Author: astherainandsnow

Israel finally arrived at the Jordan River, the boundary line between their forty years of desert wandering and the Promised Land. Moses was dead, Joshua now at their lead.  But the water was high, its current strong. God gave the plan: A representative from each tribe was to gather, and the priests carrying the ark were to go first and rest the soles of their feet in the Jordan. Then the waters of the Jordan would stand in a heap to let them all cross–when they stepped in in faith!

Beginning, stepping in, was the key. Indeed, “and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.” (Joshua 3:15-17)

I was recently reminded of fearful endeavors in my own life when a friend recounted her nervousness before a new undertaking–but once she began, the peace and joy came. When God calls, He enables–every time!

When I am uneasy at a new situation, or led to begin something seemingly impossible or at least out of my comfort zone, I can trust the One whose Presence goes before me. I experience His sufficient enabling as I obey, stepping in the brink. He holds back the waters of fear, He makes a way, He provides, and He shows Himself marvelous. He gives the what, and we must trust Him with the how.

‘Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
and to take him at his word;
just to rest upon his promise,
and to know, “Thus saith the Lord.”
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him!
How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er!
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust him more.                                                                                                    Louisa M. R. Stead (1882)

Father, lead on. Keep me following the ark of Your Presence, stepping one foot in front of the other as You command, trusting You to part the waters and make Your way clear.

“The tree is known by its fruit. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” Matthew 12:33-36

I have caught myself saying things I don’t want to say, in tone foreign to my desire–expressing impatience, frustration, even unkind words to counter another’s ideas or suggestions. It is true that my choice of words and my tone of voice are reflective of what is in my heart: I cannot harbor stubbornness, selfish intent, pride at my opinions and knowledge of what’s best, or superiority, and think that my ‘output’ will be clean, gracious, and life-giving.

Jesus used the word “careless,” indicating the necessity of taking care of what I am allowing to take root, to grow (seen or unseen), to fester in my heart. Sometimes I let slip in a seemingly innocent- or justifiable- niggle of thought, and it takes off, popping up and out before I even recognize it is there. Did I even give it oxygen? I must be vigilant, and diligent, to tend my heart if I expect my words to bring “encouragement, upbuilding, and consolation.” How can I expect to speak sound words, good news of happiness, peace and salvation, if I am not filled with words of life and light and truth? (1 Corinthians 14:3; 2 Timothy 1:13; Isaiah 52:7)

“No human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.” James 3:8-12

O God, purify me through and through! Help me to guard my heart; it is the wellspring of my life. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. (Proverbs 4:32; Psalm 19:14)

“Who is this who comes, who is splendid in apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.” Isaiah 63:1

I usually face east early, eager to see the sun’s rising on the new day. This morning I went into my study, whose northwest window soon distracted me with a rose pink blotch of magnificent light. I went to investigate, and while the eastern sky was colorless, plain, the show in it’s opposite sky was spectacular–glorious light playing up billowy clouds over the Gulf, under a suspended moon.

Sometimes our day to day is ordinary; growth is gradual, and little seems to change. But when we look back, and consider where we were, we see the glory of maturing God has wrought, the splendor of His saving, sanctifying work in our lives or that of others. In our living, He calls us forward, but it is helpful to look over our shoulders and consider where we came from, to remember the past, attitudes and affections that have been transformed. It is often in doing so that we best trace His faithfulness, His glorious craft in our lives.

“I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness that he has granted according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he said, ‘Surely they are my people.’ And he became their Savior.” “Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.” Isaiah 63:7-8; Psalm 126:2-3

Thank you, Father, for the beauty revealed in the backside of our lives, for perspective You give and for Your steady, constant work in us and those we love. Remind us where we were, that we might more deeply rejoice in Whose we are and what You have done.

“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)