Hide and Seek

From about my age of 10, our family lived right behind the grade school I attended. I could just cross the street, walk up onto school property, cross a ball field, through part of the playground and into the school. Come evening, during warmer seasons, the school ground was still a busy place. Some neighborhood boys played basketball or baseball depending on the season of the year. Most of us engaged in some of the usual childhood games that were so much fun. One of the all time favorites was the game of Hide and Seek. We had to decide boundaries for hiding as the school property took up more space than would be reasonable for the game.

It was the usual one person counting to 50 or 100 and then first looking around for obvious hiders who hadn't gone very far from the seekers tree. It was a good thing if you could run in when the seeker wasn't looking, pat the tree and yell, “Safe.” We would play that until almost dark outside and always had to come running when a parent called for us to come home. That game was my first experience as a seeker. No one had to define the word. It was my job as seeker to find all the hiders I could with as few as possible coming to the tree before I could catch them.

We have spent our lives being seekers. Seekers are those folks who earnestly look for someone or something. Early in life, we seek the right husband or wife for our lives. Many seek out the college to attend or the perfect job. However, among all the seeking we have done, the most important was that of seeking the Lord. We may not have known it, but Scripture has commanded beyond our years that we seek the Lord. That is not only supposed to be just with regard to our salvation, but we are to be seekers of Him all the time. We are told:

Seek ye the Lord while He
may be found, call upon Him
while He is near.
Isaiah 55:6

God always makes Himself available to us and He is ever seeking us as well.

For the Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost.
Luke 19:10

In that childhood game, I never liked being the seeker...I liked being the hider. I'm afraid there have been times in my life when I have been a hider from God...not open with Him and not in His will where I knew I should be. Still, with His consistent and His undeserved love, He has always come seeking with the leading of His Holy Spirit. Aren't we glad that in our worst spiritual state, He still seeks for us.

There are definite advantages in being seekers of our Heavenly Father. These verses fall under the category of the “Seekers Perks.”

The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
but those who seek the Lord shall not
lack any good thing.
Psalm 34:10

Seek the Lord and live.

Amos 5:6a

Evil men do not understand justice,
but those who seek the Lord
understand all.
Proverbs 28:5

Seek the Lord and His strength;
seek His face evermore!
Psalm 105:4

But from there you will seek the Lord
your God, and you will find Him if you
seek Him with all your heart and with
all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:29

And most precious...

And you will seek Me and find Me,|
when you search for Me with all
your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13

The secret of this verse is not just God's promise that He can be found by us, but we should look at three words in that verse that should stand out...you, you, your. There must be two-way effort...God is always available but we must catch up to where He is. Seeking Him is always going to mean a consistent effort on our part. We have distractions, problems, activities and such that can cause us to loose track of God. We really don't have to look very far to find Him for He is ever-present. We are a very blessed people to have the Abba Father we have, but we must keep seeking.

Father, as a parent would look for a lost child, I know You seek for me when I have neglected You. Thank You for loving me that much and for caring for me when I don't deserve a minute of Your time. I love You. In Jesus' precious name....Amen!

The Spiritual Privilege of Thanksgiving

I rarely cook turkey and dressing on any day other than our holiday of Thanksgiving. There would be nothing wrong with it, but somehow, it just doesn't taste the same. We all have our holiday traditions. I know of people who don't roast a turkey...they have a beef roast. Somehow, that sounds criminal to me, but we all have our ways of doing things.

Many people make it a habit to make a thanksgiving list this time of year, to list those people and things they are most grateful for. I've done that and see nothing wrong with it. My list usually is made up of people, possessions, health, provisions, blessings of the year and I can be thankful for those things any day of any year. We are to be grateful people 365 days of the year for God's goodness in our lives.

This year, I've been scanning Scripture looking for those verses that express praise and gratitude to God, not so much for what He does for me on an ongoing basis but for who He is in my life and the life of others as well. I have listed just a few of those verses. There's no way I could write them all out, but have listed some of who He is and how He works on our behalf. These things aren't meant to be just for a day. These things are just who He is. Above each verse, I have written those things we should be grateful for every day of the when it comes to our love and appreciation for our Lord.

HIS DEEDS

Oh, give thanks to the Lord!
Call upon His name;
Make known His deeds
among the peoples!
Psalm 105:1

GOODNESS, MERCY AND REDEMPTION

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for
He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so...
Psalm 107:1,2a

HIS WILL IN MY LIFE

In everything give thanks; for this is the
will of God in Christ concerning you.
I Thessalonians 5:18

LOVINGKINDNESS AND FAITHFULNESS

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;
To declare Your lovingkindness in the morning,
and Your faithfulness every night.
Psalm 92:1,2

GOD'S GIFT OF VICTORY

But thanks be to God, who gives us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 15:57

INDESCRIBABLE GIFT OF HIS SON

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
II Corinthians 9:15

ROCK OF OUR SALVATION, GREATNESS, OUR ONLY GOD

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of
our salvation.
Let us come before His presence with
thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to
Him with psalms.
For the Lord is the great God, and
the great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:1-3

ALMIGHTY, GREAT POWER, REIGNS SUPREME

Was, Is and Is To Come
We give You thanks, O Lord God
Almighty, the One who is and who
was and who is to come, because You
have taken Your great power
and reigned.
Revelation 11:17

Let me encourage us to take time apart from the menu, ballgames, get-togethers and yes, early shopping to sincerely come before God, our one and only, to express our more than deserved gratitude for all He has been and continues to be in our lives. Our thank you list could go on and on but perhaps as we read our Bibles we can be more alert to those wonderful attributes God is in our lives.

Thank You so much, dear Father for who you are in all of our lives. We can never express enough gratitude for all You are and for all You do for us that we don't even pause to think about. We praise You and thank You for all You've given to us. Forgive our ingratitude. We love You...in Jesus precious name...Amen.

Love Those Surprises

But as it is written:
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
nor have entered into the heart
of man the things which God
has prepared for those who love Him.
I Corinthians 2:9

We live in a world where it would seem there are few surprises left. Our world has been through so much and most people are so world savvy that it's even hard to surprise someone with a birthday gift. In some years back, maybe you can remember with me, the television program “Gomer Pyle.” He was a bit of a country bumpkin and was so naïve that it was easy to pull something over on him. When he was surprised by something, the funniest thing Gomer would say with a loud, twangy voice was, “SURR-PRAHS...SURR-PRAHS!!

All of us like surprises, when it comes to good or fun things. A surprise isn't always just good things though. A surprise is anything that comes our way that is totally unexpected. That might be a surprise gift, surprise party, medical diagnosis, being tail-ended by another car, etc. As I write, a friend of mine by the name of Linda was walking to work. As she was crossing the street, a car going 30 MPH hit her and sent her flying up on the hood and windshield of the car. In this short amount of time, she has had several surgeries, each one very serious in nature. Linda is one of the sweetest ladies you could ever meet, who loves and serves the Lord faithfully. That morning as she crossed the street, she could never have imagined what was in store for her as she stepped out into the crosswalk, never dreaming that in those moments, her life would be totally changed....sur-prise, sur-prise.

I love the above verse. God has made big preparations for you and me. Just the fact that He would prepare with His own power something special for us is so amazing to me. In this passage, we don't see a list of what those things are but in this case, they must really be something. We see that our major senses are involved in this process of God's working on our behalf.

EYE has not seen: We love things that look nice, are pretty, are pleasant to behold. Whatever God has in store, it's like we've never seen before.
EAR has not heard: Whatever God has in store we've never heard anything like what He has in mind for us.
HEART: We allow a lot of hopes and desires to become a part of our heart's thinking. His goodness to us will be things we could never dream up or imagine.

God's “things” He's prepared, appear to me in this verse to be very personal, hand picked and developed by God just for us individually. I recently saw a man interviewed on television. He is a man who dotes on himself. He owns two or three expensive cars, a boat, jewelry many folks would envy. If he sees someone with an upgrade on any of his items, he goes and purchases something that outdoes that person. This man really cannot be surprised. There's not a gift, possession or party that could surprise this man. All he does for himself puts him in a constant state of the deepest of debt.

However, there are things about God that constantly surprise me when I think about who He is in my life. There is nothing new about these things but I love thinking about them.
+ I am amazed at God's power. From creation and parting the Red Sea to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, we should stand in awe of all God can do and continues to do.

+ I'm also amazed at God's presence. There are people in Scripture who tried in any number of ways to flee God's presence but to no avail. He is everywhere and has every right to be. I am astonished beyond belief that out of the millions and millions of His followers, He can single me out for His own special plan and assignment for my life. God can single me out of all other believers to be loved, instructed and yes, corrected by Him. It's as if I'm His only child even though I know that isn't so.

The list could go on and on as we think of God's attributes but will end the list that is a personal amazement of Him in my life and that's His love. This love is beyond amazement but my personal amazement is that He would send His son Jesus to die for me. I'm not worthy of that and I don't know of anyone who is.

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene.
And wonder how He could love me
A sinner, condemned unclean.
How marvelous
How wonderful
And my song shall ever be.
Oh how marvelous
Oh how wonderful
Is my Savior's love for me.

I love who God is in my life and everything He is in my life. Despite all of His goodness in my life on a regular basis, He is still full of surprises in my life as well. God sends things and people into my life that could only be of Him. You and I, although undeserving of God's goodness, should feel such gratitude toward Him and for Him who is faithful in our lives. I love that there's no imagining all God has in store for us BUT...it is “for those who love Him.” God is still in the process of preparing even more things for us and I can hardly wait to see what else He has in store for my life. It's got to be spectacular.

Thank you Father for Your goodness in my life. Forgive my lack of gratitude and taking Your blessings for granted. Thank you for sending Jesus into my life and for Your Holy Spirit who teaches me the Word and who guides and directs my life. In Jesus' precious name...Amen.

Just Get Me To Jesus

Then they came to Him, bringing a
paralytic who was carried by
four men.
Mark 2:3

It's an odd incident in the Gospels, but I have loved it for years. Jesus arrived in Capernaum. He went to a certain house and there began to preach. By now Jesus had done quite abit of healing and teaching so He had a following because of it. The house was packed full of people including some scribes who were there to listen to Jesus and probably hoped to get all the negative information on Jesus that they could. We read that the house was not only full but so full the crowd went to even the doorway. In all probability, there were folks standing outside the house as well.

Houses in those days were pretty simple if we go by cultural information we have from that time in history. Most were like a small building, square in shape usually made from mud bricks with mud to serve as a kind of concrete. There were in many cases a window on each side of the house and usually a very narrow stairway, attached to the house that led up to the roof. The roof was a wonderful place to be in the evenings when the sun was about set and folks could relax in the cooler evening air. During the day, the roof became a work area. The roof itself was usually made of hardened mud tiles that could be removed to pass things down into the house or just for ventilation.

Four men had a great concern for a friend who was a paralytic. We don't know the names of the men nor do we know if they were close friends or relatives. The fact is that they were very concerned for the man and felt if they could get him to Jesus, he could be healed. They carried the man on a cot or crude stretcher of sorts. Each of the four men held onto a corner of the cot and went straight to the house. Much to their dismay, they couldn't even get close to Jesus, not even into the door of the house. What were they to do?

The men decided the thing to do was to take the man to the roof. That would not be easy. Remember that the steps leading up to the roof were usually very narrow. How could four men, carrying a cot with a man on it possibly get to the roof? We don't know how they did it but they were desperate and got to the roof. There they removed some tiles and could see into the room where Jesus was preaching. They lowered the paralytic through the roof down to where Jesus was. Their determination and concern for their friend impressed Jesus who commented on their faith and immediately healed the man. Jesus told the man to get up, pick up his cot and to go to his house. Immediately the man arose from the cot, picked it up himself and went out where other people were standing. All were amazed and began praising the Lord. Many responded with “We've never seen anything like this!”

Why am I so impressed with this real event in the healing ministry of Jesus? First, there was a very desperate man with a condition that rendered him helpless. Even if he heard about Jesus, he couldn't have gotten himself to Jesus. BUT, four men appeared on the scene with a determination to get their friend to THE One they felt sure could heal him. They came up with a plan, got the man to Jesus and the rest is history.

I'm thinking of times in my spiritual walk when I became emotionally or spiritually paralyzed.

Serious situations can come into our lives and we exhaust ourselves with praying, often with more tears than we think we can shed. Perhaps some folks who love us realize our situation and come along side to stand with us. Some may be willing to even carry us. When we see a person like I've described, we can become a stretcher bearer.

When first married, a doctor told me I probably couldn't have a baby. That was a killer for me. I was the nursery director in a large Baptist church. I was taking care of others babies while having none of my own. Unbeknown to me, as I was told later by our pastor, seven of my nursery workers went to the pastor and asked him to find a baby for Brian and me to adopt. He didn't know of a situation at that time that had come to his attention but assured them he would be alert to that need. Those ladies made a spiritual agreement that night that no matter where they were, they would individually pray for this situation at 9:00 every night until I was holding a baby of my own in my arms. They also promised that they would never speak of it to me or anyone else. Can you imagine such an undertaking of love and even urgency. I couldn't do anything about our situation. I was about to the point that I couldn't even pray for myself anymore. I didn't go around talking about it but a couple of those workers were close friends and knew my heart.

In a few months, at a church staff meeting, the pastor said he had an announcement to make. He said, “Glendarae is going to have a baby the first part of November.” Everyone just cheered. I thought it was a joke...the meeting was being held in July. Sure enough, a beautiful baby girl came into our lives November 6 of that year. As much as Brian and I rejoiced with our new born daughter, secretly, behind the scenes was a group of seven ladies...stretcher bearers that supported me in prayer when I often couldn't get to Jesus for myself who among themselves were rejoicing, sharing knowing smiles about this baby who all must have felt like she was a special part of their lives as well.

We can't take on that much for everyone we come in contact with but the Lord will often bring someone our way with a great and seemingly impossible problem. Perhaps that person desperately needs one or more Christians to help bear their burden. Looking back, I remember receiving anonymous notes, little gifts, cards, some 3x5 cards with Scripture promises on them. Of course, I didn't know names of those ladies until after our baby came into our lives but the pastor admonished me to never let on to those ladies that I knew their secret. It was fun to watch those ladies on some occasions when individually, they would show up at church with a new frilly dress or baby toy for this little one they had prayed for. With each act of kindness, I just had to keep my knowing smile to myself. I wanted to cry at times when I watched some of them rock our baby while in the nursery or take extra time feeding her. They would almost have a look of wonder as they held her.

I haven't received that much secret devotion on the part of a group of friends since that time. I do know that there have been friends who have prayed and encouraged me during some very difficult times, times when I was so burdened I couldn't even word a prayer at the time. All of us need those “stretcher bearers” on occasion, but we also need to be so sensitive to the needs of others that we are willing to commit our energy and time to another person who desperately needs to get to Jesus, but who just feel like they can't quite get there. I believe Jesus is pleased when He witnesses our giving that kind of devotion to another person and He stands ready to honor that dedication.

By the way, as I write, in three days, that lovely daughter will celebrate a birthday. She loves and serves the Lord and has three children of her own. I wish those seven ladies, those stretcher bearers, could meet her now. Some are in Heaven, some are scattered now to different places but their impact is an eternal one. They got me to Jesus when I was too weary to get there on my own.

Thank You, dear Father, for seven friends who in their own way, consistently knocked on Your door on my behalf. We all learned in the process. Thank You for those in my life who have lifted me up when I felt I couldn't stand emotionally. May I be just as sensitive to others who have a need for whatever support I might be able to render. In Jesus' precious name..Amen