THE LOVELY TREE

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs which on the
outside appear beautiful, but inside
they are full of dead men's bones
and all uncleanness.
So you, too, outwardly appear
righteous to men, but inwardly you
are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23:27,28

Our daughter Beverly with our granddaughter Madelyn, came for a visit just a few weeks after we moved into our new house here in Townsend, Tennessee. Bev not only got to see all of the in's and out's of the house, but we also did some of the usual looking around at some familiar places in the mountains we had all enjoyed together for years.

While standing on our front porch one day, our attention was draw to a mountain top in the distance where there has been erected a telephone tower. The people of Townsend had a fit when it was put there, but I guess it was sorely needed. To keep people happy, the company did some decorating of the tower with some kind of fake branches and the like to help make the tower fit in a little better with the surrounding trees. While looking at the tower, Madelyn came near to us knowing what we were looking at and she commented, “That is a lovely tree.” I think she said “lovely” or some such grown up adjective. We saw a tower, she looked at the tower and saw a tree.

In Matthew 23, Jesus gave a good portion of attention to the scribes and pharisees, even to the point of referring to them as hypocrites. From verse 13 through 36, we see what has come to be known as the “Eight Woes.” Eight times, Jesus directed his remarks to those leaders He referred to as “hypocrites.” In each woe, Jesus gave examples they should have understood regarding their hypocritical behavior.

In the above verses, Jesus gave the example of what people did in that day to make a tomb look less than what it was. However, anyone seeing even a painted or decorated tomb knew quite well what was inside. Inside was still death and decay. No matter how lovely the outside, the inside was nothing but filth. A phone tower isn't really anything attractive. We see them all over the place, often in the oddest of places. They are usually gray, very tall with ladders, wires and other mechanical necessities. We can paint them, cover them with branches to resemble trees, but guess what...it's still, under all the décor, an unlovely telephone tower. A child may see a lovely tree while the adults know what it is and what it would look like minus the décoration.

We've all known Christians who really look good on the outside spiritually speaking. I've unfortunately known pastors in their fine suits and ties, preaching from a well worn Bible who preach so profoundly they hold the attention of the youngest of children within the sound of their voices. We don't expect perfection from them or any other professing Christian. We know we are sinners saved by grace, capable of a terrible fall if we don't keep our focus where it should be.

It would be too much of a job trying to keep track of Christians who put on good fronts. I'm not saying they aren't saved, but being hypocritical can befall any of us. Therefore, judging the motives of others is futile. Our job is to take a good look in our spiritual mirror, the Word of God and just view what we look like . Anyone, saved or unsaved can be hypocritical. Hypocrisy is basically putting on a front or pretending to be something a person is not in reality.

My caution is to we Christians who want very badly to please the Lord in every way. We want to be genuine witnesses for Jesus. However, there are times we may grow cold in our faith, but no one on the outside knows about it. We still look good and sound good, but hypocrisy has crept in. We have to call it what it is. The key for you and me is to keep the inside as cleaned up spiritually as the outside. The Christian world is crying for believers who are authentic, real, genuine and honest in their living and witness. We must maintain a close relationship with Jesus Christ that is real and in depth. When in that condition, there is no need for pretense and God is pleased.

Like that “lovely tree” I spoke of, it would be found out if we hiked up the mountain to take a good look at it. We would quickly see the phony facade attached to nothing but a big metal tower. As folks get near enough to know us better and better, may they see no facade. May they see people, not perfect ones, but people who love God with all their hearts and who are living to please God in every way.

Dear Father, thank You for drawing me closer and closer to Yourself. Thank You too for any correction You extend when I'm not who and what I ought to be for You. I want Your blessing on my life and that can't happen with a pretender. I love you. In Jesus' name...Amen

DIVINE APPOINTMENTS

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who

receives whomever I send receives

Me; and he who receives Me receives

Him who sent me.

John 13:20

Having not been in the church very long at the time, and new even to the area because of our move from another city, everything was new to me. It wasn't long until I was asked to teach a Sunday school class in the church we had joined. The teacher of the class was a staff wife and that family was going to be moving to another pastorate. Taking the place of a very loved women's teacher can be difficult and this one proved to be tense. We were strangers in one room and it would take the Lord to warm things up. His plan in a situation can be very unique.

On one particular Sunday, I was taking prayer requests when a lady walked in the door that was at the back of the room. I knew from class response that folks didn't seem to know her. The lady looked very professional in her dress and physical presence. Most visitors when they come into a new setting like that quickly take a chair on the back row. That wasn't happening with this lady. She walked around the group (chairs in about five rows) and came straight to the front row. There was no one seated on the front row so she sat down in a chair right in front of me.

I stopped what I was doing and turned my attention to her. I'll call her Grace for now. I asked her name and was shocked at what happened next...a first for me. She stood, gave her name and began listing some things. She told me she the very professional career she had with a local university, was a single mom to two teenage girls who were out of control, her husband had left her for another woman and she was recently divorced. To top it off she was just finishing treatments for breast cancer and wasn't sure if the treatments were working. After all of the information, she looked at me and firmly said with tears in her eyes, “And I need a hug.” I went to her and just held her for a longer hug than usual. I stood in utter shock. After it all, she sat down and got her Bible out of her purse and we went on with the class.

After class, I needed to get to choir, but didn't want to leave her hanging. I asked her if she read music and she said she did. I invited her to come with me to the choir and we would sit on the back row together. Our choir was quite large at the time. I didn't know if she would agree to it or not but she did. In fact, she became a faithful member of the choir and of our class. Within several weeks, Grace became the president of our Sunday school class.

We were very good friends for several months, having lunch together along with phone calls I would make feeling she needed encouragement. With one phone call, she let me know her cancer was back with a vengeance.

Several weeks later, I went on a trip for a week or so. When I came home from the trip, I had a call waiting for me from Grace's mother. Grace was in the hospital and the situation looked dire. She asked me to come to the hospital as soon as I could get there. I had met Grace's mother one time when she visited our class so recognized her right away. She told me that Grace wanted to see me privately and she honored that.

Grace took hold of both my hands and said she had one request. Her mother was going to move from another city to live with the two teenage daughters. She simply said, “Will you please be a friend to my mother?” I assured her I would do that. While holding both my hands she began kissing the backs of my hands. I felt awkward but said nothing about it. I leaned down, kissed her on the forehead, assured her of my love. After praying with her, I left the room. Her mother had observed things from the door and told me that Grace was telling me goodbye.

Grace lingered for another couple of weeks, and then peacefully went to Heaven. Until Grace's mother had to move to be with other children because of health issues, she and I went to lunch every Wednesday. She became a dear friend and could see so many special things in her she had contributed to her daughter.

We all have had “divine appointments” arranged by God alone that have been life changing. Those divine appointments almost always involve having a person walk into our lives seemingly out of no where. The person may be a person from the past we haven't seen in years. It might be a new lady coming to our Sunday school class or that we meet at work. No matter how the person comes, it usually takes us off guard and we wonder, “What's going on here?” God usually brings such folks into our lives with insistence...we can't get away from the person. There may seem to be an instant “click” or feeling of trust or acceptance. However it happens, such divine appointments are life changing. The appointment may not last a lifetime but something God intends for certain days. That person may be “Jesus with skin on” God brings our way to minister in our lives for a time.

I'm spending some time these days thinking of those walking blessings God has chosen to send my way. From them I've learned so many things, been encouraged and blessed and have come to know Jesus so much better. What divine appointments has God sent your way, seemingly out of nowhere but you knew they had come into your life for purpose. Stop and think with gratitude for those folks who changed your life for good and God.

Thank You Father for bringing Jesus into my life. No one has changed everything about me like He has and like He continues to do. Jesus was, by far, my most precious Divine Appointment and I thank You for that ongoing relationship with Him and I pray these things in His name....Amen

WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?

At my age, I guess I tend to look more at the “good old days.” One huge thing I believe is so missing in our culture today is that of the neighborliness I once knew. Growing up in my neighborhood, I don't know of anyone who locked their doors. There may have been some who locked their doors at night, but daytime was different. My Mother could be cooking something, finding she had run out of eggs. Even if our neighbor Lil wasn't home, Mother would go in her back door, get an egg out of her refrigerator and complete her task. As soon as she got eggs, she would take it to Lil and that was that. Nothing was ever thought of it. Neighbors looked out for each other. When my Dad was sick, I recall one summer when Mr. Williams our other neighbor came over and mowed our lawn a few times. The list could go on and on of neighbors sitting with each other on their porches just for an evening chat. Those were days when neighbors were neighbors in the truest sense. They looked out for each other.

I realize we live in a time when we can't extend Mr. Rogers invitation that we may have seen on the TV program that featured him. Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was a kids favorite and a lot of adults enjoyed it too. A theme song he sang included the invitation, “Won't you be my neighbor?” In our day, we can't casually throw out that question to just anyone so the result is that many people don't know their neighbors unless they've lived in a neighborhood for a long time. How unfortunate that we have to be so careful of impending dangers that tends to keep us closed off from others.

There isn't much in Scripture that is said about neighbors other than to love them and not take any advantage of them. There was a casual conversation between Jesus and a lawyer in Luke 10. The lawyer wanted to know how to inherit eternal life. Jesus told him in verse 27:

“You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your strength, and with
all your mind;
AND
your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus spoke to the lawyer regarding priorities...God first and others second. Come to think of it, I don't think I know any human being other than Jesus who loved others more than He did. It took that selfless love to die for us all. The lawyer then followed up with a question...”WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?” We think of neighbors as people who live next door to our own houses. Jesus really broadened the term though when He went on to relate the parable of the good Samaritan. With that illustration, the meaning of the word “neighbor” greatly changed. Our neighbor now can be someone we sit beside in church, or stand behind in a grocery line. It can be someone in a car next to us at a stop light, or a family in an attached booth in a restaurant. Jesus changed the entire concept of what a neighbor is. It can refer to anyone we come around who has a need for help or even a smile. The person doesn't have to have a need, but just being around a friendly, encouraging person can bring encouragement.

Isaiah 40 through the end of the book is full of encouragement for God's people that is so personal and practical. It is a section that is a love letter as much as a love letter can be from God to His own people. He speaks of our being walking “acts of kindness” and how one neighborly act can lead to others, one person at a time. In Isaiah we read in 41:6 and beyond:

Each one helps his neighbor and
says to his brother,
“Be strong!”
So the craftsman encourages the
smelter, and he who smooths metal
with the hammer encourages him
who beats the anvil, saying,
“The soldering, It is good he fastens it with nails so
it will not totter.

Notice, one person said to a craftsman, “Be strong.” What did the craftsman do? He encouraged the one working with the liquid metal. That person in turn encouraged the next craftsman and he the next, and he the next. One man encouraged his neighbor with the encouraging words, “Be strong” and it was passed along the way in any number of ways. Who knows how far it went.

When we share encouraging words with others with love, we will never know perhaps until Heaven how far those words traveled from person to person and how they changed lives . They were all our neighbors and we didn't even realize it. The sweet thing is that God knows. He knows “neighbors” we have influenced in so many ways through perhaps just some little acts of kindness or words of encouragement. God can use our neighborly ways in ways we cannot comprehend in present days. We may not bind up physical wounds as the good Samaritan did. In our day, many folks have different wounds needing the salve of kindness and encouragement. If nothing else we can think of to say, God said it best and worthy of our repeating, “Be strong!”

Father, God, help me to be aware of folks around me who may have any number of needs. Perhaps they need just a smile or word of encouragement from me. If I can do anything beyond that for them, lay it on my heart. I want to be you with skin on in a day when so many people are hurting. I love you. In Jesus' precious name...Amen

ABOVE THE STORM

Peace I leave with you; My peace
I give to you; not as the world gives
do I give to you. Do not let your
heart be troubled, nor let it be
fearful.
John 14:27 (NASB)

It was my first flight and I was scared to death. I shook as I stepped onto the plane and even when I sat down. I had purchased a first class ticket thinking that would be the safest place to be “just in case.” Little did I realize in dire circumstances, the best place to be was as far back in the plane as I could be. To top off my fright, it was a stormy day. I didn't know if the plane would even take off, but during a lull, we headed up through the clouds.

Not thinking with any kind of a mechanical or scientific mind, I was shocked to see, as we soared through those dark, and foreboding clouds, that they were changing color from very dark to various shades of gray that were getting lighter and lighter. As if a miracle took place, we were flying above the clouds with only blue skies, fluffy white clouds and sunshine in abundance. Through the window, I looked down and could see gray clouds but it seemed we were leaving those behind. I had never seen anything like this. I was in my 20's and didn't really know anyone who flew with any regularity. I had friends tell me how wonderful flying was and some of them had never set foot in a plane. I was happy to arrive at my destination and after a few days, happy to get back home.

Recently I saw a quote on my Facebook, but it didn't have a name with it. It was that quote that reminded me of that trip. The author said:

“Remember in the storm what
God taught us in the sunshine.
The storm will pass.”

Very often in our lives, there can be some things that hide God's intended sunshine He bestows on us. There are times I walk out on my front porch and can't see the mountains that were so clearly seen the day before. Out of nowhere, a heavy mist can cover our mountains and it doesn't take a hard rain to do that. The miracle of it all is that the mist usually disappears when the sun comes out full force and dissipates the mist. The beauty of the mountains were hidden but for a brief time...the sun was stronger.

There are things you and I have learned in the sunshine we can stake our lives on, such as:

God can be trusted no matter the circumstances
God does everything in our lives in our best interest
The Word of God can be trusted.
God is as near in the good times and through our difficulties.
God loves us beyond any love we can ever imagine
God is still on His throne and is sovereign.

Those are just a few things that should be etched on our hearts with no questions asked. Satan would do all to bring doubt into our minds when things get rough, but every positive quality of God we can remember stays in place no matter our circumstances. We believe these things...we remember them...by faith.

God has done everything He can to love and sustain us in the good and bad times. The problem is our memory of Him and His faithfulness is often faulty. Our memories of God's faithfulness must be reinforced on a daily basis. It's especially important to do this in the good times so we will store up His promises for the difficult ones. By the way, one would think someone in their 20's would know the sun shines above the clouds. I did know that, but in the moment of panic, I forgot all that information.

When the storms come, it's not the best time to prepare for the storm. Maybe some have just come through a storm or are in the middle of one. Be sure if neither have happened to you, there is a storm lurking around a corner of your life. That's just the way life is. We Christians are not insured from difficulties and struggles. CPR classes are to train people for future emergencies. Firefighters train in anticipation of using their training to put out fires and save lives. Both situations require pre-training.

As God's children I pray we will be faithful in remembering and trusting in God's love and care He has consistently provided in our lives. God never says “oops” no matter the storm we find ourselves in. Storms bring clouds, rain and noise. Our spirits can be lifted above those clouds to sunshine and blue skies. This can happen even during our storms because of who God is.

Thank You Father, for Your sunshine, but I thank You even more for Your presence and peace during the storms of my life. I thank You for Your sovereignty and ever-present love for me. Thank You, that despite storm clouds, I can rise above them into Your Son-shine. In Jesus' precious name....Amen

SEEKING AFTER GOD

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

Several years ago, I gave up hero worship. There were some things I guess I had to learn the hard way. Such “people worship” is a real danger for Christians as there are speakers, leaders and authors who would love for us to fall at their feet in pure, unquestioning adoration. I do believe God brings folks into our lives who exhibit godly qualities and life styles we can learn from. However, we aren't called upon to be “followers” of theirs.

There are authors living and dead I have come to really admire and learn from. Two I'm thinking of right now who have gone on to Heaven are R.A. Torrey, a godly preacher who preached in his day like we need to be hearing in all our churches today. I have several of his books and as I read them, it's almost as if I can hear his voice.

The other author, a godly author now in Heaven, is Corrie ten Boom. The history of World War II has always fascinated me along with human incidents resulting from that time. I was fascinated with the life of Anne Frank, but Corrie is the author of Christian books, books that have spoken to me in wonderful ways. There are times I've been encouraged by her grit and toughness and yes, her humanity and humility. Her faith was so strong in latter days that it seemed she had Jesus all to herself.

Today, I have read just about everything Anne Graham Lotz has written. I have followed her life not just because of her being Billy Graham's daughter, but because of the depth of her faith. She has in recent months gone through treatments, chemo and radiation, for cancer. It would seem that such would put her on a shelf, but she made the best of the time to write and do some other things of service until able to be speaking again.

In a recent interview, I read where Anne was questioned about what was next in ministry for her. She made a statement that convicted me more than I can say. She said during that interview:

“My hearts aim all my adult life has been to be where God wants me to be. I'm pursuing Him, not ministry and I want to be where He is.”

That is such a profound statement that should be true in my life and perhaps in yours as well. I think of the times I have pursued ministry...teaching, choir, church pianist/organist, ladies ministry among them. I've done my best to do God's work well as I feel He deserves my very best, no matter what my service for Him. However, there have been times when I allowed God to get lost in it all as I engaged in all of the busyness. He waits for me (and you) to give Him some well-deserved time out of all the busyness.

I have to ask myself how much time I give in seeking God, of not just seeking position, but wanting to be who, what and where God desires of me. Am I giving as much personal time to my Heavenly Father in prayer and in His Word as I am with being busy with activity even though the activity is spiritually healthy? I know God appreciates what we do for Him, but wonder in the process if He isn't neglected by us when it comes to a more in depth relationship with Him.

As we walk closer with God, He has ways of leading us to just the right places and ways of service. As we make it a major thing in our lives to be “seekers”, it doesn't mean casual treatment of the Scriptures. It will mean time spent reading, praying through those things that convict and challenge us and allowing in unhurried ways for God to minister to us and our communing with Him.

I pray our hearts desire as God's people is that we will want to love and seek Him in all our ways...that He might become THE priority in our lives. We live in a culture that is seeking to silence people of faith. Their efforts are becoming more and more a reality and we are going to need all the spiritual strength we can muster. God stands ready for our seeking Him. He's always available.

I love those who love me;
and those who diligently seek
me will find me.
Proverbs 8:17

Dear Father, forgive me for doing my own thing so often, many times not even seeking your will regarding ministry. I want You to be first in my life. I want to walk with You, learn from You, and seek You in all things. I long to be closer to You in every way. I pray for Your empowering for there is nothing I can do on my own spiritually that can count for much. Thank You for Your Spirit in me and for Jesus who came and made it all possible. It's in His name I pray...Amen