The Sands of Time

Shortly after we were married, my husband, Paul, was asked to be a groomsman in a wedding in New Jersey. Being from the Midwest, neither of us had seen the Atlantic Ocean, and Paul was very excited about it. He wanted to experience the ocean -- the breeze, the smells, the breakers, the taste of the salt sea.

We went out on the boardwalk in the evening. We got off the boardwalk and into the sand. It was difficult for Paul to roll the wheelchair through the sand, so he asked me to push him. It was much too cool to swim, but Paul wanted to experience the reality of the ocean, so he asked me to roll him out into the water.      

                                                                                                       

I tilted the wheelchair back in order to keep his feet above the water and pushed him a few yards out into the ocean. The water was only a few inches deep. He was well able to balance the wheelchair in that tilted-back position, so I splashed around in the shallow water, seeing all the interesting things the sea washes up, while he sat and “experienced.” The tide was coming in gently -- no “rolling breakers” here. He felt the movement of the water, smelled the breeze, tasted the ocean, heard the gulls. A few people were walking on the boardwalk; occasionally someone would ask me, “Do you want me to help you get him out?” “No, thanks,” was my cheerful reply. “I just got him in!”

Eventually the tide had inched the water up near his seat and feet, so he called me to come and get him out.I went over, took hold of the wheelchair handles to back him out of the ocean, and tugged.  (Did you see this coming?) I couldn’t budge him. He grabbed the wheel rims and pulled hard. Nothing.  Together, we couldn’t move him an inch. As the beautiful water had softly, gloriously, smoothly flowed around him, the sand hidden beneath had insidiously, wickedly, relentlessly washed up and up around his wheelchair tires and locked him in.

I scanned the boardwalk, looking for those friendly helpers. Nary an assistant could I see. Dusk surrounded; water surrounded; sand encased. We pulled together. Heave ho! Heave ho! Ever more frantically calling on our strength, we finally moved him just a bit. A bit more. Another inch. Two more. The sea continued rising. It was a long hard slog. We finally got him back on the beach, with wet feet and seat. He was delighted. Happy as a clam. He had experienced the ocean. It has been a wonderful memory for over 40 years.

I could draw the likeness of sin, as it sneaks into our lives, robbing us of freedom, but that one is rather obvious. You get it. But the big things we call sin may come crashing in more directly. We make poor choices and experience bad results. We deliberately do wrong things we later call “mistakes.” (Sin is always a mistake.)

But there is a lot of sneaky stuff in our lives that we don’t really recognize as sin that has the consequence of robbing us of our freedom to move when God tells us to move.

In our old age (whatever age you are), complacence (which is not the same thing as contentment) may cause us to be unwilling to move in a direction God wants to send us. We’ve been comfortable with things as they are; don’t rock the boat. This is good enough. We’re stuck in the sand and happy as a clam.

Unforgiveness gets a grip on us that increases as we pet it. More unforgiveness washes in. We fawn over the grudge; we forget how much we have been forgiven. We think we have equality with God; we should have the power to punish or to forgive. The accumulation of resentment locks us into an irresistible anger.

We may get into a habit of noting and criticizing others’ failures. The cumulative effect of constant criticism may make us start to feel pretty good about our own righteousness! But it is a trap. We are not righteous. Only Christ is righteous, and we have no business claiming His righteousness as ours so we can look down on others.

Memories – bad ones – may pile up around us. They recur, grate on old wounds, swell.

You can make your own list. What is sneaking around in your life, bogging down your growth, locking you down so tightly you cannot respond to God’s call? If you don’t know, ask Him. In Grace Group on Sunday evening, I made a suggestion as to how we might go about “forgetting those things which are behind.” God immediately gave me my personalized list of things to work on. I don’t like to think about it. But a bit of honest, if painful, evaluation may keep us from getting stuck in wet sand – which is the first stage of hardened concrete.

--Lynda Shenefield

Rooted in Love

Remember that science experiment we did in elementary school? The one with the stalk of celery? In case you didn't have a quality education (insert smile here), I'll tell you about it. You cut the end off a stalk of celery, exposing the vessels that carry water up the stem. There is likely a scientific term for these vessels, but if I ever heard it, I've forgotten it. Anyway, you then put the celery into colored water and wait. In a few days, the celery leaves will be tinged with the color of the water.

In our Sunday School class this week, Carol Woods told this story (She said I could use it): When Carol taught sixth grade here at GBA, she had a vine she called Betsy in her room. The students asked one day what would happen if they fed Betsy jello. Carol figured that jello would not hurt the plant, as it is mostly made of protein and sugar, so she said, "Let's find out." (That's what a good teacher says--Let's find out.) So the students fed the plant red jello, and in a few days---you guessed it! the leaves of the vine had taken on a lovely red hue.

What a great lesson! Carol's plant took in the jello through its roots and its appearance changed. The substance it was rooted in became apparent to onlookers. We are told in Ephesians 3:17 that we are to be "rooted and grounded in love." When God's love is part of a woman's very being, everyone around her can see it.

There is a lot of hatefulness in the world today. I'm not suggesting, like some, that disagreeing is "hate speech." As Christians, we must stand for truth, but we can "[speak] the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). We must seek to display the gentleness and meekness of Christ. We do this by immersing ourselves in his love. We immerse ourselves in his love by reading his word, spending time in prayer, and doing the good work he has planned for each of us.

Don't you want people to see Jesus when they see you? To see his tenderness and his mercy? "Beloved, let us love one another" (I John 4:7), and let us demonstrate his love to the lost around us.

--Sherry Poff

Check Your Heart

Humility....it's a funny word that immediately brings to mind its antonym...pride.  Humility and meekness seem to evoke pictures of a quiet, go with the flow, never stepping on anyone's toes kind of Christian.  Someone who never speaks up for themselves or voices their own opinion. And pride would be someone who thinks they always know best and have no problem speaking loudly and sending out all their opinions.  I'm not sure either of those pictures is entirely accurate.  The Holy Spirit seems to be prompting me to re-examine some misconceptions I have picked up along the way as I have walked this Earth as a follower of Jesus for almost three decades now.  I think Christian culture can sometimes be pretty far off from what the Bible actually says and so it was during my Bible study this last week I came to some chapters in Matthew that helped focus my view on what true humility looks like straight from the mouth of Jesus.

Matthew 18

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. 

The disciples always seem to be pretty concerned with who had top billing in the Kingdom...ironically missing the point that the kingdom wasn't about them at all.  Children are the example Jesus gives as role models of true humility; allow Him to lead and set the plan while we follow along holding His hands.  We are not in charge and we do not know best. Jesus knows best and He is always better.  Jesus came to save those who were lost, is not willing that any should perish, and came down from Heaven itself not believing that equality with God was something to be grasped, but instead humbled himself being obedient even to death. 

Following these first verses in Chapter 18, Jesus warns the disciples not be stumbling blocks by urging them that it would be better to cut off their hand or pluck out their eye than to be the reason a believer stumbles.  He tells them of the reckless love of the Father who would leave the ninety-nine and go and find the one who had wandered off and rejoice at their return.  And Jesus tells the disciples how to handle conflict when a brother/sister sins or offends you.  After all that, Peter speaks up...don't you just love Peter? He's always saying what everyone else is thinking. :) He has to have been listening to all these teachings and thinking, "Okay, Jesus, I hear you, but when is enough just enough?!" 

21Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus *said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.

23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 24 When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made. 26 So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.’ 27 And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ 29 So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 Then summoning him, his lord *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”

The king is Jesus and the slaves are all of us. The slave who refuses to forgive, to extend the same grace granted of him, is the epitome of pride in this example.  Believing themselves to be owed what was rightfully theirs, blinded their eyes to the mercy the king had bestowed upon them.  For if the slave had truly understood how much they had been forgiven, they could not help but grant forgiveness and mercy to others.  It really is that simple...so simple a child could understand it.  When we comprehend the grace that has been shown us, humility is a natural by product of this knowledge from the Holy Spirit.  One of my favorite comedians, John Crist, has the catchphrase "Check your heart!" He says it tongue in cheek about things like Chickfila nuggets versus strips, but as I read Jesus' words I felt the urging to check my own heart.  Do I speak as a daughter of the King who understands how much she has been forgiven?  Do I understand my place in the Kingdom was granted to me upon my adoption? That I have been saved out of that pit of sin and misery? Humility and pride are not personality traits exhibited by introverts and extroverts.  You can be loud and humble or you can be quiet and full to the brim with pride. Humility is a natural outflowing of a heart that is in tune with the Spirit. When in doubt....#checkyourheart. 

--Gabrielle Haston

More Than a Story

Did you ever take notes during the pastor’s opening prayer because his words were so profound? That just happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

As the service began, the pastor prayed: “We don’t want to leave You on the pages of the Bible.” Wow! I peeked and found a pen and jotted it down. Actually, my writing could stop right there.   His words are a GOAD to stir my thinking as a Christian.

Are we leaving God “only in the pages of the Bible”? Do we sometimes treat God’s Word as though it is a story about Jesus and His life and miracles and yet those miracles and His life do not show through us?

That is a question to consider even if we are daily in God’s Word - and have been for years. Maybe you have been saved a long time and have just not “gotten the hang of it” as far as a meaningful, daily Bible time with the Lord. It is time to start!

Psalm 119:130 - “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple.” So there is hope for ALL of us...even the “simple.” J

So is it busyness, fear, pride, unconcern that keeps us from focusing on this important part of our Christian lives?  Our priority must be getting God’s words into our hearts and Jesus off the pages of the Bible. When He is so alive in us, we will not hesitate in offering this gift to others.

Now, I also believe that most of us do not have hearts that are unconcerned for others. Life just gets so full of “important” tasks and responsibilities that we do not focus consciously on sharing the Lord Jesus with others.

We can do that by following Galatians 6:2 that exhorts us to “bear one another’s burdens.” Many times, through our helping to bear a person’s grief or troubles, that person has come to know Christ. This takes time!

Our words can show Christ to others as in Proverbs 15:23 that reminds us “how good is a timely word.” This “timely word” can be face-to-face or in a lovely card with God's Word to remind them of His love. This takes time!

Do we feel that the outcome of our sharing is our responsibility? Remember, with Jesus and you, there are two people in that relationship. Only ONE is enough. He is “never depleted.” The Holy Spirit has all the creativity we need to help us in any conversation or situation.

LET’S NOT LEAVE JESUS ON THE PAGES OF THE BIBLE. We want to get Him into our lives and share Him with others.

--Maylou Holladay

Taste and See

In a  book about London midwifery in the 1950s, “Farewell to the East End,” Jennifer Worth
has a chapter on the “Lost Babies.” It’s a heartbreaking chapter about women smothering or
purposefully neglecting their babies due to abject poverty or scandal. Domestic abuse plays a
role as does cultural expectations. This part especially hurt my heart:
“Traffic in children has been going on for as long as mankind has been sinning and suffering
Josephine Butler (1828-1907) writes in her journals, pamphlets, and diaries of the second half
of the nineteenth century about seeing thousands (yes, thousands) of little girls, some as
young as four or five, in the illegal brothels of London, Paris, Brussels and Geneva....
The children had a life expectancy of two years, yet the brothel owners , frequently women,
seemed to have an unlimited supply of little girls for their rich clients.”

When I visited the Dominican Republic with the ladies from Grace Baptist, I was profoundly
changed. The experiences of the women and children in the DR are not so far removed from
what the women and children in those cities experienced all those years ago. (I shudder to
think how many women and children are trafficked in our own city.) Many women prostitute to
put food in their children’s mouths; they are used and abused and thrown away like trash. I
cannot fathom that level of desperation. Humbled after that trip to the DR, I sat on my porch
giving thanks to God for all that He had given me and for all that I had not experienced. I am
nobody special, so why did God bless and protect me and not these women? I don’t know.
People question God’s goodness in the midst of suffering. They wonder if He is able to deal
with these problems and if He is, why doesn’t He? No doubt we live in a fallen world, and
there’s the issue of free will. But that doesn’t bring much comfort, does it?

Sometimes we have to choose to trust God even when we don’t understand His plan:

“I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

I will glory in the Lord; let the afflicted hear and rejoice.

Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.

Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing.

The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing...

The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry;

but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth.

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

The righteous person may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he
protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.” (From Psalm 34, NIV)

Where the gospel is preached and received, life is better. I am blessed to be in a part of the
world where this is true. I am very rich. We don’t have the fanciest of homes, but it’s more than
adequate. We are never too cold or too hot and always have running water and electricity.
Not once have I considered prostitution for myself or my daughters as a career path. I should
never complain about anything again. God is good, but in ways I don’t always understand..
With these thoughts I begin the season of Thanksgiving. What about you?

joyce hague

Mission Week is Here!

I love Missions Conference week! There is nothing as encouraging as hearing how God is working all over the world, and it has already been so good to hear how He is using different people with a variety of personalities and giftings in other countries as well as our own. I treasure my own experiences in mission trips to various part of the US, Canada, Hungary, and India. Here are just a few of my favorite lessons:

1.    God’s orchestration of getting me to the mission field was perfect. One Sunday morning, I felt Him tell me that He wanted me to go on a mission trip, and that night, I ‘happened’ to talk to an acquaintance who was going on a mission trip that was right up my alley. Then, there was the matter of getting my parents to agree to a year-long mission trip that interrupted college – that was a miracle! The biggest faith builder for me was support raising. I came on to the team very late in March, and we had to raise $25,000 by August. I was the kid that didn’t like doing fundraisers partly because I was so shy and partly because I didn’t like imposing on people. But God was, as always, the perfect provider. I learned that He built this team of supporters to help send me, and that they were just as crucial to His great work. I loved seeing support come in from some truly random places like my dentist or a family that I had never met but that had previously gone to my church. Perhaps the most precious supporters were three kids from a family who were my adopted college family – they secretly saved money for me and then gave me about $15 in change – what a sweet sacrifice!

2.    “God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called.” This is a great quote and so true. We may never feel worthy or ready for something God calls us to like missions, but that is exactly His plan. When we are weak, then He is strong and is most glorified. If you are nervous about something God is calling you to, don’t let that stop you. Step out in faith and watch God work!

3.    God does not need us, but He graciously uses us anyway! After spending a year in Hungary and investing in the lives of some teenagers, I felt strange going back home to finish college. I worried about what would happen to some of the girls I had witnessed to, but God quickly showed me that He was in control. Petra, one of the dearest girls I had grown close to, believed in Jesus within a few months after I left. God showed me that He is the one who does the work of salvation, but that we get the joy of partnering with Him and seeing Him accomplish it. Conversely, one of my teammates had been very nervous about leaving his dad who was alcoholic and had been suicidal, but amazingly, God helped his dad to get sober that year while we were gone. We are certainly important to the work of God, but I think we need reminding that He is the one in control.

4.    As Reba Bowman talked about Sunday evening, it can be easy to look at the need in some of these countries and feel overwhelmed, but that is just a reminder that our God is bigger than all the pain and difficulties in this world. He has us all in His hands, and I remember that was one of the most amazing lessons from traveling and doing missions. Our God is omniscient and omnipresent. He is working in every country to reach all peoples with His gospel, and while I would have said that was true, it was really brought to reality when I could see it and hear stories of what He was doing.

I hope that you will all go to as many events as you can during missions week, and that you will be equally inspired and encouraged in your walk of faith with the Lord. I also pray that our hearts will be open to any new step of faith He is calling each of us to, whether it is a ministry in the US or to another country!

Blessings, 

Judith Graham

Rethinking Miracles

The well-loved children’s classic Charlotte’s Web opens with a young girl named Fern saving a little runt pig from being killed. At first she takes care of this pig whom she has named Wilbur, but then he gets too big and he has to move to her uncle’s barn. There in the barn a host of other animals live, and Fern spends much time there. Among these animals is Charlotte, a gentle and kind spider who weaves words into her web to save Wilbur from being slaughtered and turned into bacon. At one point in the book, Fern’s mother speaks to the family doctor about her concern for Fern, who claims to speak with animals, and about the appearance of words in the web.

“Have you heard about the words that appeared in the spider’s web?” asked Mrs. Arable nervously.

“Yes,” replied the doctor.

“Well, do you understand it?” asked Mrs. Arable.

“Understand what?”

“Do you understand how there could be any writing in a spider’s web?”

“Oh no,” said Dr. Dorian. “I don’t understand it. But for that matter I don’t understand how a spider learned to spin a web in the first place. When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.”

Our idea of miracles is that miracles are something that can’t be explained or observed regularly. We don’t consider a spider weaving a web a miracle, but why not? Have you looked at a web lately? Seen the intricacies in it? Have you wondered how that tiny spider has the ability to create that thread and weave it carefully so that even strong winds often do not tear it?  But because science can to an extent explain how it happens, we discount it as a miracle. We lose our wonder for the awesomeness in creation that points to its Creator.

I recently read a book in which the author Sarah Mackenzie tells about a time she took her children to the zoo. On this day they would see a walrus for the first time, and they eagerly settled themselves before the glass and waited for the walrus to appear. She just knew it would be a magical moment for her young kids. All of a sudden the walrus appeared, and her daughter cried out “Oh Mommy, look!” Sarah writes, “I turned to her in expectation, eager to watch her first impression of the walrus’s size and grace, but instead saw that she wasn’t looking through the glass at all. She was on her hands and knees, nose inches from the sidewalk and eyes open wide in amazement, watching an ant skitter across the ground as it carried a piece of food bigger than itself.”

Sarah writes that so often in life we miss the little miraculous moments because we’re waiting for the “walruses,” the big moments, to appear. But just as the spider weaving its web is a miracle, so the ant who carries food twice his size is a miracle. Yet somewhere along the way, we’ve lost our sense of the wonder of those seemingly small moments.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss those “little” moments this week – the daily miracles that point to a Creator and His love for His creation. That I have breath to breathe when I wake up in the morning. The sunrise and sunset each day. The laughter of my children. The changing colors in the leaves outside. The balm of a soothing word spoken at the right time. The Word of God that I can hold in my hand. The ability to pray to the Lord of the universe.  And yes, the spider weaving his large web outside my kitchen window.

Oh Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Psalm 104:24

--Amy O'Rear