End Of Rope, But Not End Of Hope

People are dying all over the world from an unseen enemy virus.
The earth is quaking.
The winds are blowing away homes and businesses.
There are wars fought openly with guns and bombs.
There are wars fought that are invisible to most of us, in economic manipulations or technological influences and exploitation.  

Nations distrust other nations.
World powers vie for the upper hand, attempting to depose and dominate.

Violations of law are winked at and go unpunished...even accepted.
Moral right and wrong has been mixed into a shade of murky gray, not black and white.

Even God's purpose and design of human beings as male and female image bearers of The Creator has been re-imaged into man's sinful twisted image, genders 're-assigned', same-sex marriages eliminating God's intended design of pro-creation. 


It is a mess.  God help us.

I ask Him the same question His disciples asked.  "...what shall be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3 MKJV)

Is it soon?  Will it be today?  Tomorrow?  Next week, or next year? How long, Lord Jesus? 




Sin began in the garden and has always been a battleground, every single moment since.  We can't say to God, "You didn't give us a chance to redeem ourselves from our wrong, we can do better, we can fix it!!"  

He did.  But we are now born with the flaw that makes it impossible to be the image-bearer we were created to be.  He knew that, it was US that needed to see that horrible truth.  

One thing was forbidden in that garden.  Man disobeyed that one thing.
Ten things were commanded from Mt. Sinai.  Man disobeys every single one, in a myriad of ways.  





"...God made men and women true and upright; we're the ones who've made a mess of things." (Ecclesiastes 7:29 from The Message)

"We humans keep brainstorming options and plans, but GOD's purpose prevails." (Proverbs 19:21 from The Message)

After another attempt at understanding the complex issues that have swallowed up my regular routine life, I go back to the one thing I know. 

God is on His Throne.  I am holding firm to that truth.

Man has never been able to fix the messes He makes, he just keeps making more of them.  I come to the end of the rope of my understanding and cling to the hope that is eternally secure. 



What a relief, because I can't earn my way
When I come up empty,  my father pays
I'm learning to live,  and I'm learning to die
And one of these days, I'll be learning to fly
(Lyrics, Child You're Forgiven, Gloria Gaither / Willam J. Gaither / Guy Penrod / Kevin Williams



Hallelujah.  

A Time For Every Season

When?

We all know we have a day to die.  None of us know when that might be.

Jesus knew He was born to die.  For me.  And you.

I wonder if He always knew the when of it, or if just one day...He knew?  One day it began to unfold.  Was it not until then?

I have often said that I knew something "In my knowing place."   I just knew that I knew.  Some people say they "Have a peace about it".  That is like my knowing in my knowing place.

I knew the exact day God released me from a very long business situation.  I had argued with Him about it for several years.  Then, I just knew.


I stood at the bed of a mortally injured little baby boy.  I just knew in my knowing place that he would live. 

Again, I stood over the broken body of a young man, and again...I just knew he would live, and live well.

I find myself in another one of those long times of wanting to know when.  When will this pass?  When can I get back to work?  When will my boys be safe in their workplace again?  When will my daughter-in-law and my unborn baby grand-daughter no longer be at risk? When can I not be concerned about where I go and what I do? I just do not know, in my knowing place or in my imagination.  I just do. not. know.....




Ecc 3:11  He has made everything beautiful in His time; also He has set eternity in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end. (MKJV)

Ecc 3:11  True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going. (The Message)

I spent some time trimming bushes and pulling weeds today.  The winter has changed into springtime, the bare limbs have morphed into lush foliage.  Everything changes.

I got tired easily. At one time I could work like a mule all day.  Everything changes.

It is the time of year to have Easter celebrations, sing cantatas, eat ham, dye eggs, then hide and hunt them.  Everything changes.

I daresay every person on this globe has been touched by change these past few weeks.  Everything has changed for them too.



But God does not change.  Nothing that has happened, or has EVER happened, surprised Him.  He has no plan B, has no pinch hitter.  He is in complete control over what He either causes, or allows.

And...God is ONLY, and ALWAYS.....good.   No need to wonder about when.

Who Do You Listen To?

As this pandemic takes over the globe, there are many different ideas and theories about what is happening.  We all have our own speculations, scenarios from it being the wrath of God, one world order, government control, economic war, germ warfare, retaliation from another country....only imagination limits the list.

I don''t have regular television programming.  For several years I have gotten my news from a few minutes of Facebook news pages.  I can know in fifteen minutes all I care to know.  They just repeat it over and over, everyone having their own commentary on the facts.


When I watch the various reports and videos now, the confusion gets even more intense.  Who do you listen to?  Is what I am seeing truth?  Is the doctor on that video really a doctor?  I mean, let's face it...we all have our own broadcasting station these days, and you can be anybody you want to be on Facebook!

I have acquaintances on every polar extreme of thought.  I have acquaintances who think life should just go on, that this is all nonsense.  I have an acquaintance who thinks there are rich people behind it trying to take over the world.

Ugh.

I continue to try to be wise.  Scripture tells us to cooperate with our leaders and those in authority. Peter was speaking of the tyrant Nero when he said to "be good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God's emissaries for keeping order. ( Peter 2:13-14 The Message)


Shutting down my business has hurt my pocketbook, not as much as some, but the income has all but stopped.  At the same time, I have seen such blessing, so many evidences of God's Holy Spirit stirring and moving.

THAT is Who we need to listen to.

The Wisdom Writer said, "Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better. Crying is better than laughing. It blotches the face but it scours the heart. Sages invest themselves in hurt and grieving....Fools waste their lives in fun and games.  You'll get more from the rebuke of a sage than from the song and dance of fools."
 (Ecclesiastes 7:3-5 from The Message)


All this difficulty reminds us that life is short, it should be teaching us to live wisely, and our character should be in a process of refinement.

I purpose for this time to be an opportunity to learn, an opportunity for God to correct.  At the very core of following Christ is suffering.

God will not waste our pain.  He will bring something beautiful from the ashes.

Surely we can bear this small cross....

Calender Events

In our family, we often mark past years by "The Ice Storm".  Our first grand-daughter was born that year.  We learned how to function without what we didn't have.  We stayed close together in the warmest room of the house, mattresses and pallets all over the floor.

I have no doubt this Covid-19 pandemic will be such a calender marking event.


It is interesting that it hits our life at Easter time.  Passover.

All those many years ago, there was a calendar event in Egypt.  For over 200 years they had known the life of slave labor for the Egyptian Pharaoh.  There had been nine different plagues.

Hapi was the Egyptian God of the Nile This Egyptian God was a water bearer.  The Nile river turned to blood.  All water in the Egypt was blood. So much for the power of Hapi.

Heket was the Egyptian Goddess of Fertility.  Heket the Egyptian Goddess, had the head of a frog. Their revered goddess did not keep the frogs from invading every living space, in their food, their clothing, their houses.  Wonder how they liked that frog-headed idol goddess then?

Geb was the Egyptian God of the Earth who supposedly reigned over the dust of the earth. But the dust of the Egyptian land became lice that infested animals and the Egyptian people.  God made man out of dust, it is HIS, and He can turn it into lice if He so chooses.  Geb has no say in it.

Khepri was the Egyptian god had the head of a fly. When Pharaoh still refused God, God used the flies that He had created, to bring discomfort and destruction.

 Hathor was the Egyptian Goddess of Love and Protection. usually  depicted with the head of a cow.
This time Pharaoh was given an advance warning and an opportunity to bow in obedience and repentance to the God of heaven who had already displayed His superiority to these so-called gods of the Egyptians.  He was warned that the livestock would die.  And it did, causing a severe economic disaster.  Still Pharaoh thought he was superior.

The sixth plague fell on the Egyptian people themselves, not just the water, land, and livestock.  It caused boils and sores.  Isis was the Egyptian Goddess of Medicine. The god of medicine is no match for our Creator God.  Nothing helped.  Nothing cured.

Nut was the  Egyptian Goddess of the Sky. Hail rained down and turned to fire as it hit the ground.  I wonder how many of the ordinary Egyptian people took refuge and escaped into their houses?  Ripening flax and barley crops were destroyed, the crops that were used for clothing and making spirits.

Whatever crop that was not destroyed by the hail was destroyed when the locusts were sent. Seth was the Egyptian God of Storms.  There was not a storm that destroyed like this storm of living chewing insects.  Seth had no ability to stop it.

Ra was the Sun God.  He was powerless to prevent the next plague...three Days of complete darkness.  Ra was the most worshiped god in all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh, the ultimate god of Egypt.

Pharoah agreed to let them go, but they had to leave all their animals behind.  Egypt had suffered a total loss of their livestock.  Moses said no and the Lord pronounced the last plague.

Death.  Every first-born.  (I am the oldest child in my family.)

God made every effort, gave multiple chances, displayed His power over all creation, even Egypt's so-called gods.  And He made a provision to escape the death decree.

Passover.  The night the angel of death passed over the blood stained  door.

Passover.  The night pharaoh lost his son.

Passover.  The Lamb of God would be sacrificed years later so that death passes over me.

Hallelujah.

Can't See It

I have heard it referred to as our invisible enemy.  Covid-19 is small.  Very, very small.  But it is deadly.  

This is Sunday, so I picked up the Sunday School book and began to read the lesson we would have discussed today, taken from the book of Romans.  The writer of this literature says "The law shines a light on things that break God's heart.  We know what to avoid because the law reveals it to us."

Since this virus has taken hold of the world, often I have wished for a way to SEE it.  I wish I could shine a light of some kind that would make it glow, make it easy to avoid or destroy.  But it is invisible.

God gave us a light to show up the sin in our life.  

Then, He gave us Someone Who would be that light. 

I don't have a magic light to show me if there is a virus in my house, or anywhere around me.  I do have the light of God's law that shows me every flaw, every where. 

That light of God's perfect law shows me just how sick I am, sick with wrong thoughts, wrong actions, insufficient goodness...sin.  

Praise Jesus, He makes up for what I lack.  

In The Kitchen With Connie

Seems I have spent more time in the kitchen in the last two weeks than I have in a very long time.  I love to cook, but working full time, I "fix" us something to eat rather than really cooking.  

As I was making cookies today, Karen Peck was singing:

Is there a Christian in the house, 
Come on and take a stand,
I don't need a doctor when my hope is runnin' out, 
Somebody tell me is there a christian in the house...

I need a spirit filled, iron willed heaven blessed pass the test, Saint....
(Is There A Christian In The House, Karen Peck and New River)







When life is easy and humans believe the devil's lie that they have it all under control, sometimes believers get kinda brushed off, especially those of us who are a bit vocal! (me..chuckle..a little salt goes a long way, and sometimes I probably get heavy handed with my shaking it out! ) 

When life gets hard, as followers of Christ, we should be approachable, even when brushed aside at other times. We should seize every opportunity to share the hope and security we have in Christ Jesus. I don't have a cure or prevention for Covid-19, but I have an assurance that even if that comes to me, my life is eternal.  After this body of flesh stops working, I will live.

Now don't misunderstand... I am doing every single thing I can do, to prevent catching this nasty virus.  I am trying to be wise in my outings, cautious in my surrounding, and cleaner than clean!  

I don't want it!  I am prepared, but I am not wanting to meet my Maker any time soon.  


I thought of some words from high school reading,  It isn't scripture, but it made me think about our today, even though it was written about the day of Charles Dickens in 1859.



"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

Charles Dickens from A Tale of Two Cities

These are hard times for us.  Yet those of us who are not physically sick with this pestilence are safe, warm, dry, or cool, well fed, have clean water, more clothes than we would wear out in a hundred lifetimes, and feed better food to our dogs than some people have to feed their families.  

Medicine has conquered many a pestilence in the past. We are foolish to think that doctors can cure every disease.  Certainly they can not provide life after death.

"Bless Jehovah, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name. 
 Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; 
who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; 
who redeems your life from ruin" (Psalm 103:1-4 MKJV)




My heart hurts for those who are distanced from loved ones who are sick and suffering.  A friend's mother is on a vent, and rather than be by her hospital bedside, prayerfully holding her hand, she is miles away, sheltered in place in her own home. 

Our own son is quarantined in Louisiana, far from his children, far from his mother and daddy.  It would be easy to slip into what Dickens calls 'winter of despair'. 

I am not in despair.  

I am not happy about some things, but there is no despair.   

 "We are pushed hard from all sides. But we are not beaten down. We are bewildered. But that doesn’t make us lose hope.  Others make us suffer. But God does not desert us. We are knocked down. But we are not knocked out."

 (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIrV)

Hallelujah 

Leaven

My routines have been altered, eliminated really.  For many years, every five minutes of my work day was scheduled and my time allotted to a certain task. On weekends when I was not at work, I resisted a schedule, having no schedule was a routine that allowed me to rest from a hectic week.

I am on week two of no work, no normal routine. I am not just waiting for snow and ice to melt off the roads so I can go back to work.  (Snow and ice did not stop me from going to work anyway...)

Since this altered reality has set in, I decided to learn the art of bread making with sour dough. It has been another experience in waiting.  I’ve baked sour dough bread from starter before, but always with a cheating element. Yeast.  When this prolonged stay at home began, it disturbed me that I could not easily buy just anything I wanted.  There was no un-bleached flour, and no yeast.

I began to grow my own starter as soon as an internet search turned up the flour I needed.

The waiting began.

Flour and water that sat overnight began to produce bubbles. For several days, I fed this jar of goo.

Today, I decided it was ready for making bread. For the past 18 hours, I have been in this process. One tablespoon of this goo I have been pampering for over a week became the leaven for two loaves of bread in the oven at this moment. (I have decided that I started on the wrong end of the day, I should have started this at night....they are baking at 1:00 in the morning!)


Scripture speaks a lot about leaven as an example of what happens when sin is introduced into our lives.  One small tablespoon of my homemade leaven became the leaven that would  alter a whole bowl full of dough.

When I looked into scripture about it, I was a bit taken aback by what I found on my very first search.

"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough."  (The words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew  13:33 NIV) 

Yes, sin is like yeast, it is dangerous to allow it into our lives because it can permeate every facet.  

But Jesus said that His kingdom is like yeast. 

So much of what I thought about all these days of dealing with this leavening was the negative teaching in scripture about yeast.  

“Don’t let sin get a hold, don’t accept an area of shortcoming, don’t, don’t, dont....”

It’s exhausting...and impossible in our own power.

Jesus says that His kingdom has that same ability, the power to come in small and change the entirety.  

The enemy would have us think only of the negatives and the “don’t” list.  And certainly we should be aware and on guard for the leaven of sin!  But focusing only on our eliminating sin ends up as behavior modification and will always be insufficient and usually short lived.  

The influence of Jesus can take over our hearts and lives, and in so doing, expel and change all that we might so futilely attempt on our own. 

“Watch the first speck of sin; cherish each grain of holy impulse.” F.B. Meyer 

My bread has baked. It is 2:45 in the morning.  

Thank You Lord for using this whole bread making thing to teach, admonish, and encourage.  I purpose to feed only the leaven of Your Truth, relying on You to guide me as I make it my purpose to act on that Truth in all things.