"I HAVE HEARD YOU, DOT"

This is the season of Advent, when Christians worldwide anticipate the celebration of the first coming of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.  On the night He was born, an angel announced His coming to lowly and now terrified shepherds, watching over their flocks on the hillside, with the words:

“Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you.  You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests.”  The Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verses 10-14

The shepherds couldn’t wait to get there to see Jesus, their promised Messiah (Savior) for themselves.

I was reminded today in a number of ways that it doesn’t take a special announcement by one angel, or a host of them, to know the reality of the living Jesus and to SEE Him today.  The Jesus of Bethlehem, the Jesus of the cross of Calvary, THIS Jesus still lives today and if we are willing to look with spiritual eyes, He’ll reveal Himself in big ways and small.

For the last six weeks or so I’ve been teaching a series of lessons on the life of Abraham from the book of Genesis.  In chapters 12-15, the Lord had given Abraham innumerable promises.

·        The Lord would make him into a great nation

·        The Lord would bless him and make his name great

·        Abraham would be a blessing

·        All people on earth would be blessed through him

·        The Lord would multiply his descendants like the sand on the seashore and the stars of the sky – too numerable to even count

·        He gave him and his descendants the land of the Canaanites, from the river Egypt to the Euphrates, as an everlasting possession

·        He promised that Abraham would have a son from his own body through which these promises would be passed to future generations

Throughout that time of waiting for the promises to be fulfilled, Abraham’s wife Sarah had been unable to have children.  Abraham and Sarah became impatient for this promised son and so Sarah gave Abraham her maid as a wife, following the custom of their day, so that this maid might have children for HER.   

The maid conceived and bore to Abraham a son whom the Lord named Ishmael, but this was not the son the Lord promised, not the one through whom the blessings of God’s promises would be realized. That son would be born through the supernatural working of the Lord, in a "good as dead" as far as conception was concerned, Abraham and Sarah.

Finally the Lord appeared to Abraham again and said that he and his wife Sarah would have a son whom they should name Isaac.  Abraham must have been both overjoyed and sorrowful at the news, for by this time Ishmael was 13 years old and had been Abraham’s only son.  Having some longings of my own for my children, my heart went out to Abraham when he said this to the Lord in Genesis 17:18:

“If only Ishmael might live under your blessing.”

If you’re a parent, you understand how Abraham feels.  I have prayed long – years – for those I love to come to faith in the Lord.  Maybe you have too.  And yet they have not yet come.  Sometimes I find myself grieving over the fact that I have spent so much of my believing life teaching others about Jesus and encouraging their faith while those I love don’t seem interested at all.  

I love what the Lord says a little later in this same passage, because it brings such consolation to my heart.  Verse 20 of chapter 17:

“As for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him.”

The Lord HEARD Abraham's heart regarding Ishmael, as He hears your heart cry and mine for those we love.  Our prayers and longings are not falling on deaf ears, even when we can't see what the Lord is doing.

Recently, I began praying differently for those I love.  I began praying as Abraham prayed.  

 “If only you would work in THIS loves one’s life Lord.”  And, “How long O Lord, before just one of these loved ones comes to know you?”

And I reminded myself that the Lord says to me exactly what He said to Abraham, “I have heard you, Dot, I have heard you.”

Last week my husband made his weekly call to his 91 year old mom in California.  She told him something about a nephew who had called her.  She wasn’t used to hearing from this young man on a regular basis, so his call took her by surprise.  But what really surprised her, and what she related to Jim, is that this young man, “got religion”, as she described it.  When Jim told me, we were both puzzled and wondered about it ourselves.  And the curiosity was killing me!

So this week I contacted him, and today he phoned.  Before he even described what had happened to him, I could hear a change in his voice.  I recognized the emotion, having felt it many times myself.  It was JOY.  He began describing new priorities – like thinking less about himself and more about God.  And going to church and reading the Bible, discussing doctrine with friends, and having accountability partners! 

I had only one critical question for him:  What about Jesus, what do you believe about Jesus?  In answer, he told me all the wonderful things I hoped to hear!  He realized that he was a sinner and that Jesus had died for his sins and he had received Him into his heart and life.  I recognized the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in this young man’s life!  He is a new man!  

Jesus came into the world a long time ago for the first time and his coming was revealed to lowly shepherds.  The world has never been the same.

But Jesus still lives and He still comes into lives in the here and now, revealing himself in big ways and small.  My nephew now knows the reality of the living Jesus for himself.  

And Jesus has blessed MY heart as well, by reminding me of His love.  He has spoken the words, “I have heard you, Dot”, to MY heart and given my faith in His faithfulness in answering prayer, and His power to yet change the lives of others I love, a HUGE boost.  

Along with Christians all over the world, I am joyfully anticipating the celebration of Jesus birth in a manger more than 2000 years ago.  It was a birth that changed the world forever.   

I am joyfully anticipating the second coming of Jesus too, about which the Bible also speaks.  I long for the day when I see Him coming in the clouds and will finally look upon Him face to face.  What a day that will be!

In the meantime, I am overjoyed that He still comes. . . into hearts and into lives, and He leaves them forever changed.

Thank you so much Lord for showing me Your Glory today and for encouraging my  so small faith.  

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

THANKSGIVING REFLECTIONS 2012

Last night our church had its usual Thanksgiving Eve service.  It’s different from the one we have on a typical Sunday.  We sang some wonderful contemporary songs about the love of God, songs you can clap to, songs that made my heart full of joy and thanksgiving to the Lord.  

We also had communion, the symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for us and of our unity with Him, and with one another as brothers and sisters in Jesus.  

When we finished with communion the service took a turn from our familiar Sunday format.  For the rest of our time together we were given the opportunity to stand up and give the Lord praise for the ways in which He has worked in our lives.  There were some wonderful testimonies to God’s grace –in  a long time illness finally diagnosed; in the safe return of a young man who had served in Afghanistan; for sons and daughters home from college; and many other thanks- givings. Before I even entered the church my heart was full of gratitude, so all these blessings added to my joyful praise.  

Sitting there listening to others, I was struck by the mercy and grace of God in a new way.  

I remember reading a book that asked the question:  If heaven wasn’t included in the “package” of believing in Jesus, if believing was only beneficial for TODAY, would you still believe?  My answer would be a resounding YES!  I am so grateful to know God, to know that God loves me.  That He loved me enough to pay the ultimate price of the life of His Son so that I could come near.  So that I could love HIM!  The God of the universe!  The Creator of all things!  I can KNOW Him – not just for all eternity – but for NOW! Every day I live He gives me glimpses of Himself.

How grateful I am for Jesus, for His willingness to go to the cross, giving His life for mine, so that I could KNOW Him.  I was filled last night with the delight, the privilege, the blessing of KNOWING Jesus!  If there was no heaven to come with the package, the blessing of knowing Jesus NOW would be enough. 

I’m so grateful also that oneness with Jesus makes me one as well with all the others who also belong to Him.  I looked around the sanctuary at all those familiar faces and thanked the Lord for my brothers and sisters in Christ.  How I love them!

But these weren’t the only reasons I was filled with gratitude last night.  I was filled with gratitude for all those college students home for Thanksgiving, sitting in the pews with their family.  The Lord has blessed me to know so many of them personally simply because the youth group needed a female chaperone for a missions trip and I went.  What a privilege to know them!  What a privilege to see them grow into young men and women with a heart for God.  

I know what the Apostle John means in 3 John, verse 4:

“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

These young adults are not my biological children, but in a way many of them are my spiritual children because I have prayed for them and been blessed to invest in their lives.  It gives me so much joy to see them walking in the truth!

I’m thankful for so much: for my family, for the food that goes along with this day, for extended family we’ll see later, for the country in which I live that sets aside a day to give God thanks, for young adults learning to walk with Jesus.   

But mostly I’m grateful for those more intangible gifts that cannot be readily “seen” that come about because Jesus came.

My cup is full.  Thank you Jesus.

CRAZY, YES! BUT CRAZY IN LOVE!

If you have read my blog entitled, “Indeed, the Lord still speaks. .”, then you know that I am in the process of being evaluated to donate a kidney to Jennifer, a friend and sister in Christ from my church.  I spent the day yesterday at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City for a second round of tests and consultations with physicians.   

I was pretty amazed and also overjoyed that one of the doctors said I was in excellent health for someone my age.  From what he said, the final decision about whether or not I will be approved as a donor will be decided by a kidney donor panel which reviews all donors and their test results before together making their final decision.  I may have to have one more kidney function test before we receive a decision.

As I said in the blog mentioned above, Jennifer and I desire more than anything that the Lord be honored, exalted, and glorified in the entire process, regardless of whether the result will be my giving and her receiving a kidney.

In the dark of night when my nightly hot flash catapults me into complete wakefulness, I think.  Sometimes I write blogs in my head.  Sometimes I consider logistical solutions for things I’m doing – like do I ask the discussion questions in this part of my lesson, or that – for my Sunday school class or the ladies Bible class I teach.  Recently I’ve thought a lot about what I’m going to say to people who ask me why I want to donate a kidney to Jennifer, and say it in a way that will magnify the Lord and not me.  Several times yesterday I had that opportunity.

I always explain how I found out about being a live kidney donor through a post Jennifer had on her Facebook page.  It kind of blows minds when they hear of this social media vehicle used in that way.  I’m sure the guy who developed it didn’t see that one coming!

One of the appointments I had yesterday was with a psychiatrist who most certainly wanted to know why I would do such a thing for someone who was not a family member.  I knew this appointment was coming and I was somewhat concerned about whether the psychiatrist would really grasp the role my faith and Jennifer’s has in this adventure we have embarked on together. It was an interesting discussion to say the least!

What I was most hesitant to share was how the Lord had impressed upon me that this was an invitation to say yes to something He was leading me to do.  It’s the “God TOLD me to do it” explanation that I imagined would be a red flag to someone whose job it is to recognize insanity!  Psychiatric hospitals are probably FULL of people who believe that God speaks to them!  I was thinking that if the psychiatrist was not a person of faith, then I might be in trouble!   

Just so you know, I do not believe that the Lord speaks to me – or anyone anymore – in an audible voice.  We now have the full counsel of God’s Word – the Bible – and the indwelling Holy Spirit to speak for Him.  That’s how I believe God speaks today.  In this case, when I read Jennifer’s Facebook post, the Lord just kept bringing it to my mind until I felt I had to act on it and see where it, or rather He, would take me.

During the course of the conversation with the psychiatrist, the Lord gave me a great deal of opportunity to share how faith in Jesus impacts my motivations, my actions, and my whole life really, and the Spirit gave me freedom in sharing it.  

I shared how it was the Lord who spoke to me through Jennifer’s Facebook posting with a link about live kidney donorship.  I shared how it was the Lord who guided us through first the blood type match, and then the cross match match.  It is He who guides us now through all the good test results that have been keeping the way open.  It is He who fills us with joy and anticipation of what He’s going to do – in our lives and the lives of others – whether or not I’m approved to be a donor, and whether or not Jennifer ultimately receives my kidney.  And it will be the Lord who will help us both accept a “no”, in the event I am rejected as a donor, although it would take time for us each to come to grips with that.

The psychiatrist asked if I saw this as a sort of culminating life goal of mine.  I told her that glorifying God was a life goal – in all of my life, not just in this – and that there were plenty of things I was currently involved in to illustrate that, not just this. Jim spoke up as well to assure her of that.

She asked if I had any fear of a negative outcome to the surgery and I said no, because I felt I was following the Lord’s leading, and because I knew what lay ahead at the end of my life on this earth, and it would be glorious.  She remarked then, “So you’re not afraid of dying?”.  My response was a hearty, “NO!, I know where I’m going and the anticipation of it becomes sweeter the older I get”.  Just to clarify though, in case she was thinking maybe I had a death wish – I told her that despite the joyful anticipation of heaven – I wasn’t anxious to get there just yet!

I don’t know what impact, if any, anything I said had on that psychiatrist.  I do know that the Lord was magnified as the Spirit guided my words.  My desire and prayer will be that she’ll give some consideration to her own eternal future, that curiosity about why I believe what I believe will cause her to seek for herself what it means to have the kind of relationship with God through Jesus that gives such joy and peace, and enables us to speak to Him, and Him to speak to us and recognize His voice.  

I would have loved to have us each slip out of our “doctor”, “crazy donor” roles, so that we could talk some more about eternal things – for they truly are more important than the physical and temporal.  Maybe she and I will cross paths again and talk further, who knows?

Someone at our women’s Bible class today quoted this verse from the Jewish prophet Jeremiah to the nation of Israel: 

“’For I know the plans I have for you’, declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, ‘ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back from captivity’.”    Jeremiah 29:11-14a

May all those who read these blogs and know Jesus personally be drawn to Him in a deeper way, for He IS alive, He still speaks, He wants you to know Him – not just intellectually, but personally, and He invites you to draw closer.  

For those who do not yet know Jesus, I pray that as you read these blogs, you’ll be drawn to seek with all your heart the One who promises to be found by you when you do.  He, and only He, can bring you out of the captivity of sin, and seal you to Himself through faith in Jesus.

So, to set the record straight - I am NOT crazy!  But I AM crazy in love – with Jesus – the lover of my soul!