The Still, Small Voice

Elijah after spending time with God on the mountaintop thought he heard God in the wind, earthquake, and fire.  But none of these contained God.  Finally, a still, small whisper came, and Elijah came out of his cave to speak with his Maker.

Similarly, Jesus said, the way to destruction is broad and many walk on it, but the way to life is narrow, and few find it.  The secret to the kingdom is coming as a child into the lap of the father.

But we miss it, because we don't want to come this way.  We think that the way is by fastings, and long periods of prayer, and abstaining from certain besetting sins, and reading our Bible daily.  We think that if we just lift our hearts up enough to God, we will be filled by Him.

I know because I tried again recently, to reach God.  For 24 hours I fasted, and for 11 of those I prayed, sang, read the Bible and Christian books, and prayed some more.  But nothing worked.  In frustration I slammed my car keys to the ground and used some unprintable words.  So angry!  Here I was, coming to God, and where was he?  Why could I not get through?  Why the barrier?  I was trying to come as a child, wasn't I?

When I woke up in the morning, I remembered back to the last prayer retreat I had had, a year ago.  There, inspired by Paul Miller's book A Praying Life, I had tried approaching God just as I was, but through the blood of Christ.  I thought, always when I can't reach God, something is wrong with me; God never changes.  So, I decided the fault was with me, and the God was close, after all.  And I quieted my heart, and waited, brought myself under the blood of Jesus, and just asked, like a child for his Daddy, for God to hear.  And, in the quiet and stillness and simplicity, I felt the touch and heard the voice of God.  All my strivings and tryings to be good enough did not work.  The only access to the Father was through his Son, as the song says, "Just as I am."

"Lay your deadly doings down, down at Jesus' feet, and stand in Him, in Him alone, gloriously complete."

If anyone has been trying to get to God this year and feels hopelessly far, or cut off, just come, come as you are.  That includes those of you who don't know Him, as well as those of you who do.  If you have never accepted Jesus, come.  Repent of your sins, and ask for his forgiveness through Jesus.  Then enjoy your Daddy's embrace, then and forever.

Those of you who know Jesus already, lay your deadly doing down.  Still your heart, under the blood, and come, come as you are.  God has not moved; we have.

Calling All Soldiers

"Too long have we been waiting for one another to begin!  The time for waiting is past!  The hour of God has struck!  War is declared!  In God's holy name let us arise and build!  'The God of Heaven, He will fight for us,' as we for Him.  We will not build on the sand, but on the bedrock of the sayings of Christ, and the gates and minions of hell shall not prevail against us....Before the whole world, aye, before the sleepy, lukewarm, faithless, namby-pamby Christian world. we will dare to trust our God, we will venture our all for Him, we will live and we will die for Him, and we will do it with His joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts."  (Biography of pioneer missionary C.T. Studd, written by his son-in-law Norman Grubb, p. 120)

This is calling all soldiers, to arms.  Too long have we waited!  The war awaits, and it more and more approaches our doorstep, while we wait and sleep and sing and enjoy our sermons and bookstores and prayer meetings.  Fighting is not an option; we must fight or die.  The West has been assaulted by secular humanism, atheism, political correctness, rationality, and into the religious vacuum created has poured the religion of Islam, the alluring caresses of the eastern religions and Buddhism, and our Christian culture has shrunk into the pockets of the South, Midwest, and Southwest.

The demise of Christian culture has its pros and cons, and some celebrate its departure.  But one advantage it brought was the freedom to believe and speak as we chose, and the freedom from persecution.  As our interactions with the world become more stark, and the contrast between lightness and dark more clear, the war that our brothers and sisters in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East have fought for so long will come to our doorstep.  To arms!  To prayer, the Word, fasting, obedience, Christian love, and evangelism!

And my God shall abundantly supply all your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Joy

Comes softly

like drops pattering on a beach,

or breeze in an abandoned tree

that you will love as you tend it

and fertilize its roots and birth,

loose children to inhabit its branches

and run in its grass

giving it song once again.

Joy

is the first-soft-clapping of the hundreds,

then thousands, of hands whose rhythm and praise

mark the entry of your boat, storm-tossed,

to harbor, where it rests, untouched by waves,

healed by gentle winds

and the pure waters

always.

Joy

is children on a pleasant winter day,

friends talking,

an old beech smiling with new leaves;

all the rainbow colors,

and the fallow grass that you know

will glisten life again:

the promise of spring.

Ohio Moon

Why the title, you may ask.  So have I, and so did my wife, but she asked less than the others I proposed, such as Cappi Communal, which I intended as a profound statement on a balanced political philosophy, but for which she thought I merely forgot the "r" in Cappi.  I tried several other titles on Google, but all taken, alas.  Ohio Moon, though not ideal is a pretty good choice, as for me it is a image from my seeking years, those four after high school, when I gradually lost more and more of my moorings and peace, and often found myself gazing out at a round Ohio moon beside the Muskingum River while on Thanksgiving break at my Looney Tunes loving, sauerkraut-making, Olds-driving and loud laughing Grandma's.  So, Ohio Moon it is, and may these pages be filled with musings and melodies of the continued journey.  Come along for the ride!