For the Master

 

     Yesterday afternoon my daughters and I had the privilege to be in the company of several lovely girls and their moms for a tea party. Early this morning I was thinking again about how enjoyable the experience was, and it reminded me of the poem below, written last weekend, yet very much relating to yesterday. There were a lot of items that went into making the delightful afternoon we enjoyed with friends. There were tea cups and saucers, lace and flowers, serving tongs and stirring spoons, confetti and decorations, and the list continues. Behind the scenes, yet just as important, an army of utensils included cookie sheets and cupcake pans, cooking bowls and paring knives, and a heavy duty teapot for initially bringing the water to a simmer before pouring it into the china serving teapot. Though varied, each item was integral to the success of the occasion, and served its purpose well. 

    I wonder, which item would you most picture yourself as? Each person in the Master's house has been carefully crafted to effectively and joyfully serve Him. Just as a serving tray would be a poor spatula, when we look with discontent at our lot in life, we lose sight of all we can be in the Master's hands. His hands are what turn the spatula and fill the serving tray. Ultimately, all of us contribute to the glory of our Master by letting Him use us as He wills, for the splendor of His love is what created and sanctifies us.

    This week, let's let Him use us in beautiful ways!

-MaryBeth Hall 

  

For the Master

“…the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel…” – Judges 6:8

“…The Lord knoweth them that are His…If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” – 2 Timothy 2:19-21

 

An unnamed prophet God did send
To challenge Israel their ways to mend.
We don’t know much about the man,
But he was ready at God’s command.
In Scripture he only shows up once,
Upstaged by an angel’s appearance
To Gideon and all that would unfold.
But let this prophet our attention hold;
In the time of Judges’ disarray
Faithful to his God he’d stayed,
Ready for when and if God chose
To use him publicly, His glory to show.
 
With eyes seeking the Master today I stand,
Ready to do what He commands.
Seen or unseen by other men -
It matters not. Faithfully then,
Honorably for Him, useful to be,
Obedient to serve as He bids me.
 
And the Master today in His great house
Many vessels still has without a doubt,
In a beautiful union of our will and His,
One’s used for that, another for this.
And no one can tell what all God may do
With and through His children, those such as you:
Holy and wholly prepared for good works,
Who will not their calling nor responsibilities shirk,
“Meet for the Master” as He may direct,
Serving the One Who alone can perfect.
Our part of His story may not be all clear,
But it’s all for the glory of the One we hold dear.
 
With eyes seeking the Master today I stand,
Ready to do what He commands.
Seen or unseen by other men -
It matters not. Faithfully then,
Honorably for Him, useful to be,
Obedient to serve as He bids me.

Not Lost

 

My Uncle Charlie’s birthday is April 23, so he’s been on my mind this week. Since my mother was the oldest of ten children, her little brother Charlie was young enough to be the quintessential “fun” uncle when I was a little girl. He used to stay at our house for a week or two at a time in the summer. At night he would regale us with stories as we lay in our darkened rooms. One story scared me so much, I dashed across the room to get into bed with my big sister. I still remember the story with a little thrill.

But most of what I remember about Charlie is from his adult years after he married. He and his wife were the parents of three of my sweet cousins, one of which officiated at my brother’s funeral a couple of years ago. Charlie, along with three of his sisters and a couple of other fill-ins through the years, was part of a gospel-singing quartet called The Home Quartet. They produced a couple of albums that someone in the family brings out to play again from time to time. One of his sisters was my dear Aunt Sandy, mother of Marvin. Marvin was the pastor of a Baptist church in Princeton, West Virginia, until he succumbed to Covid in the late summer of 2020.

This rambling about my family history has a point: I have been blessed with a godly heritage, and none of it is of my own doing, but I'm thankful for what I have learned from them. And if I’ve learned anything in the past few years, it’s that life is uncertain—at least, life on this earth is uncertain. A recent lesson at church and my own personal reading have gotten me thinking about what happens when we die. Not long ago, I heard a man on the radio talking about his own impending death from cancer and what he wants to be thinking about as he leaves this life. You’ll never guess . . . corned beef hash! How sad, I thought, to decide that the best thing to think about is a physical sensation, a taste treat. I’m guessing I love food as much as most people, but I can’t imagine that corned beef hash—or any other delectable dish—is going to give me comfort or joy in my last moments. (I could be wrong.)

I am told that when my cousin Marvin was taken off the machine that was keeping him alive, when he knew he likely would not survive past a few minutes, he pointed upward, indicating he was headed for God’s presence. In truth—and Marvin knew this—we are in God’s presence all the time. When we pass from this life to the next, Jesus said we do not die. Recall what he said to Martha: “He who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:26).

 Author and New Testament translator J.B. Phillips comments on Easter in his book Good News: “Of all the inspired certainties which sparkle on that sea of confidence in God which is the New Testament, the resounding triumph of Jesus Christ over man’s last enemy is perhaps the most magnificent. Jesus Christ hath abolished death” (II Timothy 1:10).

I’m planning to send Uncle Charlie a card. It will be late for his birthday, but he’ll know I was thinking of him. He is in poor health, and we don’t know how many more years we’ll have him with us here. But we are resting in the assurance that when he leaves this earth, he will not be lost. "Lost" is a term that I’ve used often myself, as in  "I’m sorry for your loss." And it is a loss to us, but only for a short time. As we continue to enjoy the beautiful season of burgeoning life around us, let’s remember that our loved ones who have left this realm are not gone forever, and let us live in such a way every day that we are ready to face our own last earthly moments with joy and anticipation.

--Sherry Poff

Christos Anesthi!

 

 Today is Easter, to the Orthodox Church. The First Council of Nicea (325 A.D.) set the formula for calculating the date of Easter, which both Catholic and Orthodox accept. However, they use different calendars and so come up with different dates. Orthodox follow the Julian calendar, which differs somewhat from the Gregorian calendar, regarding Easter, and their celebration is usually, not always, a week later than that of Catholic and Protestant churches. Pascha, the Passover lamb, is the name for Easter.

 The fast called Great Lent begins on Clean Monday, seven weeks before Pascha, and ends on Lazarus Saturday (commemorating the day Lazarus was raised), the day before Palm Sunday (also a week after Western Palm Sunday). However, Orthodox Christians generally continue to fast through Holy Week.

 Pascha is a day of rejoicing and feasting, with lamb being the traditional Easter meat. Red dyed eggs commemorate the blood of Jesus.

 In English, our Easter greeting and response is “He is risen!” and “He is risen, indeed!” Greek believers share the same greeting – “Christos anesthi!,” Christ has risen, and “Alithos anesthi!,” Truly He has risen.

While Easter is the greatest celebration for the Christian Church, it is not merely a one-day event. We rejoice in the Resurrection every day of our lives, once we have taken the Gift of Eternal Life for ourselves. Since God did not give us a date or rules for celebrating, it is wonderful that some Christians celebrate on one day and others on another day. Our daughter has many Greek friends and often celebrates both Easters! Other believers, even if not Orthodox, celebrate on this day if that is customary in their country. For us, every Lord’s Day and all weekdays are days to remember and rejoice over the Resurrection, because His eternal life is our eternal life! Alithos anesthi!

--Lynda Shenefield

The True Narrative

 

For this past week’s spring break, my husband and I took our three children to our nation’s capital, Washington D.C.  Over the three days we were there, we toured Mount Vernon, visited multiple memorials, saw the White House and Capitol building from a little distance, and walked through five museums. We were able to see such a variety of items, from the Declaration of Independence to Fred Rogers’ red cardigan and blue shoes, from the top hat that Abraham Lincoln wore the night he was shot to a first edition King James Bible.

Two of the museums we visited showed quite the contrast in world views. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, which houses, among other things, fossils, gems, Egyptian artifacts, and an enormous elephant that Theodore Roosevelt shot, approaches everything from a secular evolutionist worldview. An entire section of the museum (which we simply walked past) was devoted to human origins, how man evolved from apes. Throughout the museum, millions of years was referenced again and again, as well as how animals evolved from others.

The next morning, we visited the Museum of the Bible. Here we walked through an Old Testament “experience.” It was a combination of videos and walk-through areas that took us through the story of the Old Testament in chronological order, from Creation to the Israelites coming back to their land after the Babylonian captivity. From there, we went on to the New Testament video that took us from the birth of Christ to the disciples going forth, preaching Christ as Savior to the world. Kelly and I were moved to tears as the story we know so well was told so beautifully. Kelly commented to me at one point what a contrast this formed with what we had seen the day before at the Natural History Museum.

One narrative says that we happened by chance, that we were in a sense, a “lucky accident.” There is no hope in this message. Here life has no ultimate purpose; after all, we’re only here by natural selection and will simply return to the earth upon death. Life is whatever we make of it. The only meaning it holds is the meaning we give it, which ultimately will not matter anyway.

The other narrative says that there is a God who created us with purpose for a reason. It speaks of His love even when the people He created turned away from Him. It tells us that He loved His creation so much that He sent His own Son to take the punishment they deserved. In this worldview, we are not simply beings looking to make our own meaning in life. We are part of a mission that is so much bigger than us, to point others to this Savior who gives joy and meaning in life. Death does not mean death, but for Christ’s followers, it is simply the entry into eternal life with Christ in a sinless world.

Today, as we celebrate Easter, I am so thankful that the story that the Natural History Museum tells is not true. Life has meaning; we have hope. We were created by a loving God, and we were saved by our Savior Jesus Christ who died for us and rose again, who is now with the Father and interceding on our behalf. It is all true. As we heard this morning, let us go and tell this message to those who have been deceived by the lie that the world tells. Let us speak this true narrative and tell them of our Creator and our risen Savior. Christ is real, and He is risen. He is risen indeed.

Why Stop?

 

I Peter 4:10 - “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

 

We are blessed to live beside 730-acre Sharon Woods Park. On the way to our walk there, we pass a “Free Library.” You might know those...boxes on a pole with books to take and read, keep and put another in its place, pass it on to someone else. On my walk the other day, I looked for a book. When I picked this one up, I found that it was recommended by a local pastor so I thought, “Ah - ha! A Christian book!”

Amazing! A story of a young man who graduated from high school the same year as my grandson and had actually played basketball against Nathan’s team. Ryan Atkins was on the honors’ path at University of Cincinnati when God changed his whole life with a terrible accident. Ryan became a quadriplegic as a junior in college, November, 2009. This book is a MUST read. I just cannot get away from the struggles and the victories this young man has faced and the impact he is having...the kind he never dreamed he would have.

Brant and I were privileged to visit Ryan and his wife Stephanie a few days ago. All his writing has to be done by dictation. One of his main realities he has faced is “With eternal perspective, everything changes.” After huge struggles that are often present now, Ryan has learned he can still be used of the Lord. He has finished his degree in finance and is working with clients AND he has had a huge impact on teen-aged boys who did not seem concerned they had to feed him pizza if they could just hang out and watch basketball!

Of course, he has faced Christians who have asked what he did to deserve this from the Lord. Also, those who insist they know when he will be healed. He writes: “Quality of life does not have to depend on physical capabilities (P. 245).” and “Forces beyond our control can strip us of everything except our freedom to decide how we will respond (P. 227).” Wow!  That takes grace every day for Ryan and Stephanie.

During the time I was reading this book (which I could hardly put down!), I heard a commercial on TV about a woman who had retired from nursing but is now doing volunteer work and she asked:

 “AS LONG AS YOU CAN MAKE AN IMPACT, WHY STOP?” 

One of my husband’s favorite quotes is from Henry Drummond, a Scottish evangelist during the 1800’s:

“Therefore, keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men and things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.”  

My question - How else are we going to make a difference if we do not realize “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works...” (Ephesians 2:10a)? There really are no excuses in these verses to “stop” looking for those who need our help and influence. So...why stop?

 --Maylou Holladay