Author: astherainandsnow

“And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.” Matthew 8:14-15

A friend is doing the brave, hard work of rebuilding a broken marriage. Having laid down her life for the one to whom she’d vowed, she is being healed and their union restored. One of the things I marvel at most is her desire to help others do the same–be healed by Jesus to serve Him. Like Peter’s mother-in-law, she acknowledges her life is not hers alone, and as a steward of rebirth, she cannot help but give back to Jehovah Rapha, her Healer.

Whatever the illness has been, the besetting sin habit, misplaced affections, relationships tainted by selfish motivation or bitter grudges or favoritism or manipulation, God can heal. And when He heals, He gives new purpose. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

“When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!”                                                                                               Isaac Watts, 1707

Come, Great Physician, touch and heal me from all that prevents me from fully living. Lift the fever of fear, sloth, pride, self-righteousness, worry, and free me to serve wholeheartedly, as unto You. May my every moment be spent for You, in any way You intend.

Hiking in the mountains is energizing. It takes attention to follow the path, to keep steady on damp tangled roots and rocks covered in moss, to find dry and stable footing at every climb. The paths through filtered light are breathtaking, the stream crossings and vertical climbs invigorating, and every vista lifts the spirit to contemplate God’s grandeur.

This “song of ascents” causes several. As I lift my eyes from the scrabble and slippery bumps of my stirrings, quandaries, concerns, I see the Lord Who made all. He is creative and strong. When I consider His help, how He orders my steps, and guards, and revives, my heart ascends in gratitude and dependence. When I know that I know that He keeps me, keeps my life from evil, and my going out and my coming in, my hands raise up in worship and surrender to Him. As I ascend in these ways, the view of Him is broadened, magnified, expanding my soul in love and praise.

Lord on High, vigilant Guard and Guide, lift me ever higher, even as I live and love and serve here in the lowlands.

“By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.” Hebrews 11:31

I admire Rahab’s faith. Joshua 2 tells she was a prostitute, her house in the wall of Jericho, who received two Israelite spies who came to view the land. She hid the men from pursuing authorities under stalks of flax on her roof, saying, “I know the LORD has given you the land.” She had heard accounts of God’s mighty deliverances and victories for Israel, and they awakened bold faith in Israel’s covenant God. “The LORD you God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.” She bravely asked that they guarantee when they returned to take the land that they spare her father’s whole family.

They agreed: she keep quiet about their reconnaissance mission, and they would deal kindly and faithfully with her and all she gathered in her house. When they returned, she must tie a scarlet cord in the window through which she let them escape. They parted, according to her plan that they hide in the hills until their pursuers returned to the city, “and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.” She not only kept her end of the oath, but in expectant faith prepared for their attack immediately.

And her faith influenced the spies’ confidence! They returned to Joshua, reporting, “Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.”

How expectant am I that God is Who He says He is, and will do what He says He will do? What scarlet cords of confident faith do I tie to my prayers, my plans, my involvements, my acts of service? How does my trust in “the God of the heavens and the earth” influence that of those I encounter? Rehab’s faith was active and evidenced by her works when “she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.” (James 2:17-18,22,25)

O Lord, “I believe, help my unbelief!” The scarlet of Your blood has won my deliverance. May I tie a cord as a reminder of Your faithfulness on each decision of my days: You saved me, I live by Your mercy, I live for You. (Mark 9:24)

Deuteronomy 33 and 34 describe Moses’ final moments. “Eyes undimmed and vigor unabated,” he pronounces benediction on the tribes of Israel that leave them “sated with favor, and full of the blessing of the LORD. He loved his people.”

“The beloved of the LORD dwell in safety. The High God surrounds him all day long and dwells between his shoulders.” “As your days, so shall your strength be.” “There is none like God, who rides through the heavens to your help, through the skies in his majesty. The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He thrust out the enemy before you and said, ‘Destroy.’ So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew. Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord, the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!”

Could Moses have finished any better? Could he have left a greater legacy than that of pronouncing God’s blessing on His people? “The one whom the LORD knew face to face,“ outstanding among prophets, mighty in power, arrived at the end of the days God had ordained for him, and spent them giving life, hope, and promise to others.

Do I take for granted daily strength and safety, God’s nearness, the guiding of thought and feet? Am I still enough to be aware of God’s intimate involvement with me? All favor is from the hand and heart of God, Who loves His people. When I part from loved ones, do I pronounce these blessings on them?

Lord, in the days You have allotted me, use my life as a benediction, the words of my mouth to bestow Your gracious blessings on others. May those whose lives I touch be helped, comforted, encouraged to know and honor You.

“The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness, just and upright is he. Their rock is not as our Rock.” Deuteronomy 32:4,31

Moses understood rocks. The LORD had just told him the day was approaching when he would die on Mount Nebo, after looking over at the land of Canaan to which he had led God’s people for 40 years. Much earlier, when the Israelites had whined of thirst at Horeb, God had instructed Moses to strike the rock, which then gushed water to slake it. That rock was life-giving. “They drank from the the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.” 

But later the LORD instructed him to speak to the rock for water, and in his frustration with Israel’s constant complaining, Moses struck it instead. By ‘not regarding God as holy,’ Moses was refused entrance into the Promised Land. In that case, it was a rock of judgment. (Deuteronomy 32:49; Exodus 17:6; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Numbers 20:2-13)

In Jesus, living water meets justice. He who offered the water of life to the woman at the well was the Rock Who was struck for us to satisfy us forever; “by his wounds we are healed.” (John 4; Matthew 26:67; 27:30; Isaiah 53:5)

Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee. There is no Rock like you.  Ever lead me to the Rock Who is higher than I. (1 Samuel 2:2; Psalm 61:2)

“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18

Isaiah 58 has long been a favorite, teaching of a true fast that delights the LORD. The way of Christ is subversive in our culture; losing life to save it is a dichotomy. Loosening the bonds of wickedness, feeding the oppressed, caring for the needy are all acts that get me out of the way. Spending self for others in Jesus’s name is costly, but rich in treasure. Self-effort gets us tripped up on counting, accomplishing, and we end up asking, “Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it?”

But true self-giving is self-forgetting, turning back from our own pleasure, own agendas, idle talk, to delight in the LORD and pour out ourselves. Only then shall “your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. You shall ride on the heights of the earth. Your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.”

Lord, I know giving, praying, fasting are to be hidden, unnoticed by others, seen only by You in secret. May my delight in You be genuine. May I set my mind and heart on things above, and lose my life, expending myself, as Jesus did, for Your sake. Matthew 6:3,6,17-18,20-21; Colossians 3:1-2; Matthew 10:39

Out on the porch, early light filtering through mossy trees dripping last night’s rain, I relish the quiet, punctuated only by cheery birds. In the cool and natural beauty of the North Carolina mountains. My dear 40-year friends sit nearby, each of us communing with our Savior, and He with us. Wondrous thought!

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” “You crown the year with your bounty.” John 10:10; Psalm 65:11

Thank you for these women, for Your personal attention in each of our lives and the providence of Your entwining them together. Thank You for our straining together in growth, weeping together in grief, uniting together in prayer through many seasons. Thank you for the gift of picking up where we left off, of a safe place to admit weakness and fears and shame, of ‘I’ve-known-you-a-long-time’ insights, of unconditional love. That you for grace extended, generosity lavished, compassion poured out; for mutual support and kind agreeing to disagree, for stimulating conversation and shared laughter.  “Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts. You crown us with steadfast love and mercy and satisfy us with good.” (Psalm 65:4; 103:4-5) 

“Bless the LORD, O my soul!” Loving God, may my friendship with You fill me to overflow in friendship with these sisters, my words be used for upbuilding, encouragement and consolation. Keep me esteeming well these invaluable treasures. (Psalm 103:1; 1 Corinthians 14:3)

Some days I am struck by the unbidden rapture in the evocations of the familiar: snowy and papery (June in North Carolina) crepe myrtle canopies over sunny yellow day lilies in the highway median, pink and yellow (swathed on the college president’s lawn) tulips, regal creamy lemony-almost-like-dessert (outside my childhood bedroom window) magnolia blossoms, the scent of (Grandma’s) boxwood and (Mom’s May birthday) lily of the valley, the catchy melody of a (high school weekend) song on the radio or (son’s teenage right-before-leaving-home-favorite) as background in a store, the (first ever back yard) zhwirr of cicadas and chirp of crickets on a summer night.

There is something mysterious and magnificent in the emotions evoked by ordinary things. Only a creative Designer could craft our senses and our brains in such a way that familiar sights, sounds, and scents would (and could!) strum our heart strings, stir our memories, and transport us to faraway places and times. What richness He adds to life! “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. He has made everything beautiful in its time.” “In him we live and move and have our being.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1,11; Acts 17:28)

Creator God, may all the ‘ordinaries’ that remind me of loves and joys and pleasures through the years of my life turn me to their Source, the Giver of every good gift and Fount of every blessing. Tune my heart, moment by moment, to sing Your praise.

“You have given me the shield of your salvation. You gave a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip.” “You have set my feet in a broad place.” 1 Samuel 22:36,37; Psalm 18:36; 31:8

Our home with God is a broad place of freedom and fruitfulness and countless possibilities, of access to God’s infinite graces and eternal treasure. When God saves us, He moves us from the camp of the world to the camp of His children, a wide place whose boundaries are love, and secure. The enemy may linger outside the fence and taunt, reminding us of the former life, the fleeting pleasures of a glitzy (but cruel) world, past offenses committed or trespasses against us, but he cannot touch us, and we can never go back. He is relentless in trying to turn us away from all God has for us, back to what was, or what-is-now-and-I-am-missing-it; he will distract and do his best to prevent us from taking in, enjoying, truly living in the wide good place.

“I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts.” This requires daily resolve, daily remembering whose we are, daily walking in step with the Spirit. “I have taught you the way of wisdom; I have led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble.” “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.” (Psalm 119:45; Proverbs 4:11-12; Galatians 5:16-17)

Lord, You have called me out of darkness into wonderful light, out of restraint and slavery to a wide place of freedom and joy. May I walk, even run, in this broad place that is home with You.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55: 10-11

The Word of God is comprised of the same 26 letters of the English alphabet as all other writings, and uses common words, yet is wholly unlike any other book. It is alive, active, powerful, purposeful, personal. “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” “No prophesy of Scripture was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Timothy 3:16)

Isaiah begins chapter 55 with a call to come, partake with delight. God’s word is free, satisfying, life-changing. It reveals God’s thoughts and ways which are higher than ours, thus making a way for us to know Him intimately. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.” (Isaiah 55:1-3,6-9)

Taking deliberate time to feed on the Word is sure to satisfy. God promises to sow it deeply, cause it to sprout, bear fruit through it in our lives and through us to others, effecting all He intends for His kingdom purposes. I choose what I ingest every day. Why would I eat junk food when His rich fare is available?

Lord, may I soak in Your Word that revives the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes; that is to be desired more than fine gold and is sweeter than honey. You freely offer it, in all seasons– your rain and snow. And so shall Your Word have its way in me. (Psalm 19:7,8,10)