ME AND MY SHADOW!…Psalm 23

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You can recite this psalm from memory,  and probably in King James English.  I’m keying in on that phrase:  walking ‘through that Valley of the Shadow of Death’.  Death…lots of it in the news these days.  Disease, terrorism, famous people (who have so much of this world’s goods) choosing to end their own lives.

I have no idea how many times I’ve read the 23rd psalm at hundreds and hundreds of funerals during my 40 plus years of ministry.  No idea.  Somewhere, I remember reading that in the Holy Land there is an actual place called the Valley of the Shadow.  It’s a narrow ravine where sheep have to travel through single-file nudged by the prodding of the shepherd.  One by one, which sheep do not like.  It spooks them.

So, the shepherd, who knows that the good grazing land is on the other side of the ravine, gets them through using his shepherd’s crook and his very familiar voice.  You can see where I’m going with this, can’t you?  Once we were driving through the lovely Cotswolds of rural England when we spotted a Norman church off in the distance, off a narrow road.  We turned onto an even smaller road, certain that no one would be coming the other way.  Out of nowhere comes a large truck unable to push too far over to the side.  So, I did or I hoped I could.  I braced myself, put my head down, prayed for a miracle…and the shadow of that truck totally blocked our vision as it passed over us.  Whew!

We were fine.  Our rental car was fine.  It turned out to be only  a shadow of trouble. Death is the same.  It’s scary,  unknown,  big and dark,  our vision clouded,  we’ve never been down that path before, we travel it alone (or so it feels), we leave loved ones and lots of unfinished dreams and business.  So we imagine.

But death will only be a shadow– for in Jesus Christ  ‘death has been swallowed up in victory…But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15: 54-57).  Death has been defeated.  The shadow will lift and we’ll see our Shepherd holding our hand guiding us to the best pasture land we’ve ever seen with satisfaction like we’ve never known.  I will fear no…well, anything!  And singing will be better than ‘Me and My  Shadow’, and with interesting true stories much better than Lamont Cranston of old-time radio days for ‘The Shadow Knows’!  We know…because the Bible tells us so!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for being our good Shepherd.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

FOREVER IS A VERY LONG TIME… Psalm 107

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That first verse of Psalm 107 ends with the word ‘forever’.  That’s a very long time.  Forever and ever and ever… ad infinitum.  And what is it that lasts forever?  God’s steady love for us.  A love central to Old Testament covenant teaching.

Some keep saying that the Old Testament God is a God of vengeance while the New Testament One is of love.  We don’t worship two Gods.  The word ‘love’ appears many more times in the Old Testament than the New.   The exact content of Psalm 107:1 is found in the Torah of Moses, the writings of the Psalms and other wisdom books, also in the Prophets as well.  Throughout the entire Old Testament.

His love endures…forever.  That’s a very long time.  I retired from the United Christian Church on Grays Harbor, Washington State, having served 14 years.  Almost twice as long as the next longest serving pastor in the church’s 110 year history.  Yet at the bottom left-hand corner of every weekly pay check was written ‘Guest Speaker’!  For 14 years!  That’s a long time to be a guest speaker!  Maybe they just wished I’d take the hint and go away!

I never minded in the least.  After all, in this world, as finite human beings, we are all guests for a brief period of time in whatever we’re doing, even work for the Lord.  I loved being a guest speaker!  But my 14 years were nothing compared to our church secretary, Ruth Wayman, and our church organist, Roberta Cleland, who combined serve the Lord for over 100 years!  But even their long service is dwarfed by the longevity of God’s love for His children and His church.  The warranty on His love has no end date at all.

Yet, I still have a hard time believing that I don’t have to perform for Him to receive His love.  That I must tow the mark,  making His love conditional.  Sure there are consequences for when we veer off course in sin.  But as His child, if I have received Jesus into my life,  His love will mold me in discipline.  He allows me to trudge down that wrong path only to find out that I need His help big-time bringing me back to where I ought to be.  Then He blesses us with His mercy and grace that knows no end.   Forever is a very long time.  Aren’t you glad?

Prayer:  We look forward to being with you, our God, forever.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

SOMETHING WORTH REPEATING… Psalm 106

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I love reading mystery novels.  Agatha Christie, P. D. James, Anne Cleeves to name but a few.  I was reading a new author the other day.  The book’s setting was the Shetland Islands, off the coast of northern Scotland.  We were there a number of years ago.  We especially enjoyed the town of Lerwick.  We were greeted by a warm and friendly man who welcomed us to his town, giving us a local map.    On the back of this helpful map was the Gospel message of Jesus Christ!  Never had that happen before.

Back to this recent mystery book that I read,  the author made reference to church singing in the isles of Scotland.  It’s called Gaelic Psalm-singing.  I had never heard of it before.  Have you?  So, I searched the internet, and low-and-behold  there were lots of references to this regional form of congregational singing by the Presbyterian Scots.  Another name for this form of corporate singing  is precentering, where either a cantor or the pastor reads a phrase from the Psalm of the day and then the congregation responds to it with a very different melody or sound. Some think Psalm-singing began in response to a largely illiterate people who couldn’t read but could repeat what they heard, singing from their hearts in worship to the Lord.   It is quite remarkable and beautiful.

Psalm 106 has a verse that is well worth repeating.  Verse 1 says ‘Praise the Lord!  Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!’  Does that verse sound  familiar to you?  It did to me, so I looked it up in my concordance– and it is sung throughout the Old Testament.  And I mean throughout!  Check it out for yourself.

When the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the Tabernacle in 1 Chronicles 16:34,  there it is–God is good and His love is steadfast, sure and stable, sincere and secure.

Then 2 Chronicles 5:13, the same is sung by all at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple.  When the Temple is rebuilt following return from exile in Babylon, as the foundation is being laid, the people sing again about God’s goodness and His love which knows no bounds.

When the prophet Jeremiah writes about the coming redemption of the Lord in chapter 33: 10-11, there is that same call to thank the Lord who is so good and loving.  There are more, but the ultimate  is Psalm 136, where that phrase ‘for His steadfast love endures forever’ is the 2nd part of each and every verse. All 26 verses have the congregation repeating that same thought… each and every time.   Why not make today a day of praise and thanksgiving to our God, who is good as good can ever be, and more loving than we can ever imagine.  That’s something worth repeating!  Psalm-singing by all God’s children!

Prayer:  Lord, you are so loving and good.  Thank you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

THOSE PRECIOUS PRAYERS…Revelation 5:8 & 8: 3-5

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It’s such a joy to hear our grandsons pray before a meal.  So sweet.  So simple. So believing and trusting.  Means so much to us.  Our treasuring of our little one’s prayers is but an inkling of how precious our prayers are to our Heavenly Father.  If we knew how much our sharing with the Lord means to Him,  I guess we’d never stop praying at all.  That’s an idea worth pondering.

Have you read those verses in the Book of Revelation yet?    They speak of our prayers to the Lord.  Our prayers.  Yours and mine.  God’s children calling out to Him, crying to Him, and praising Him.  Prayers of all kinds, using a myriad of languages, by all kinds of different people, all over the world.  Doesn’t matter how you pray or what exactly you say–what matters is our desire to be with and share our hearts with our God as His chosen children.

In Revelation 5:8 the Apostle John, in exile on the Island of Patmos, is having a heavenly vision and sees a large scroll, four living creatures and twenty four elders falling down in worship of Jesus Christ, each with a harp, holding bowls made of pure gold full of incense, burning with a sweet, pleasing aroma.

Wafting in the air, more than a scent,  these are the actual prayers of the saints.  Ours are there as well.    Your prayers and mine– so precious to the Lord that they are held in large golden bowls, held only by God’s most trusted worshippers… with all placed at the feet of Jesus.  Only the very best can contain and handle our prayers.  Only the best.  Did you hear that?  How precious our utterances are to Him.

Then in Revelation 8 we see angels standing before God, and one of them has a censer made of pure gold,  which burns incense where its smoke gets mingled with our prayers, all rising to the very presence of God.  Then something totally unexpected happens.  The angel takes the censer,  fills it with fire and throws it to the earth, resulting in tremendous cosmic thunder, lightning and earthquakes.

Not only are our prayers precious, but they are very powerful.  Like it says in James 5: 16–‘the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working’.  I think I’ll pray a lot more.  Our prayers do a tremendous work for God for others. Imagine all that can come by praying.  Precious…and powerful.  Our prayers to God–that’s something worth doing more and more.  Do I hear an ‘amen’?

Prayer:  We love to pray to you, our God.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

WHERE’S THAT HAPPY ENDING?…Psalm 88

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This is a shocking psalm–the only one that ends with not even a glimmer of hope.  As a matter of fact, Psalm 88 ends with the psalmist shunned by his friends and loved ones, leaving him with darkness as his only companion.  What happened?  Where’s that happy ending?  You’ll find it elsewhere in the psalms, but not here.  Why  not?

This psalm is really important.  The Lord  is telling us what we already know–that life, even as believers, doesn’t always feel neat and tidy, joyous all the time. We know that– at least in our heads but our hearts yearn for something better.  Things don’t always turn out  as we may hope and pray.  We feel hemmed in– in a fix that seems to never get fixed, a fog that refuses to lift, through an exit that leads to nowhere.

I remember crying out to God in a church where it was no longer all heaven that was breaking out.  Quite the contrary.  Friends became few and far between.  Tongues were wagging in an inflamed way.  My only defense was in telling what I knew.   But I wouldn’t.  A pastor must never break confidences.  I was hemmed in.  No fix could be fixed without compromising what I refused to compromise, telling what I said I would never tell.  A spiritual and pastoral ‘Catch-22’.

For better or for worse, I decided to move along.  I was now living what Psalm 88 was all about.  God’s hand felt like He had let go of mine and given me the back of His.  Crying out to Him seemed hollow and futile.  I was in bad shape.  Felt like I had nowhere to hide and I wanted out of the limelight.

What can you say?  Don’t throw pious, well-intentioned platitudes at them.  It will only hurt and alienate.  Stand alongside them.  Listen.  Shut up for once.  Pray for them when they can’t.   Wait to see what the Lord will make of all this mess and confusion.  For ‘all things work together’…in His time.

He did that for me.  It took a long time and some things got worse while others got much better.  I discovered something about Psalm 88– it’s good to look at the beginning verse for that glimmer of hope.  Where the psalmist affirms his faith in ‘O Lord, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you(Psalm 88:1).  He hasn’t lost his faith in the Lord.  He’s hanging on to Him for dear life…as best he can under the circumstances.  You can too.  I did and I’m still  holding onto the One who is my salvation…no matter what, no matter if the happy ending will only be in Heaven.  And that will be real happy ending indeed!

Prayer:  Dear God, thank you for standing with us in tough times.  Jesus’ knew the same.  Amen.

FELLOW WORKERS FOR THE TRUTH…..Read 3 John

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That wasn’t a very long letter, was it?  3 John is one of the shortest books and letters of the Bible.  Scholars think that the Apostle John’s 3 letters were carried by a courier to be read in various churches probably in Asia Minor.  1st John being a sermon on the larger theme of love.  2nd John  seemed addressed to a specific church family, that of Gaius; and talked of walking in love and truth and obedience.  3rd John is a personal letter to the church leader Gaius commending the courier, named Demetrius.  All 3 letters may have been carried in a packet by this courier.  3 John verses 5- 8 have captured my attention today.  Take a moment to read them again.  John is encouraging Gaius and his church family to support those who are journeying on a mission to tell others  the truth of Jesus Christ.   Our support…as fellow workers for the truth.  Not just money, but prayers and encouragement and love and whatever they (and we)  can do to further the work and word of the Lord.  I must admit that I get very sceptical of TV ministries that seem to exist just to ask for more money, and that God will super bless you if you give to them.  When I was doing my weekly TV show on our local-access television station, I made it a point of never, ever to ask  anyone to give anything to support the ministry of ‘Person-to-Person’.  And no one ever did!  Not even one thin dime!  And on top of that I paid to be on the air!  Almost $2000 a year for 5 years.  Some TV evangelist I was!  Ah, but I was.  And I needed to do the supporting.  I needed to do the work of arranging guests and singers for the weekly shows.  I needed to give and not just of myself either but of my prayers and gratitude for all the guests and singers, and  for what God was preparing me to do next for Him.  As John writes, ‘For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from…'(3 John: 7-8).  It was good to give.  It is good to give.  Who said it’s better than receiving?  We know… and He was right, of course!  Anything you can do to be a ‘fellow worker for the truth’ today?  Think about it. And then, don’t just think about it…do it!

THE OLDER I GET…….Read Psalm 92

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My wife and I just got back from 4 days in Cornwall, England.  What a lovely part of this amazing country.  Farmland everywhere, sheep and cattle grazing away, little fishing villages surrounded by slate hillsides, and some of the best fish and chips we’ve had so far!  In one of the villages called Tintagal I noticed a shop selling one of those proverbial tourist t-shirts that said, ‘The Older I Get, the Better I Was!’.  If it wasn’t so true, I’d almost laugh!  Well, I did anyway.  Of course, as we get older, we notice changes in our bodies, our families, our country and the world we live in.  It’s always that way.  It’s always been that way.  As Solomon said thousands of years ago now–there’s  nothing new under the sun.  But I’ve got good news, real good news!  Did you read Psalm 92 yet?  Notice, in particular, those last 2 verses.  Still bearing fruit in old age…full of sap and green.  Our spiritual life can and should be fresh and young and vibrant and growing–no matter what our age or condition.  In the church where I now honorably serve as pastor emeritus we have had so many young older people who love the Lord and love to tell others just that.  I think in particular of Cathy Brown.  Cathy died 2 years ago now in her mid-90’s, but her mind and body had started to leave us and  this world a number of years before.  Even still, Cathy prayed to her Lord like a child to a loving parent or, in her case, her loving Auntie and Uncle.  I loved to hear Cathy pray.  You would have also.  It was so tender, so affectionate, so trusting and loving.  I could picture Jesus holding her hands as she opened her heart to Him.  Life may have been getting more difficult and remote for Cathy, but not her times of prayer and worship of her Lord Jesus Christ.  That was a fruitful relationship even in old age…full of sap and green, declaring that He is her rock and salvation.  There are so many others just like Cathy who stay close to Him, and never really grow old and never  really die at all.  That is my prayer and I am sure yours as well…to stay close to Him, to value our relationship with Jesus above all else, to linger longer in His Word, to cherish and look forward to the future God has in store for all His children, all who have been born again in Jesus Christ.  The Older I Get…in Jesus…the Better I’ll Become!  Amen?

ANGELS WHO CARRY US ON THEIR HANDS…….Read Psalm 91

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Let me recommend that while you read the entire Psalm that you spend a moment and focus on verses 11-12.  The Psalmist talks about guardian angels, who are God’s agents to guard His children in ‘all your ways.  On their hands they will bear you up…’  Our guardian angels…who protect us…no matter where,  when, how or what…holding us in the palm of their hands keeping our heads way above water.  While I’ve never seen or encountered a real angel from the Lord, yet I’ve certainly experienced their protection  over my life.  How about you?   As you look back it seems so clearly felt even though unseen.  It’s not  luck –but the Lord’s care and covering of us.  When we become believers in  the Lord we just know, as if in our bones, that the care we’ve received is not from happenstance or chance or fate.  No, but from the Lord Himself through His angels.  Unseen to and  by the naked eye.  Seen through the eyes of faith.  And these latter eyes will only grow sharper and keener the more we use them no matter our age.  When we arrived in England for our 2 month vacation, we picked up our rental car at the airport facility.  Having just dodged the sales desk, which wanted us to get way more car than we needed just to drive up the final bill, we proceeded to our rental car, squeezed in our luggage,  tried to figure out that the driver has to get in the car on the right hand side instead of on the left,  the gear shift requires using my left hand, and navigating the left-hand side of the road along with countless round-abouts that have their own rules and regulations with kind and patient English people only that way until they get behind the wheel of their cars!  And we had not slept in over a 24 hours.  And we had over 100 miles to drive to get to our 15th century home somewhere out in the English countryside.  And a few  miles from the airport I realized that I had not checked in at some area that would record any damage or dings to our car before we rented it.  So, we needed to go back from who-knows-where we just came!  And we were sunk.  No way, Jose, were we going to find our way at all.  And now we just wanted to go home!  Lord, help us!  Please…we’re lost and need some…well, angels, to bear us up, to guard us in all our ways.  I noticed some garbage men by the side of the road in their truck (lorries here).  I pulled over and lowered my wife’s window because I can’t ask from my side of the car.  Asking them for directions back to the airport led to a litany of go this way, take 3 round-abouts, don’t do this, do that, go here, go there…yikes!  They could tell we were desperate Yankees!   Whereupon the garbage truck driver said to follow them, they would take us back to where we needed to go.  And they did!  Thank the Lord!  They were like angels from the Lord.  We  made it.  We survived.  We’re still surviving…and we sense so clearly through the eyes of faith the presence and help of angels from our Lord Himself working through some very unlikely but kind workmen.    Sometimes, when you get out of your comfort zones, your places of safety, those security blankets that we love to carry around with us to ward off our fears and make us feel safe , it’s there that God will be most evident that He keeps His promises, especially to all His children.  He promises that ‘His angels…(will) guard you in all your ways.  On their hands they will bear you up…’   He promises– that’s a safety and security this life cannot provide.  And maybe, just maybe I can be like an angel to someone else in need!

ANYONE KNOW A GOOD LAWYER?…….Read 1 John 2:1-6

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I’m really not trying to be funny with that title.  Any lawyers out there?Read on… as it’s get better for you!  The Apostle John tells us in his first letter that Jesus Christ is our ‘advocate’ with the Father.  He speaks in and on our behalf.  He speaks up for us, because we just can’t do it on our own.  We don’t know what to say.  We have no standing with God on our own.  We need a good lawyer.  An advocate who knows the legal lingo and language, who has the knowledge of and experience with the law, and who can persuasively present ourselves  and our case  before the apppointed authorities.  Again, he speaks up for us because we just can’t do it on our own.  Hey, that’s Jesus,  the Apostle John tells…our advocate!  The Apostle Paul says that Jesus is also our ‘mediator’ (1 Timothy 2:5)–one who comes in between disagreeing parties and brings a peaceful resolution.  And in Romans 8: 34 Paul says that ‘Christ Jesus…indeed is interceding for us’.  Interceding…taking the active role, lifting us up when we’ve either fallen or been knocked down.  Talking about our High Priest Jesus Christ, the author of Hebrews  says ‘…He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them’ (8:25).  Advocate…mediator…intercessor–Jesus lives and loves to be all those wrapped up in one big  gift of grace and mercy…all  for you and me!  Many years ago now, I was sued by a neighbor.  We were nice to this elderly neighbor couple.  But an previous to us  unresolved property-line issue bubbled to the surface, and we were the objects of just the longest lawsuit imaginable.  Praise the Lord, our property-casualty policy on our home paid all our legal and related bills. All of them.  Not so for this litigious neighbor–thousands and thousands of dollars over a 7 year period.  This was the longest dispute our insurance company had ever seen.  We’re number one!  A dubious distinction indeed!  Those years were scary, frustrating, endless, and seemed like a colossal waste of time and someone else’s money.  But I learned some things that helped me.  I got tougher as time went by.  Fear was overridden by a fierceness to see that what’s right and just  should be done.  Don’t give in to a bully, not matter what their age.  Our lawyer was very helpful.  But interact with your lawyer…ask questions, check out what’s not clear andis somewhat  fuzzy to you.    Don’t be afraid to sound  ‘stupid’…say whatever is on your mind and heart.  But not to the opponent. Interact with your attorney.  Don’t take anything in your own hands.  Stay clean.  Do nothing out of revenge.  You’ll have a clear conscience and no regrets when  the case is over and it will be over…someday. And someday came for us.  It was over and our neighbors got absolutely nothing that they had demanded. Nothing!   I imagine it doesn’t always work out that way, but it did for us in this case.  And what did I learn about the Lord ‘through it all’?  Talk with Him lots and lots.  Tell Him all that you’re feeling.  Don’t hold back.  Stay close to your Lord who loves you so much.  As it says in Hebrews 4:16–‘come boldly before the throne of grace…to help in time of need’.   Boldness, confidence and courage to come before Him with all our fretting and worrying , real or imagined.  Jesus is our advocate, our mediator, our intercessor forever.  Anyone know a good lawyer?  I do!  And He doesn’t even charge by those billable  hours!

MORE AND MORE BLESSINGS FROM THE LORD!…….Read Psalm 84:4-12

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‘There shall be showers of blessing’…as the old hymn so beautifully states and sings.  Here in England today we are having our 1st day in 3 weeks where the promised showers are really coming down.  And it’s very nice nestled in here at the Old Manor House, now over 600 years old!  Psalm 84:6 talks of going from a very dry place, called the Valley of Baca, to place of blessed springs and rain and pools of water.  And it’s the Lord who takes us by the hand, through the valley that’s so desolate and dry and hot, to His place of blessing after blessing.  The psalmist was talking about the experiences of God’s people during the time of David and Solomon.  But as I read those verses it seemed so current and modern… and directed to me.  You too?  Read those verses and see if God doesn’t put up a mirror in front of you to see  yourself better.  He did for me.  I was thinking back to the latter 1990’s.  We were active in a couple different churches.  I was doing a weekly TV show and full-time financial planner with American Express.  My wife Sue worked at our local Safeway grocery store, which was exactly 1 mile from our home.  Many days I would get a ride with her to work and then walk the mile home.  Or in the evening, I’d walk to the grocery store trying to meet her just as she finished her shift for a nice ride home.  Taking practically the same route each time, I passed wonderful neighborhoods with lots of kids playing and obviously many families, most originally from Mexico.  I’d always have Christian tracts with mein a wallet in my back pocket, both in English and Spanish.   Opportunities often came to give a brief witness for the Lord in those neighborhoods.  In addtion, I’d always pray for the one church on my walking route, the United Christian Church.  It was so well located to reach those kids I kept seeing over the years…  also, the adults in the apartments and homes as well.  I knew some of the previous pastors and had even preached there once in 1982.  I would pray for the people of that church, for its leaders and pastor, that they would reach out to the lost right around them.  Maybe they were.  I didn’t know… but  I prayed anyway.  One day a client of mine, who was a member of that church,  phoned me asking if I still could preach.  I wondered if that was a trick question!  After all, I was in great demand as a preacher–once or twice a year if it was  a busy one!  So, I filled in for 2 Sundays.  Only 18 people gathered, well 20 counting my wife and myself!  I asked one of the elders to give us a tour of the building.  Had only been in the sanctuary.  As we were taking our brief tour, I could feel something churning within and it wasn’t that prune danish I had for breakfast!…this building could be used for so many different programs of the Lord  but it looked like the rapture had already come and we were all left behind.  Empty… but ready to move forward?   That’s what I sensed at the time. And remember, I do love a challenge.   The 2nd Sunday I preached, a grandmother came to the back of the church following worship telling me that her 9 year old granddaughter, who was standing next to her, needed the Lord and would I talk with her.  Would I?  Is this for real?  Well, after they found the smelling salts and I got up(!), I talked with her, shared from the Bible the Good News of Jesus Christ,  and she prayed asking the Lord into her life.  Was God leading me from the Valley of Baca to a new place of blessing?  I offered to preach a couple times a month to help them out for  at least  a few months until they found their new pastor.  A couple times a month turned into most Sundays and a few months into 14 years.  I remember when that young girl’s older sister came forward to accept the Lord, when one of the current elders asked the Lord into his heart, when on their death-beds some older members  for the very first time asked Jesus to be their Savior, how on  my 1st regular Sunday over 33 shoeboxes were waiting on the old piano bench to be sent off to Samaritan’s Purse for Operation Christmas Child.  This was a church family eager to learn about the Lord, so appreciative of my wife and myself the whole time of our ministry with them,  and who loved to give to Christian mission causes, and who never stopped reaching out to that neighborhood where God placed them… and us.  Now, I’m retired and they have a wonderful, young, godly full-time pastor.   Blessing after blessing after blessing!  From the Valley of Baca to all those ‘Showers of Blessing’ from the Lord.  If you’re in that Valley of Baca, pray for rain!  Keep praying…and don’t be surprised, as I was, when the showers start and the rains come- a -tumbling- down!