Happy Independence Day

[Judy Harder]

Believing God's Promises

For the Lord loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever. - Psalm 37:28

I read and study God's Word because it's a map—an instruction manual—for my life.  As the psalmist said, Scripture's a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths.  Yet there's an important discipline to consider when we spend time in Scripture: and that is believing God's promises.  Listen to a few:

God is always near and will never forsake you.
God has good plans for you.
God listens to you when you pray.
God will forgive you when you fail.

From first to last, Scripture is filled with God's promises to us. These promises of God fill us with hope and love, and they give you courage to live in the world, but not of the world.  Believe God's promises to us.

"How can I believe in God when just last week I got my tongue caught in the roller of an electric typewriter." - Woody Allen (1935-     )

[Judy Harder]

Cultivating a Divine Appetite

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. - Isaiah 55:2

Unlike physical hunger, our appetite for God is never fully satisfied.  Once we've satisfied our physical hunger we no longer want to eat, at least until we become hungry again.  In fact, the sight, smell, or even the thought of food can repulse us after we've eaten our fill.  Proverbs 27:7 describes the phenomenon like this: "He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet."

But the opposite is true with regard to our appetite for God. In the very act of satisfying it, the appetite intensifies.  This may be something new and different for you, so let me explain.

If you've never tasted cheesecake, gone to a professional football game, or watched the sun set over the ocean, you can't really know what you're missing.  Consequently, you probably don't have much of an appetite for those things.  It's only when you've experienced something that you realize you want more of it.

That's what Psalm 34:8 is telling us:  "Taste and see that the Lord is good."  Experience for yourself that He's good, and that He satisfies completely.  And when you do, something wonderful and life changing will happen–you will find yourself wanting more and more of Him, and less and less of the world's cheap substitutes for Him.   

"Life is as a jelly roll. When you think you have it eaten, it comes out the other end. " - Christopher P. Buonanno

[Judy Harder]

Delight in the Lord

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. - Deuteronomy 11:18

Psalm 37:4 tells us to delight in the Lord and He'll give us the desires of our hearts.  What does that mean?  It sounds like some magic formula, like rubbing the genie's lamp to get what we want. That's not the way it works.

It's hard to believe until you've experienced it, but if you're desiring something sinful, destructive, or something you can't afford, and you're truly delighting yourself in the Lord, He'll change those desires and replace them with new ones.  Don't get trapped into thinking of God as a magician who provides things that would only distract you from Him.

So then, what does it mean to "delight in the Lord?"  Consider what it means to delight in a friend's company.  Whenever you have opportunity you spend time with that person.  You talk openly and honestly with him or her; you look forward to your time together; you seek ways of knowing that person more fully and intimately; and you guard yourself from doing anything that would hurt, disappoint, or bring open shame upon your friend.

Well, that's very much what it's like for us to delight in the Lord. We delight in Him by reading His Word; by trusting what He says is true, by spending time in prayer and meditation; and by seeking to honor Him in every area of our life.

"A Brother may not be a Friend, but a Friend will always be a Brother." - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

[Judy Harder]

Prayer and Meditation

But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him. - Habakkuk 2:20

Although we don't think about it much, our communication with God consists of two equally important parts: prayer and meditation.  Prayer is talking to God.  Most of us have this aspect down. Meditation is listening to God.  And it's here that most of us need a bit of work.

Have you ever been in a relationship where the other person does all the talking?  It gets old fast, doesn't it?  The one up side is you become a good listener while the other person gets everything off his/her chest.  But there's a down side too: always listening and never talking leads you to begin to feel unknown, a little unloved, and sometimes, even used.

Now, think about how this applies to your relationship with God. Are you doing all the talking, without ever taking the time to listen?  If you're sharing with Him from the depths of your heart, that's fantastic!  By all means, keep it up.  Just make sure, that you also take the time to use the ears of your heart to listen to God as well.

Remember, God tends to speak with a still, small voice; He very rarely shouts at His children.  I heard it explained this way once, "God is a gentleman."  That's why meditation is such an important aspect of prayer.  It teaches you to develop a quiet, patient heart and an open, attentive ear.  These are essential components to growing in your walk with the Lord.

"Silence is deep as eternity; speech is shallow as time." - Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

[Judy Harder]

Studying God's Word

Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord. - Isaiah 2:5

When I receive a letter from a close friend I usually find myself doing two things: first, I read the letter with interest—hanging on every word; and second, I read the letter a second and in some cases a third time—hoping each time to gain insight or catch something I might have missed previously.

Who wants to be closer to us than God? The same should be true with regard to God's Word, and by reading that message intently and repeatedly, we can get to know Him truly and more accurately.

In Psalm 119, David likens Scripture to a lamp for our feet and a light for our path. You need to keep God's Word close by and read it often. Otherwise, you'll find yourself walking in darkness. And if that happens, you're sure to stumble and fall.

Remember, God's Word, the Bible, is a series of letters from your closest friend.  Read them closely.  Read them often.  And after you read it once, read it again!

"You can't have a light without a dark to stick it in." - Arlo Guthrie (1947-    )

[Judy Harder]

A Better Way

I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. - Malachi 3:6

Let me be honest.  Too many of you travel through life basing every decision you make upon how you feel and what you experience.  You don't study God's Word, and you spend very little time talking and listening to the Lord.  Consequently, you don't know much about the Good Shepherd who is expecting you to follow Him, no matter how you feel and regardless of your circumstances.

Now let me give you some encouragement.  If you place your focus squarely upon Christ and you try to see things around you as He would, it will become second nature to look to Him and depend upon Him rather than yourself.  And you won't get lost when you walk through dark seasons of life.  Jesus will be your unshakable strength.  And your focused gaze upon Him will keep you from altering your direction due to momentary discomfort–and from drifting off into spiritual shipwreck!

In a world that is endlessly fickle and fleeting, God is an immovable Rock.

Our faith, when focused on the true God, will not be shaken by adversity or unexpected turbulence.  As long as we hold tightly to Him by faith—trusting in His goodness and love—we can come through pain and struggle with a deeper and richer relationship with Jesus, rather than a strained faith resulting from a prolonged failure to seek the one true God.

"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens." -J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

[Judy Harder]

Narrow and Healthy

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." -  John 14:6

A friend of mine once wrote a children's book about heaven.  When checking out the reviews of his book, he came across a reviewer who said she was attracted by the book's title and artwork.  Then she noted how her excitement was replaced by dismay when the author claimed the only way to heaven was through Jesus Christ. The reviewer was deeply offended by what she called the book's "obvious bias against non-Christians."

We live in times where tolerance and diversity are the buzz words—particularly in the world of religion.  How could any faith be called "healthy" that claimed only one way to God?

But have you listened to the advocates of this thought?  Their message is that the way to salvation is through our moral virtue.  "Be good, do good, and it'll all work out."

My problem with that is this:  I'm not that good a person—certainly not good enough to stand before God on the basis of my own feeble virtue.  What about you?

As unpopular as it might be, the truth is, we are all sinners.  But thankfully God made a way for us to come to Him and not be seen as such—through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus. Maybe it's narrow—but it's true!

"Jesus came to raise the dead.  He did not come to teach the teachable.  He did not come to improve the improvable; He did not come to reform the reformable. None of those things works." - Robert Farrerr Capon (1925-    )

[Judy Harder]

The "Nubbies"

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.                                                                    Romans 5:1

A psychologist friend recently told me about Cliff—a client he described as "a believer after God's own heart."

After years of service to The Lord, Cliff's wife developed aggressive cancer.  Many people joined Cliff in prayer for his wife, but she declined rapidly and died.  Through it all, Cliff didn't break his determined gaze upon Christ.  Instead of allowing the tragedy to shake his faith, he allowed his experience of pain, suffering, confusion, and grief to push him deeper into the arms of the living God.

Cliff knew two things, and held to them tenaciously.  The first was that God was good.  He didn't understand the circumstances surrounding his wife's sickness, or why she had to suffer and die.  But he knew a reason resided with God, and that he would come to understand in the light of eternity.  The second thing Cliff held to was his certainty that God loved him—in spite of everything, no matter what, and through it all.

When you're in severe pain or distress, life becomes pretty simple. You're in survival mode, and you have neither the heart nor the strength to spread your emotional energy around.  As Chuck Swindoll might say, "Life gets boiled down to the nubbies."

When pain or distress boils your life down to the "nubbies," do what Cliff did.  Keep it simple.  Grab hold of what you know is true about the living God, and hold on like a pit bull.

"The nearer the dawn the darker the night." -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882

[Judy Harder]

Winning Prisoners

Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. - Psalm 142:7

Four inmates at the Greenville, Mississippi city jail were caught breaking back into their cells!  And according to the district attorney, "It is entirely possible this wasn't the first time they've done this."  The four apparently found a way for repeated access to the outside world.  Yet according to the police chief, "They didn't seem interested in escaping, they just missed their amenities of life and went back to get them."  This particular time, they returned to jail carrying a load of gin and marijuana.  Ironically, these willing prisoners now face felony escape charges.

Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction.  How many of us have resolved to spend our days in prisons of our own making—prisons we're able to escape through personal change, but won't because the prison provides us a semblance of security?

You can be freed from whatever your prison is.  Look for help—first to God, but then to those God has put in your path–a trusted friend, pastor or counselor.  And remember God is a God of second chances.

"I'm not crazy about reality, but it's still the only place to get a decent meal." -Groucho Marx (1890-1977)

[Judy Harder]

Trust and Obey

If you love me, you will obey what I command. - John 14:15

"Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey."  Simple words from a simple hymn.  Yet these simple words contain incredible insight into the essential elements of the Christian life.

Trust and obedience are your allies when you surrender your life to God.  "For it's God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."  That's what the apostle Paul teaches in the book of Philippians.  But if we don't trust that God loves us, that He is all-wise and all-powerful, and that He cares for us; we won't be very likely to obey Him, will we?

When it comes to our formal theology, we confess a belief which says that obedience is born out of trust.  Yet in our day-to-day life, we're too often disobedient in spite of giving lip-service to trust.

So the question remains: can you truly trust your Lord without obeying Him?

In Luke 11:28 Jesus calls those who hear the word of God and obey it "blessed."  In other words: "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey."

"Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. " - Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)