A THRILL OF HOPE

Merry Christmas to all my unseen friends. We, who believe the Messiah came to rescue us will live eternally with God in heaven. This is our hope, and it's thrilling!

Home seems where we ought to be this time of year, but I must confess it has been a desire of mine to travel through the world visiting other countries during the Christmas season. That would be an amazing experience to realize that I share my faith with others from all over the world. Believers are bonded together, we are a family because of God's love for us. 

As we all have learned these past few months, God has made us resilient, and we can adapt during difficult times. That's good to know, don't you think? There will always be some drama and chaos to deal with; if not Covid 19, something else. Thanks be to God, and President Trump, that we now have an effective vaccine for this persistent virus. We hope this will be distributed all over the world and we will be rid of what has caused pain.  

I received a Christmas card recently that said, "The thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices." These words are from my favorite Christmas hymn - 'O Holy Night'.

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining till He appeared and the soul felt its worth". 

This verse says to me that only when God appears in our life can our soul feel its worth. If we don't value ourselves and don't feel worthy as a person, we're headed down the wrong road and surely trouble will come - you'll be depressed, maybe eat or drink too much, breakdown in relationships - all bad stuff. It's easy to go astray in this world but the truth is, that when we follow Jesus, we'll always wind up in the right place. 

"Led by the light of Faith. . .by His cradle we stand. . .The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manager; in all our trials born to be our friend."

Jesus - born to be our friend. When we grasp this truth, we will have the 'thrill of hope'. The birth of Jesus is spoken of many times in the Old Testament. The prophets knew He was coming and foretold the event.

"For unto us a child is given,. . .And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6-7

These verses refer to Jesus. Micah 5:2 tells us that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem. The words were written over 500 years before the birth of Christ.

"But you Bethlehem . . .out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."

Micah seemed to understand that God had planned to send a Savior before time began. Micah knew Jesus would come for him. Do you know that Jesus will come for you? God never rejects anyone, never turns anyone away who comes to the Savior, asks to be forgiven and accepts Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. Next Christmas you may not be living, so do it now and have the peace and the thrill of hope that comes from knowing you are a child of God. For those who already have a relationship with the Lord - this Christmas may you see and know anew how great His love is toward you.

My oldest son Kraig passed away in September. His father, my late husband, has been gone for five years now - 12/20/15. The first thing that came to my mind when told of his death was there would be a joyous reunion between father and son in heaven - I have no doubt of that, and this brings me great peace.

Lord, thank you for sustaining me, thank you for being my 'everything'. 

FROM PANIC TO PEACE

She was driving over the speed limit; she had drugs in the car, and was on probation.  Suddenly a siren and flashing lights were behind her, she heard a police officer’s amplified voice shout, “Pull over, get out of the car, get away from the car and put your hands over your head.”  A sob constricted her throat and panic filled her whole body. 

Lydia had two small children, two and four years old.  Her husband had just found a good paying job.  This was the second time she’d been picked up for violating parole.  This time, she’d no doubt be sent to prison and would have to serve a long time.  Her mother had helped take care of the children the last time she was in jail, but now she was sick.  Who would care for them while her husband worked?  She’d promised her husband, no more drinking or drugs.  She wanted to keep that promise; she’d gone through the rehabilitation program.  She had failed again.  She so badly wanted to be with her children.  Lydia’s heart was pounding; she could scarcely catch her breath. 

I’ve been going to our local jail for the past ten years.  I’ve seen hundreds of women and I’ve heard so many stories of failure, panic, fear, frustration, the inability to overcome an addiction, or a life of crime, and the feeling of utter hopelessness, no joy, and no peace. 

You don’t have to commit a crime to have these same feelings.  Panic is an over-powering emotion.  There are even physical signs of panic such as shortness of breath, tightness in your chest, headaches, or a feeling of being dizzy.  We’ve all felt the effect of this emotion at one time or another.  In the midst of a crisis it’s hard to ‘think straight’, but this time, Lydia was able to recall a few words spoken to  her the last time she’d been in jail and had attended a Bible study there. 

“The Lord will mold you, refine you and fashion you into the person He wants you to be. He may do this by making you weak, putting temptation into your life, creating panic and havoc so you have nowhere to turn, except to HIM.  God is more interested in YOU, than in your crisis of the moment, and He will use your problems as sandpaper to smooth out your imperfections. “  

Standing there on the side of the road, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car, Lydia experienced a peace she’d never felt before, her heart stopped racing and she became calm.  She remembered that she’d read in the Bible that Jesus is our peace, Ephesians 2:14. 

The passage in Ephesians 2 is speaking to the Gentiles who had been taught they were less than the Jews.  There was a ‘wall of hostility’ which acted as a barrier between them and they did not feel accepted by God.   There was no peace.  We all have barriers in our life that cause us to be separated from the One, the only One, who can bring peace. Sin is a barrier to peace.  Sin has consequences.  Sin separates us from the peace of God and causes us to panic when we see ourselves in trouble. 

Sin is so much more than breaking the law, or bad behavior.  This is a worldly definition of sin.  As long as we have an earthly body, we will sin.  We have a sin-trained brain!  We’re even pretty comfortable with our sin at times, we can easily ignore it.  The Bible refers to our sinful nature – ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ Romans 3:23.  It’s just so much more than doing bad things!  But God is faithful to buff us to brilliance, like gold and silver, when we come to Him, and ask forgiveness.  We’ll never look perfect in our own eyes, but we can have peace that God sees us as ‘righteous’.  He sees His Son in us! 

“Therefore there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus” – Romans 8:1.

“Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame” – Romans 10:11

God is making us into something beautiful from a common lump of clay, Rom. 9. He is the potter, we’re the clay.  All this molding and spinning and crafting is painful!  But, hang in there, if you belong to Jesus and have accepted Him as your Lord and Savior, the end result of all this refining by adversity will be a new, beautiful, totally acceptable YOU who will be presented to God without fault and with great joy!  Jude 24. 

Knowing this truth is what moves us from panic to peace.  Trusting God by faith to work in your life and take you ‘the way’ He knows you need to go.  He never loses control.  He has designed a perfect plan for each of His children, no matter how bad it looks to us.  You see, if we could be righteous in our own right – not needing Him, then He would have died on the cross for nothing!  Galatians 2:21.  What we could not do for ourselves, He did for us.

So, what do I do now?  Take a deep breath, breathe in His life, exhale yours, and picture yourself in His presence.  And take your eyes off the problem like Lydia did, and focus on your Savior, Redeemer God, Jesus.  Self effort comes to us naturally.  We always want to ‘fix’ the problem, but give it up, let God fix it.  He knows just how to do it!  My mother used to say, “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on”.  OK, do that, as long as the ‘knot’ you’re hanging on to is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Then, panic will turn to peace.

Thank you Lord that we who are your children can come to you and experience ‘the peace that surpasses understanding’.

If you’d like my book, Blogging God’s Word: Seeing Ourselves Through God’s Eyes, - It’s available on www.crossbooks.com/bookstore  or www.amazon.com, by the end of September, it’ll be available in E-Book format.