In ten days, I will be seventy-seven. Seven more than the three score and ten mentioned in the Bible. I consider anything beyond that, as we New Orleanians say, is lagniappe. I don’t know how many years of life on this earth I will continue to live. God knows. And I am content with that. We often marvel at people who have been given strength to live into their nineties or even beyond one hundred. My only living aunt is ninety-three and still living in her own home by herself with a mind as sharp as it’s ever been. She has a memory that can go far beyond mine. She is informed, funny, loves to converse, and is so happy to be in her own home. When I speak of her, I say, “She’s remarkable!” And she is. Length of years, strength, unfailing sight, good hearing, and general good health are given by God and not a matter of pride. For in all things–“what do we have that we have not been given?”

I have been quite meditative today. I have been “cleaning out.” I’ve cleaned out things so many times in my life and still they abound. I began this cleaning a few days ago with the intent that I would unburden my mind—so I could write—by uncluttering and reorganizing my surroundings. I don’t know about you, but sometimes “to-dos” just hang over my head like a weight until I get them done. So, I began with my desk. Then realized to do my desk, I would have to clean out my downstairs bookcase. To do that I would have to make room in the upstairs bookcase. And on and on…

As I cleaned and organized, I looked around, not so much at our furniture or things we use, but things that I’ve kept for decades and haven’t looked at in years, some, I’ve never used at all; yet somehow, they’ve survived every clean-out and remain with me. So, I have been reflecting on the fact that if we live long enough, most of us at the end of our lives will be reduced to the necessary things that can fit in one room. I remember cleaning out my mother’s house when we moved her to live with us. I remember cleaning out Ken’s dad’s house when we moved him to live with us. Our home was their home. But still, their things were reduced to those necessary things that would fit in one room of our home. Some of us will be blessed to live our last years like Mother and Dad, in one room in one of our children’s’ homes. Or we may choose to live in one room in an assisted living facility or need to be in one room in a nursing home. And we will likely die in one of those rooms or in one room in a hospital. We will be weaned little by little from this life we now have. That is a strong impetus to “clean out” and “unload” as we “reach forward to those things which are ahead.”

“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

WRITTEN IN MY SMALL BIBLE ON NOVEMBER 11, 2000 WHILE IN EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL CHURCH ON AN OCCASION OF PERSONAL PRAYER AND MEDITATION

“I haven’t been here for regular times of private worship in over a year—since we moved from Williamsburg Settlement to FM 1458. I’ve only been able to come sporadically. I am glad to be here this morning. I needed it. It is quiet here and worshipful even though there is no corporate worship going on. I like to pray here. I think in part, because I can return momentarily to the simple, but beautiful, intimacy of child-like faith. When I come in here and genuflect and kneel before the altar and the cross, I remember how even as a child and teenager I believed Jesus died for my sins and loved me and I remember how much I loved Him in return. I remember how long we’ve been together and communicating—He and I. And when I bow the knee before Him, I am humbled and overwhelmed and become that little child, but with the depth of love and devotion and reverence that only one of a mature faith who has sought, sacrificed for, and served her Lord wholeheartedly and loved Him above all else could ever know.
I am forever grateful!
for the faith of a little girl
for the faith of a woman
for a church tradition of severity and reverence
for a church tradition of life-giving evangelism
for the personal, intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ that comes only through His Spirit, His Word, and His Church.”

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, He went to the temple and proclaimed that he had come to set the captives free. The New Testament says that we are set free from the bondage of sin and death by faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the free unearned grace of God.

Paul tells us in Romans 8 that the whole earth groans awaiting the complete redemption of the children of God at which time “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”

He says in Galatians 2 that “false prophets” (teachers) creep in among us to spy out our freedom and bring us into bondage.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free;” Paul says, “stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”  Galatians 5

What might be a yoke of slavery?

To name a few: The yoke of sin. The yoke of legalism. The yoke of obtaining righteousness or salvation apart from Christ (self-righteousness). The yoke of false religion or false worship. The yoke of “hollow and deceitful philosophies.” The yoke of “the wisdom of this world.” The yoke of the cares and riches of this world. The yoke of fear. (And you can add your own.)

I see all these yokes of bondage or slavery as yokes that are put upon Christians by false teachers within the church and the unredeemed world outside the church. “Other gospels.” They are wearying and burdensome.

Our Christian freedom came at a great price. It was bought “not with silver or gold” but with the “precious blood of Christ.”

This is the freedom we, in Christ’s stead, offer to the world. To be reconciled to God through His son, Jesus Christ. Let no one deceive us. The gospel of Jesus Christ offers to all—true and eternal freedom from bondage.

“Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

HE HAS RISEN!

“I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
John 11:25-26

“For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
My heart faints within me!”
Job 19:25-27 ESV

Jesus Is Buried Matthew 27:57-61 ESV

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.”

The death of Jesus Christ, the Son of God Matthew 27:45-54 ESV

Now from the sixth hour[a] there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

The Scriptures, the Cross and the Power of God
Reflections for Holy Week by N. T. Wright, chapter 2, page 17, paragraph 3

“…at the end of John’s story of the woman caught in adultery. How easy it is for us to gloss over the last line. What we want is the word of forgiveness: ‘No more do I condemn you.’ What we would rather not hear is the necessary word that follows: ‘Go and do not sin again.’ As in the Sermon on the Mount, the great blessings to all and sundry at the beginning are match by the stark warnings at the end: some will say, ‘Lord, Lord,’ but the Lord will not recognize them. As in the parables of Matthew 13, the good and bad are kept together for the moment, but ultimately separated out. Because, of course, without the warnings, grace is subverted into mere tolerance. One of the great moral and spiritual fault lines of our times lies just here. Paul puts his finger on it in Romans 6:1: If God acts in lavish grace to utter sinners, wouldn’t it be best to go on being utter sinners so that we can get more grace? Paul’s answer—Matthew’s answer—Jesus’ answer—is quite simple. Let it not be. Many are called; few are chosen.”

Hymn to God, My God, in My Sickness by John Donne (Excerpt)

We think that Paradise and Calvary,
Christ’s cross, and Adam’s tree, stood in one place;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me;
As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace.

So, in his purple wrapp’d, receive me, Lord;
By these his thorns, give me his other crown;
And as to others’ souls I preach’d thy word,
Be this my text, my sermon to mine own:
“Therefore, that he may raise, the Lord throws down.”

Paul’s address to the Athenians.
Acts 17:24-31 New International Version (NIV)
“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man (Adam) He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’
“Therefore, since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man (Jesus) He has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

Excerpted from John Donne’s Meditation XVII–year, 1624

“Now this bell tolling softly for another, says to me, Thou must die.”
“No man is an island entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the maine;
if a Clod be washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse,
as well as if a Promontorie were,
as well as if a Manor of thy friends or of thine own were.
Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde.
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls.
It tolls for thee.”

“Donne is approaching death. Hearing a church bell signifying a funeral, he observes that every death diminishes the large fabric of humanity. We are all in this world together, and we ought to use the suffering of others to learn how to live better so that we are better prepared for our own death, which is merely a translation to another world.” https://www.gradesaver.com/donne-poems/study-guide/summary-meditation-17

If you are so inclined, look up the whole Meditation XVII by John Donne.. It is worth the read and prescient for our present time, indeed, any time in history.

On Palm Sunday Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last time riding on a donkey.
“A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Just five days later many from that same crowd gathered in front of Pontius Pilate and cried,
“Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
Forty days later on the day of Pentecost after Peter preached a powerful sermon to many of that same crowd, the Scripture records—
“Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
Let us begin Holy Week with praises to Him with hearts intent on repentance.

Last week our pastor showed a brief video of his son and grandchildren singing a song I sang often with children when I was teaching Good News Clubs for Child Evangelism Fellowship. It is simple and true. And like most simple, sometimes obvious truth, it is also profound. Many will know this song.

My God is so great, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do.
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do.
The mountains are His.
The valleys are His.
The stars are His handiwork, too.
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty
There’s nothing my God cannot do.

We worshipped with our church by live streaming this morning.
We sang:

“Even when we don’t feel it, you’re working
Even when we don’t see it, you’re working
You never stop
You never stop working.
Waymaker
Miracle Worker
Promise Keeper
Light in the darkness
Our God that is who you are
That is who you are”

God whose power is without boundaries, Who is unlimited by time Is hovering over the expanse.
Lord Jesus, heal our land.

Last night we were watching Channel 2 news and a story they did just penetrated my heart. They began a series to help promote locally owned restaurants. Their first story spotlighted a restaurant here in Katy on Highway Blvd., Texas Traditions. The reporter talked to the owner and workers who were cheerfully working to prepare amazing Texas favorites for their customers and to keep their business open and running. The reporter implored people to support their local restaurants by buying take-out. I’ve been watching and reading daily. Trying to keep up with what’s going on. But for some reason that story hit me. I thought, “I’m spending day after day in the safety of my home with income, and distance, and in need of nothing.” And this is bad. This is so bad. So many working so hard to hold things together and I am here sheltered in place. I wept and wept.

As I was thinking about writing this blog post, I was caught up into so many thoughts and meditations about the gift of memory. But for this post, at least, I would like to just share one—one that my family members have heard MORE than once. This past Sunday we sang the wonderful old hymn There’s Something About that Name and a joyous memory came to my mind. For one treasured year, our son, his sweet wife and our first grandchild, Merry, who is now eighteen and graduating from high school, lived in a small apartment on our country property down a sloping hill from our house. When we were all together in our house, I would take her into the bedroom away from distractions and rock her and sing to her untill she fell asleep. I sang the same four hymns over and over in succession until she fell asleep. Jesus Loves Me, God Is So Good, Fairest Lord Jesus, and There’s Something About That Name. One day my son called me at the church and asked, “What songs are you singing to Merry at night?” I told him and he said, “Oh, it makes sense now. She was sitting on the foot of our bed this morning and woke us up singing the words, kings and kingdoms may all pass away. We wondered where in the world that came from.” She had just turned two years old. Unknown to us until that time, she had learned all four hymns by heart (first verse only, of course). She sang them all for some of the older ladies of our church one day and instantly became their darling, repeating her performance many times for them. One night when we took her to Sunday night service, where we always did about thirty minutes of hymns by request and she was always the only child present, she raised her little hand and said so sweetly and oh so grown up, “Could we sing There’s Something About That Name, please?” And, of course, we did. And everyone loved her all the more! Such a delight she was then and still is!

The pastor of our new church delivers spiritual food with the joy, expectation, and simplicity of a child, but never fails to stir our thoughts and hearts to higher ground. It is a gift. He began the new year with a series on heaven. A lofty topic indeed that leaves much to the imagination because eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has in store for those who love Him. Last week I had such a compelling vision! Not a thought. A vision (of the imagination, if you will). Of the Lord Jesus in celestial spaces, looming, pre-eminent, and welcoming, with outstretched arms, and flowing from Him myriads of people of every sort from every nation full of joyous peace greeting each one who passes from this earth into the eternal sphere through Him (Jesus). And in the forefront, those I’ve loved or known and perhaps influenced or encouraged on their way, who have gone before me. As our pastor said, my “own personal welcoming committee”. Now that will be glory, be glory for me!

Christmas Eve worship with family has been the highlight of my year every year since I was a child. Some services have been better than others, but it is always an important night for me. I cherish it. This Christmas Eve service was particularly worshipful and moving.

As I reflected on the divine circumstances of the birth of Jesus, I was reminded that God is so good; that God’s power is made perfect in weakness; and that God does great works through seemingly small and insignificant people.

As I reflected on the human circumstances of the birth of Jesus, I was reminded that no pregnancy is unplanned and no baby is unwanted in the eyes of God and in His providential design.

In the March 27, 2000 issue of Newsweek, Kenneth L. Woodward, former religion editor, makes the case in his article The Other Jesus that most religions of the world believe that Jesus lived and perhaps that he was a great teacher or a prophet.  But the cross is a stumbling block for them in believing that Jesus is God.  He writes “Clearly the cross is what separates the Christ of Christianity from every other Jesus.  In Judaism, there is no precedent for a Messiah who dies, much less as a criminal as Jesus did.  In Islam, the story of Jesus’ death is rejected as an affront to Allah himself.  Hindus can accept only a Jesus who passes into peaceful samadhi, a yogi who escapes the degradation of death.  ‘The figure of the crucified Christ,’ says Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, ‘is a painful image to me.  It does not contain joy or peace and this does not do justice to Jesus.’”

To Christians the cross of Christ is essential doctrine, essential to our salvation from sin and eternal union with God, essential to our understanding of the church, the body of Christ in the world, essential to the reconciling of all creation to Himself.

“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 2:18-20

In church today the speaker, teaching about unanswered prayer, talked about Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” which he prayed three times for God to take away until God finally answered, “My grace is sufficient for you.” The preacher said the word translated “thorn” really means a “stake” big enough to impale you. I’ve read many suggestions as to what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was. Most have been physical weaknesses or disabilities of some kind. I saw a stake through Paul’s heart. What would hurt him that much? Perhaps, that stake which continually pained and grieved him, which God did not remove, was spiritual in nature—seeing more and more of his fellow Jews rejecting Jesus, their Messiah. So great was his love and desire for them to be saved that he said in Romans, “for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.” NLT Jesus experienced and many of us, I believe, have experienced great pain, a stake in our hearts, when our desire, good and worthy, does not match up with God’s Sovereignty.

Let me begin this by saying that my husband and I are not “church hoppers” as the saying goes.  We served the Lord faithfully and worshipped faithfully for 29 years in only 2 different churches, admittedly both small town churches—one for 15 years, a Bible church and one for 14 years, a Baptist church.  We made the change in part because we moved from the suburbs to the country.  Then in 2013 we moved from our country home of 14 years back to the suburbs from whence we came.  The relatively small suburban area we had left 14 years ago had exploded with people, subdivisions—and churches.  Believing that we should worship and serve in the community in which we live, we began to visit churches. 

Anyone who’s a 75-year old evangelical Christian as I am, can probably relate to the disheartening experience of visiting church after church with shallow teaching, no hymnals, no pew Bibles, no pews, no choir, no organ, no piano, big screens, and very loud worship bands whose drummers have to be surrounded by sound barriers.  (One church we visited even had a basket of ear plugs at the door to make your worship experience more pleasant.)  And, oh yes, most had an “optional” early morning service for us unyielding old folk who are stayed in our ways.   So, we settled on a United Methodist church in our neighborhood just several blocks from our home with a “traditional” service, a choir, an organ, a piano (sometimes an orchestra), a pew Bible, a hymnal, a bit of liturgy, monthly communion, and lots of gray hairs.  My daughter and her husband and 3 children attended with us but went to a “contemporary” service.  We were there for close to 6 years, but were never really content.  We talked about it.  Sometimes grumbled about it.  But we didn’t do anything about it because, well, what’s the use.  It is what it is, right?  A few weeks ago, we began to visit around—again. 

I had a sort of mental list of what I was looking for in a church—bible believing; evangelistic; good bible teaching from the pulpit (a pastor who saw the importance of teaching biblical truth and the wonderful doctrines of our faith, but not dogmatic, rigid or legalistic); perhaps some liturgy; maybe communion every Sunday or at least once a month; maybe a smaller church with a sweet family feel to it; appreciation for the gray haired but with the vitality that comes with young adults and families with children; a congregation that was representative of the whole people of God—rich, poor, black, white, brown, male, female, young, old—all held together in one harmonious body by their common faith in Jesus and His Word. Oh, and where the gifts of the Spirit are freed to flourish for the building up of the body of Christ.   

That’s not much to ask.  Is it?

Of course, I realized that I wouldn’t find all that in one church.  I speak for myself because my husband is not so idealistic about the church or perhaps, I should say, not so critical.  But, several weeks ago, we did begin to visit again and to pray in earnest that God would guide us to a church where we actually wanted to be.  Last week we visited a church that we had visited twice before in our previous search and nixed.  My husband was pleased.  I thought it was— okay.  We went there again this morning.

This morning, I was surprised by joy!

This morning I felt that God gave me the desires of my heart!  Did he check off everything on my list?  Of course, He didn’t!  But as I sat in my chair in this huge auditorium-like church with loud music, my heart was unexpectedly filled with such a joy in worship.  Inexpressible joy!  I could only weep.  I looked all around me and I saw the Body of Christ–people of every color, ethnicity, age.  They were filled with joy!  Love!  Excitement!  Expectation!  Worship!  I looked over at my daughter and her family after the service visiting with people, laughing, talking—joyful!   After the service my husband and I went up to the front of the church to introduce ourselves to the pastor.  In front of us was a man who had brought his nine or ten-year-old son up.  The boy had questions for the pastor.  In his little hand was his children’s bible.  It was opened to Genesis chapter 1.  He pointed as he read two different verses regarding “the waters” that confused him.  And this pastor, with all his knowledge, with other people waiting in line to see him, and 33 baptisms awaiting him outside, joyfully answered all the boy’s questions as though he had all the time in the world to spend with him and no one and nothing else mattered.  

This morning I was reminded of something I learned long ago—that God is not moved by our check list.  He is moved to give us the desires of our heart that are hidden behind that checklist.

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.”

Psalm 145:3

“As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”

Ecclesiastes 11:5,