The glory of tomorrow is rooted in the harship of today

Fighting chronic faitigue remains hard. At the moment there is not much progress.
I can do some work again, yet I would love to do more. Even the little bit I do, seems to be too much at times. Did I go back too early? I hope not.
I enjoy my preaching. I enjoy making sermons. The visits I make I also enjoy. So I'm thankful for what I can do and just have to be patient.

My daily meditations often remind me of this.
Let me just share from "Streams in the desert" what I read today, April 26:
"We tend to feel we are doing the greatest good in the world, when we are strong and fit for active duty and when our hearts and hands are busy with kinds of active service. Therefore when we are set aside to suffer, when we are sick, when we are consumed with pain, and when all our activities have been stopped, we feel we are no longer of any use and accomplishing nothing.
Yet if we will be patient and submissive, it is almost certain we will be  a greater blessing to the world around us during our time of suffering and pain than we were when we thought we were doing our greatest work."

For the candle to shine, first it has to be lit to burn!

It's lesson at times hard to learn and yet it is so true.

God knows what is best for all of us.

ANZAC DAY - a Christian perspective

PSALM 107 : 43,

Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD.”

Lest we forget....

What do these words actually mean for us. Let us turn to Scripture and see the connection between Psalm 106 and Psalm 107.

Psalm 106, is a psalm full of the wondrous deeds of the LORD. It mentions how the LORD led His people out of Egypt with an outstretched arm and a mighty hand. Via wondrous signs, the LORD showed His people His almighty power. However, already at the Red Sea, they like to go back to Egypt. After the LORD had led them through the deep and had saved them from the hand of their enemy, they sing their praises to God. Yet this is only for a moment. A short time later once again they have forgotten His works. That’s how it went with Israel in the desert, but also later on in the Promised Land. You could call this selctive memory.

This danger of selective memory threatens God’s people continuously.  Let me just give you a couple of examples. Say you suffered a heart attack. You were taken to hospital. Laying at the monitor in the intensive care unit you prayed fervently, “Lord, please let this not be the end. Please, grant that I may return home again.” In that same prayer, you also promised Lord, “If I may recover I will change my life. From now on it will be a life in thankfulness towards Thee.” If the Lord indeed would grant recovery, you could not imagine that you would ever forget this critical moment in your life. Well, the Lord gave recovery. You were in the clouds. You appreciated good health more than ever before. Yet after some time, it slowly faded away. You got into your old rut again. What did actually become of that life of thankfulness you promised? Once again, you are so preoccupied with other things that you forget to look back and thank God for what He gave you.

Another example: Say you had to sit for an exam you dreaded. Your future career depended on it. Imagine you were to fail. You prayed, “Lord, please help me through; I will always remain thankful for it.” The Lord helped you through. Yet where is that constant thankfulness towards Him? You are busy making new plans and God hardly features in these plans. Thankfulnes is often short-lived.

In this context I think also of ANZAC Day, a day on which we as God’s people do not boast in men and what they have done, but we reflect on God’s hand in history. For it is God who throughout World War I and II, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War gave freedom to thousands of people.

I realize we can’t identify the history of Israel under the Old Testament with what God has done in the previous century. Nevertheless, we too are called to remember thankfully God’s wondrous deeds worked in the history of mankind also in the 20^th century. As God’s children we too are called to sing a song of praise on the mighty works of the LORD.

 “Whoever is wise, will observe these things;

 and they will understand the lovingkindness  of the LORD.”

 The fool leaves God out of the picture. He may do well in life, being a successful student or businessman. Yet he is truly a fool. He fails to see and acknowledge the dominating force in history and life: the LORD, our almighty and ever-present God!

Giving heed to the deeds of the LORD should cause us to speak differently about what is going on this world, in our own country and in society. This also means on ANZAC Day we give thought not first of all to national freedom. But the main point is that through this freedom conquered in World War I and II as well as in the Korean and Vietnam War, Christ’s church gathering work could continue. God gave freedom to preach the Word. He gave freedom to thousands of people to serve Him. That’s how we ought to commemorate ANZAC Day in thankfulness towards the LORD that we too may still serve Him in freedom.

When seeing ANZAC Day in this perspective, it can become clear also, that we ought to show this thankfulness not only once a year.  ANZAC Day is not meant to commemorate the events of the past just for one day, where after we can simply return to our normal life as if nothing has happened. Instead, we are to use the freedom we have received to the glory of God in His service, lest one day this freedom will witness against us.

 Lest we forget....

The limitedness of God's abundant love

I was reminded of this in one of my daily meditations this week (Springs in the Valley, April 18th)

God does never anything smalll. When He makes an ocean, He makes it so deep that no man can fathom it. When He makes a mountain, He makes it so large that no one can measure or weigh it. When He makes flowers, He scatters multiplied millions of them where there is no one to admire them but Himself. When He makes grace, He makes it without sides or bottom and leaves the top off. Instead of giving salvation with a medicine dropper, He pours it forth like a river.
When God sets out to do a thing for us, He does it with a prodigality of love-promted abundance that fairly staggers one who reckons things by coldly calculating standards of earth.
Whatever blessing is in our cup it is sure to run over. With the LORD the calf is always a fatted calf; the robe is always the best robe; the joy is always unspeakable; the peace passeth understanding; the grace is so abundant that the recipient has all-sufficiency for all things, and abounds to every good work.

How great it is to have this God as our Father. May the LORD through His Spirit help all of us daily to live from these abundant riches to bring glory to Him!

The next sermon in the series of sermons on the ABC of faith

I referred to this series also in an earlier blogpost (31 January) It is a series of sermons, whereby I have allocated an active verb to each letter of the alphabet, a do-word, to show that what we confess we must also live. The series started with the letter 'A', to which I allocated the word 'Amen', starting with God's promises, which are all Yes and Amen in Jesus Christ ( 2 Cor. 1 : 20). However, having this security in Christ we must now also live our faith, walk with the LORD each day.

I started this series in February 2010. Due to all kind of circumstances it has taken a while to finish it. I am up to the letter 'W', to which I have allocated the active verb 'to wait', to wait for the LORD. In January, I wrote that the text would be Isaiah 30 : 18. Yet I changed this and have now chosen Psalm 27 : 14.

Here is a bit of a preview of what, the LORD willing, I hope to deal with coming Sunday.

The English dictionary gives the following definition of the verb ‘to wait’: it is ‘to stay in one place or remain inactive in expectation of something’. To remain inactive, just wait – how hard this can be under certain circumstances, or even in general, when the pressure is on. To wait patiently – this is not something that runs in our blood. Especially in today’s climate, everything has to happen quickly. We want quick solutions to our problems. Life is hectic, therefore we can’t wait and in cases we have to it often causes a lot of stress.

It’s a picture of the life we live in today’s hectic society: a rushed life with little or no time for quiet moments. I am afraid that at times this starts to affect also our relationship with God, to the extent that we find it hard ‘to wait for the LORD’, to wait patiently, firmly believing that the LORD will provide in His time, will answer also our prayers, yet again in His time.

In His time – oftentimes this is difficult for us to accept. The result can be that we start to despair or even worse rebel and give up on the LORD. We have prayed so fervently and yet there seems to be no change. Why does God not act, e.g. in cases where children have walked away from the LORD? We pray and pray, but there remains a hardening of the heart. Why, O LORD? As regards other examples, I think of childless couples, who dearly love to have children or others who have only one child and would love to have more children, or single persons who like to get married, but don’t see their heart’s desire fulfilled. Do all these prayers go unheard? We struggle, at times finding it hard to cope.

It because of these struggles and other struggles as well, which many people in the congregation face, that I have chosen the verb ‘to wait’, to wait for the LORD.  By waiting for Him, the LORD will teach us: give it to Me, wait for Me, stop worrying, instead entrust the cause of your life with all the worries there are – entrust it to Me. Only then, you will receive strength to be able cope and only then, you will receive also inward peace. Wait for Me!