infinitesimus

In the twinkling of an eye…

12/7/2016

Beginning at 7:55 AM that morning,75 years ago, some 2,335 U.S. service men and women were killed,1,143 wounded, in a sudden hell lasting 110 minutes. (Pearl Harbor)

Freedom isn’t free; hate, no earthly tender for reconciliation.

Like the attack that morning, even though there are compelling reasons to anticipate it, we will be caught off-guard, awestruck, by the abrupt sounding of a trumpet–unmistakeable, yet uncommon in its beauty and richness of tone!

The sky will open and Love’s pure light will break forth in abundance!

For the believer will begin a resolution, a fulfillment, a completeness for which there will never be an anniversary, much less words.

Doing Our Job

I hope we as believers do not get too tangled up in the character of Presidential candidates. [I even compared one to some pretty important standards for believers (see below). ]

As many agree neither is ideal.

I am concerned that believers not lean too heavily on what someone else, even a President, will do or not do for the real Kingdom. After all, making disciples is our commission as individuals.

Many of God’s people, in anticipating the coming of the Messiah, had difficulty understanding how a God that had presented Himself as a great cloud, a fire, one whose glory could not even be looked at directly could:

• show up as a helpless infant of a poor couple from a humble village

• pay almost no attention to Pilate, much less Emperor Augustus. [Interestingly, leadership after Augustus was much worse—especially for believers! The Jews, themselves, had a long history of horrible kings. Many consider that Jesus was not far away if not just across town when, a more local leader, Herod, decapitated John the Baptist.]

• ride a donkey into Jerusalem

• be spat on, scourged beyond recognition and die naked on a Roman cross

Yet, He has turned the world upside down. Rejected, He is our cornerstone….we are the interlocking bricks.

May I do my job daily.

Shine on!

Looking at choices

I’m No Angel

I’m no angel

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

The separation from a loved when they die is an emotional, very sorrowful experience. Yet, there is wonderful news for the believer! Those of us who have humbly received the mercy and grace of what He has done for us–not what we have done for Him– do not turn into angels or flowers in heaven’s garden. We are transformed into incorruptible, non-fading, non-envying, non-disdaining, non-fearing, indescribably joyful and fulfilled us. You, me in eternal newness. Sad as the physical death is and as heavy as hearts are, we could not be convinced to come back.

A great article on pain!

Partnering with People in Their Pain
http://www.desiringgod.org//blog/posts/partnering-with-people-in-their-pain

‘Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ’ (Romans 8: 38– 39).

from Tim Keller…….

I know people who have said: ‘I would follow Christ, but I do not think I can keep it up. I do not trust myself. I think he’d get tired of my failures.’ Please look at him in the garden. Look what his love for you has already enabled him to endure for you. If he had turned away from suffering and the cross, we would have been lost, but he didn’t do that. Hell came down on him, and he would not let go of us. His love for us has already taken everything that the universe could throw at it and it held fast— and you think that you are somehow going to upset him? Is Jesus going to look at you and say, ‘Well, that does it! Infinite existential torment was one thing, but I can only take so much!’? If this suffering did not make him give up on us, nothing will. So Paul can essentially say, ‘Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ’ (Romans 8: 38– 39). The Lord says, ‘I will never leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Hebrews 13: 5).
This is the love you have been looking for all of your life. This is the only love that can’t let you down. This is bombproof love. Not friend-love, not personal acclaim, not married love, and not even romantic love – it is this love that you are after, underneath all your pursuit of those others. And if this love of active obedience is an active reality in your life, you will be a person of integrity; you will be a person of prayer; you will be kind to people who mistreat you. If you have this love you will be a little more like him. Look at him dying in the dark for you. Let it melt you into his likeness.

Tim Keller

My blinders

James 2:

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Gloria Deo

What Do We Say?

Your name, your wonder are far above anything we can measure or imagine,
surpassing all comprehension,

bigger than exponential,
bigger than anything on our agendas, our dashboards,
anything in our vapor-like intervals here on earth.

Exalted, hallowed, almighty are some of the best words we have to describe you but they fall way short.

Yet we ignore you.
Sometimes politely, sometimes obliviously,
we leave you out….. until it’s convenient
or URGENT

We dial-up various idols for the throne rooms in our hearts,
throne rooms belonging exclusively to You, reserved for You

Idols that include our vain, self-appointed intervention into our personal decision-making
and the extermination of our troubles….“For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” ( Romans 1:21).

Yet, your cross spoke mercy over us
Your light is life-giving, resurrecting, purifying, reconciling

Grant that we may be still and
know that you are God,
know that you reward those who diligently seek you.
that we may appreciate your great, abiding love for us
and that, as we call you abba, in effect, daddy…that, at our request, your Holy Spirit will wrap His arms around us and hold us
…….. just hold us

By this all men will know

John 13:35 NIV
By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

From various new sources (not my writing)

On Oct 2 2006 32-year-old Charles Carl Roberts IV killed five schoolgirls and then himself at the West Nickel Mines Amish School. Apparently, Roberts carried a grudge for twenty years. In other words, over something that happened when he was 12! In the meantime, Roberts had “grown up,” married, and become the father of three.
Although the Amish community grieved deeply about the terrible incident and certainly were very shocked about the tragedy they also believed it was right to forgive. The Rev. Schenck reports a grandfather of one of the murdered Amish girls said of the killer on the day of the murder: “We must not think evil of this man.”
Jack Meyer, a member of the Brethren community living near the Amish in Lancaster County, explained to CNN: “I don’t think there’s anybody here that wants to do anything but forgive and not only reach out to those who have suffered a loss in that way but to reach out to the family of the man who committed these acts.” [8]
The Amish have reached out to Roberts’ family. Dwight Lefever, a Roberts family spokesman said an Amish neighbor comforted the Roberts family hours after the shooting and extended forgiveness to them.
An article in a Canadian newspaper the National Post stated that the Amish have set up a charitable fund for the family of the shooter.
The Amish do not normally accept charity, but due to the extreme nature of the tragedy, donations were accepted. Richie Lauer, director of the Anabaptist Foundation, said the Amish community, whose religious beliefs prohibit them from having health insurance, will likely use the donations to help pay the medical costs of the hospitalized children.[32]
The fathers of the Amish girls who had been shot went to the killer’s parents and asked what they could do to help them.
Dozens of Amish neighbors attended Charles Roberts’ funeral on October 7, 2006. He was buried in his wife’s family plot behind Georgetown United Methodist church, a few miles from the one-room West Nickel Mines schoolhouse. One mourner stated that Roberts’ wife was touched by the outward gesture of forgiveness by the Amish community. [10] The schoolhouse was torn down eleven days after the tragedy.

Take Heart, He has overcome the world…

Take Heart, He has overcome the world…

I can hardly believe I am now 64 years old! In so many ways I feel like the same person I was in high school ….…then, the other day, one of my daughter’s third-grade students tells me that I remind her of her grandfather!…. So much for my vanity : )

Ok, ok, in reality, quite a bit has changed since high school …. I have been married three times (certainly not to my credit –see below). I have a wonderful daughter by my second marriage, two step-sons by my present wife of almost 12 years. I have completed 26 years working in telecommunications. I’ve been to Italy, the Bahamas, New York City, Disney World, ….. Cade’s Cove, TN…

To be sure, a fairly skimpy life story by some standards,….quick! where’s that bucket list!?

Actually, one particular change has taken place in my life that, in turn, has changed everything else. By no merit of my own, I received the overwhelming, unyielding love of the One who not only created me, but knows everything about me –including the stuff I would rather not face, much less talk about.

(As you may have imagined at my implying two divorces above, I have tried a lot of doors toward the affirmation and gratification of “me”, … ways to elevate my pitiful, self-perceived status in a culture that celebrates wealth, sex, style, attention and so many other vain routes to self-validation. In the process, I have trampled over the feelings of others, missed priceless moments with my daughter, abused myself and wasted lots of time.)

My relationship with the Lord is beyond words; but, I can tell you it is open, personal and healing. His love for you and me, our children, our neighbors all over the world and our families is pure. It’s unconditional and immeasurable. It’s taken me a while; but, I believe that in Him is the only life that matters. (Deut. 30: 20)

Even so, we wake up every morning in an unfair world. I believe that because of the disobedience of the only two who lived in a perfect environment, Adam and Eve, we live in a fallen, corrupted world that is not our home. Our hearts, our relationships, our physiology and our physical environment including weather, are all warped from what they were designed to be. So warped, in fact, that when the Lord of love came into our world as one of us, we sneered, mocked, whipped, shamed, degraded and killed Him.

While he was here, he said something that I hold to tightly. He said:

“In this world you will have tribulation …

(that is, heartbreak, disappointment, affliction, loss, betrayal, misunderstanding,…experiences that can be summed up in: “it’s not fair!”)
… but, take heart, I have overcome the world”.

In the book of John, two friends of Jesus came to inform Him that another friend of Jesus was deathly ill and suggested that He come to Bethany without delay.

I love what Jesus told Mary and Martha about their mutual friend, Lazarus (Mary’s brother) there in John 11:1-4 (NLT). He said: “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death.” Well, we know the Lord knew that Lazarus would, in fact, die. We also know that Jesus was not surprised to find that, indeed, by the time He arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.

I’m 64! (still can’t believe it) . That I have a corruptible body, in effect, a “sickness”, is more noticeable now. Gradually, it is weakening, wearing out. I eat blueberries because they are a powerful antioxidant; but, I can’t eat enough to overcome eventual physical demise. Sooner or later, I will die……… from kidney failure, a return of cancer (lymph node and tonsils removed 2009), heart disease (seemingly a family trait),…. something.

Back on the morning of December 19, 1988, I sat in a small room at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, NC where obstetricians sometimes take naps between deliveries and other duties without having to go home only to have to come right back. I was there not because I was an obstetrician. Rather, a nurse had ushered me into the room. I carried my son who had died when the umbilical cord gradually became too tight around his neck. This happened just a few hours before he would have passed through the birth canal and, no doubt, announced his arrival with loud crying.

As I held William Michael in my arms, I asked God not to let this happen…..I asked God to fill his lungs with breath and refresh his heartbeat. I had confidence He could. I know he could have, much as he raised Lazarus in John 11; the Jarius’s daughter recorded in Matthew 9 and His own self on that Sunday morning after His brutal crucifiction. Our God has full mastery over death! But, this time, God, in His awesome, unfathomable wisdom, had ordained that Will would return to Him.

There was great sorrow and mourning, as you can imagine. There were questions of why.

Amazingly, over time, that tragic event has increased my closeness to God. Deut 30:20 reads:

“…that you may love the Lord, your God, that you may obey His voice and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and your length of days….”

I’m a clinger.

I have learned that this earthly existence is so brief—“as a vapor” (James 4:14) especially compared to our forever with Him.

We love our families; we ache for them when they suffer. Jesus ached for his friend, Lazarus. In fact, He wept. Even though Jesus knew better than anyone that—besides living more years in this world—Lazarus would live forever in God’s incorruptible, unfailing love, He wept. He shed tears. Jesus knows all about our cares and feels our pain.

But— our “sickness” will not end in death! I believe our tribulation and suffering in this world —though huge and immediate to us who are impacted at the time— are positive in God’s larger plan. I believe they are opportunities for God to work His glory through us.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us”. I know that as much as I love Will, the love my Creator has for him and the (undeserved) love He has for me is far greater! It is astounding. It is indescribable—beyond human comprehension. Praise His Glorious, Holy Name!

The Lord is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us (Eph 3:20). His ways are not our ways (Is. 55:8). He knows us intimately; He loves us amazingly. His way and His timing, ultimately, are perfect.

May we trust Him ever more confidently.

Posted by Ken Shires at 10:56 AM
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