43).
During my college days, my father's mother died, leaving my grandfather very alone in Pennsylvania. His youngest son, my father, brought him to South Carolina to live with us. I was glad, and my mother was gracious, as always. Over time, his condition worsened and my mother was unable to care for him in the absence of my dad, who traveled as an evangelist.
So the painful decision was made to move him to a nursing home. There I watched him decline from the strong tool-maker-turned-pastor to skin-and-bones. The last time I saw him alive was with my father while I was home from seminary. We drove to the nursing home together, expressing the expectation that this would be the last time I would see him alive. It was.
There he lay in a diaper, curled up in a fetal position. His eyes were glazed over and crusty. His breathing was labored. My father spoke with me about his dad for a few minutes and then suggested we pray very loudly by putting our mouths next to his seemingly deaf ears. Ignoring the others in the home, we almost shouted our prayer. When my father stopped, his father heaved with all his fading might and said, "AMEN!" That was the last sound I ever heard him make. If I had ever seen a body sown in "dishonor," this was it. And there are millions like him.
Then there is another word that Paul uses to describe the humiliating condition of death. In Philippians 3:21 he says that Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body" (KJV). The word "vile" translates the Greek, tapeinoseos. Before the New Testament transformed this word into a virtue, because of Christ's glorious "lowliness," the word had only negative connotations of "humiliation, debasement, defeat" (Liddell and Scott).
I recall reading a biography of Julius Schniewind, a German New Testament scholar who was born in 1883. He became deathly ill in the summer of 1948, but few knew how serious it was. Hans-Joakim Kraus was with him when he taught his last "lay Bible hour," and heard him groan as he was leaving, "Soma tapeinoseos! Soma tapeinoseos!" - the phrase from Philippians 3:21: "Body of humiliation! Body of humiliation!"
Christianity is deeply aware of the humiliation, degradation, and dishonor of the body in death. The death of Jesus stamped forever our expectation. Is the disciple above his Lord? Should we expect anything better? His back was torn from scourging, his face swollen from punching, his face bloodied from the thorns and beard-pulling, his hands and feet swollen and mangled with the spikes, his side pierced with a large spear. And he was shamefully naked. He died with a "loud cry" (Mark 15:37).
How precious, therefore, to all followers of Jesus, that he rose from the dead with a "body of glory," never to die again! And how precious is the promise of Romans 6:5 that, "If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection." And the promise of 1 Corinthians 15:43, "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory." And the promise of Philippians 3:21, "He will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory." And the promise of Matthew 13:43, "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
O let us learn how to help each other die! It will not be easy. But, by grace, we will help each other say in our final pain, "To die is gain."
Preparing with you,
Pastor John
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee
/ByDate/2000/1162_It_Is_Sown_in_Dishonor_It_Is_Raised_in_Glory/
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Celebrate Life
On Sunday morning Daryl and I got a call as we were getting ready for church that Grandad wasn't doing too well. We spent the day with my family beside Grandad's bed, sometimes holding his hand as he would smile and try to speak, sometimes whispering quietly to each other, and sometimes laughing over old memories.
Grandad was dying. His lungs were filling with fluid and he wasn't able to eat or drink anything. Soon his voluntary functions failed and it would only be a matter of time before his heart would give up and he would know longer fight to breathe.
That night I went to bed praying God would comfort Grandad and that God would comfort us, and that if it was best, that I could be there when he passed.
God said yes to all of those things. The next morning dad was with him, and he was still cognitive. Dad got to tell him that we all loved him and that Jesus certainly did. Dad said Grandad would occasionally look up at him as if for help, so they increased the amount of morphine they were giving him and gave it more frequently.
You die alone. People may be there looking on, but it must be slightly frightening. It's always slightly frightening for me any time I have to go into the unknown without a buddy - no matter how good you expect it to be or have heard that it is.
By the time I got there he wasn't cognitive anymore. He would gasp every few seconds for air, but oxygen was getting more and more difficult to come by. It's the first time his eyes haven't lit up and his smile didn't spread across his face when I walked in the door that I can remember.
Mom came. Clint and Phil came (his other son and daughter-in-law). We sat talking outside and I decided to check Grandad, and I noticed he didn't appear to be gasping as before. We all filed in and sure enough, his heart beat was much slower.
Within minutes, it completely stopped.
I have never seen anyone die before, but it was amazing to me how different the body looks without life in it anymore.
I remember rubbing his feet as I watched him, and watched my family, and thinking, "This is really such a good thing. He is going HOME. I know it's hard, but it's good all at the same time."
You know we celebrate the birth of a baby so much. This past week two women very close to me - my sister-in-law and a great friend gave birth and Daryl and I were so excited and everyone talked about it, but then when my grandad, who knows and believes in Jesus Christ and so has the promise of eternal life in a PERFECT place slipped from this life into his knew life, we suddenly find it harder to celebrate.
Even though I knew in my head that it was best for Grandad to be with the Lord, I was still left with so many emotions I couldn't even quite describe. Some of the hardest ones even may have come from watching my dad suffer through his father's death, and even from just thinking about the vapor of life.
As my friend Ashley reminded me the next day, death wasn't part of God's plan. I guess that's why it doesn't seem right. We kind of brought that on ourselves. But thankfully for us, out of God's kindness He has redeemed life through the blood of His Son. We die here, but if we have placed our faith in Christ, we get to live forever there.
Here - the world - sometimes good, sometimes bad; where evil resides
There - heaven - perfect, no crying, no sin, no judgment, no pain, no death
Praise God for His very dear and precious promises!
I must confess that I hope when I get there we do get to be near the people we loved and knew.
That's it for tonight...
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