LEAN IN and LEAN ON and Bill Withers

Such simple words...have you thought about them lately (maybe not Bill Withers)?

Don’t you just love it when you are in a crowded place and your sweetheart or friend leans over to you to hear what you are saying? So much better than having that person lean back with arms crossed as though it will be nice when you are through.

LEAN IN implies expectation.

If you want to hear a special whisper from a little child, you lean in.

If you want to see a fine painting in detail, you lean in.

If you want to smell a fragrant rose from someone special, you lean in.

If you want to show interest in a person, you lean in towards that person.

AND...If we want to draw close to our Heavenly Father, we lean in.

Every morning lean your arms awhile upon the windowsill of Heaven and gaze upon the Lord. Then, with that vision in your heart, turn strong to meet the day.

Isaiah 41:13: “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.” How can you hold a person’s hand without “leaning in”?

We also need to” lean in” to the Lord for someone else. We could spend lots of time on this but let’s just read one Scripture. Job 1:5:

“When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them (his ten children) to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, ‘Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ This was Job’s regular custom.”

Job knew what it meant to daily pray for his children. Lean in - wrestle with God for your children, your family, yourself... Do not settle into an expectation that God isn’t going to do anything. Micah 7:7 says “My God WILL hear me.” So don’t give up.

In my prayer journal, I was so excited to put “ANS” beside a request that has been in there for over 20 years!! PTL...the answer I put was “yes.” Sometimes I have to say “no.” But LEAN IN to your Father for answers to those hard questions and decisions.

Then make sure you LEAN ON the Lord. The verse that got me through college was

 I Peter 5:7: “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.”  Oh, to lean on His loving heart and know He cares!

Deuteronomy 31:6:  ^“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Last thought about LEAN IN and LEAN ON from Bill Withers...one of my favorite all time pop songs (Does it fit...I think so J):

“Lean on me, when you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
'Til I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on”

We need the Lord and we need each other. LEAN IN to that friend and listen. Then lead them to LEAN ON the Lord...perhaps by LEANING ON your friendship.

 --Maylou Holladay

 

Winter Cheer

How’s that diet and exercise program coming during these gloomy, damp days? It’s tough, isn’t it? I take refuge from winter’s icy fingers under a blanket and comfort myself with food until the sun shines bright again. The less I move, the less I want to move. And those comfort foods never satisfy for long, do they? Most of the time, we’re not physically hungry; we’re trying to feel better, because the bleakness has pulled us down emotionally.

But Jesus understood real hunger. While He was in the wilderness fasting and being tempted by the devil, He quoted these verses from Deuteronomy: “But Jesus told him, ‘No! The Scriptures say, People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 4:4, NLT) Jesus had fasted forty days and nights, so we know He was not depending on food to fortify Himself.

Let’s flip to Deuteronomy to see what Jesus meant. In context, Moses was telling the people God let them get hungry, so He could feed them. God gave them manna, something of which they had never heard. He gave them something good they never would have conceived on their own.

We don’t need these unhealthy foods to comfort ourselves. He is enough! He thinks of ways to meet our needs – things we haven’t considered! We just have to ask.

“Lord, satisfy me with Yourself! Fill me up! You are the Light of the World! Shine brightly in my heart – brighter than the sun ever could! May I pine only for You! Chase away the winter darkness and fill me with joy by the Words of Your Mouth! Amen.”

joyce hague

"Do you see this woman?"

Often, as I drive up my street in the evening after school and whatever meeting or ballgame I've been to, I wonder about my neighbor whom I hardly ever see. During the summer, I see her nearly every day because I'm in my back yard, and she's in her back yard, so we talk over the fence. She came to mind again on Sunday morning as we heard the story from Luke 7. And I also thought of all those people I walk past without seeing during a normal week--people in the grocery store, on the street, or even in my own classroom.

Jesus certainly saw everyone. He knew their names, understood their sorrows, was acutely aware of their needs. Obviously we lack the power of Jesus, but we do have the Holy Spirit living in us if we are God's children. Romans 8:14 declares, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God." Surely if we ask God to help us be aware of the people around us, he will prompt us to stop and look, think about our neighbors and friends--or strangers who might need a kind word.

Recently, I've been doing some lessons with my sophomores surrounding the Holocaust and the book Night by Elie Weisel. I'm asking them to think about assumptions we make based on a person's name or looks. I need to ponder these things myself. It's so easy to "write off" a person as being past hope or not worth the effort, but that young man Jesus raised up in Nain was dead. It would seem no one is past hope.

It's so easy--too easy--to get busy and forget to pay attention. It takes no effort to fall into the trap of thinking we know whatever we need to know about a certain group or individual. I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to help me see, really see, my family, my neighbors, and all those people I pass by in the hallway or on the stairs. I can sit for a minute and talk, share a bowl of soup, or spend a moment in prayer.

That's going to be my goal this week.

--Sherry Poff

Will Not the Judge of All the Earth Do Right?

When I was a young child, I wanted to buy my mother a Christmas present. At the store, she picked out a pair of pink earrings and walked away from me, so I could buy them and “surprise” her. I took the earrings off the rack, but then had no idea how to go about purchasing them, though Mom had given me money. So I put them in my coat pocket and wandered around the store, wondering as I wandered. Suddenly I was confronted by a very big and hideous man, the store manager, who asked me if I was stealing the earrings. Such a thing had never occurred to me; I was horrified. I told him what I was doing. I found my mom and she helped me check out. The “surprise” was spoiled and I was quite frightened. My motivation didn’t matter to the manager; he knew what he saw. It wasn’t the best introduction to gift-giving, but at least I didn’t go to jail.

When I was in junior high, we had to collect insects for a science assignment. I showed my teacher a decapitated bumblebee and told him my younger brother had shot its head off with a rifle. The science teacher called me a liar. In fact, the bee had been crawling in the grass of our farm pasture; Brother lay on the ground with the rifle barrel a few inches from the bee and fired. Headless or not, it terrified me, as its giant stinger was fully extended. But our highly amused dad pinned it to my shirt and made me wear it home to add to my collection. When my teacher called me a liar, I was more afraid of him than I was of the bee, so I didn’t argue. Facts and witnesses didn’t matter.

In a college class my freshman year, I usually sat by Arnold, the only one in the class whom I knew. Arnold had failed the class twice before and was glad of my offer to tutor him once a week. When test time came, he sat as far away from me as possible. We had no communication during test time. But, since he passed the test, the teacher accused him of cheating – from me! The teacher didn’t even call me as witness. He knew what he knew; Arnold could not have passed the test without cheating, and I somehow was complicit.

Thief. Liar. Cheater. I stood condemned in every court. Human judges often fail us. They are missing either information or empathy or both.

Often as a child, feeling absolutely alone in the midst of unfair accusations, I clung tightly to the thought that God knew the truth. Only God knew the truth, but He alone mattered. He was a fair judge.

When earth’s judges are unfair, untruthful and unmerciful, it is joy to think that we have a Judge who knows our hearts, intentions, motivations and actions. But that is only when our hearts, intentions, motivations and actions are righteous. Sometimes we don’t want a judge who knows all that. If our hearts are out of line, we hope He doesn’t find out. Well, that’s a lost cause. So we pretend He won’t find out.

Psalm 94 calls to evildoers:

Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;

You fools, when will you become wise?

Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?

Does he who formed the eye not see?

Does he who disciplines nations not punish?

Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? Ps 94:8-10 NIV

I make no claim to sinless innocence. It was my heavy awareness of my own sinfulness and my terror of God as judge that brought me to joyful acceptance of Christ’s offer of the Glorious Trade – He became sin for me; I became the righteousness of God in Him.

It is our eternal joy to have a Judge who is honest and fair, yet merciful.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin. Heb. 4:15.

Our God will never accuse us unjustly. Unfortunately, our deceitful and desperately wicked hearts give Him plenty of material with which to accuse fair and square. But somehow, He has turned it all around.

He, seeing our guilt, kindly made up for it Himself. He took the sentence He would have handed down to us; He offers us the reward He alone deserves. He requires a response to His offer. “We beg you, in Christ’s stead, be reconciled to God. God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” II Cor 5:20,21. How great our joy! How great our God!

--Lynda Shenefield