GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Do you remember what you dreamed of being when you were a child? Do you recall what you thought your life would be like once you were all grown up?

I was a real daydreamer as kid and on into my teen years. I am an only child so I had lots of time to fantasize about what my life was going to be like when I was finally an adult, living on my own. In fact, I had such detailed daydreams that I would fall asleep in the midst of one and pick up right where I left off the next night!

I can remember seeing this house in a magazine, the House of Angles, it was called. I thought that was the most beautiful house in the world. I cut it out, houseplans and all....that was my dream house. And in my daydreams that is the house I lived in.

Did I ever build that house? Of course not. In fact, very little of what I dreamed actually ever materialized.

Our pastor began a series last week on marriage as part of a Wednesday night study. To make a point of how we all bring different expectations to our marriage, he had his wife to share what her dreams and expectations had been prior to marriage...what she thought marriage would be like. Then he shared his. Of course they were worlds apart. For the most part, their expectations did not become reality.

I think many of us get our ideas of what life will be like from the movies. No matter how difficult the pursuit, the guy always gets the girl in the end, and they live blissfully happy for the rest of their lives. If you think about it, most good movies end with a tender embrace or two people who have found each other at last, but it does not show the aftermath. The movie doesn't go on to show the hardships they face, the struggles they endure, the heartache they encounter along the way. That would sort of ruin the movie, wouldn't it? But that is exactly how life is.

I think we all strive for the "happily ever after", yet our great expectations usually fall far short. As I look around, I know of very few people who are not struggling in one way or another.

I began leading a new Bible study last week. As the ladies in my group introduced themselves, I asked each to share about a journey she had taken. Most did not tell stories of a favorite vacation, but rather a journey they were on in their personal lives. Journeys filled with health problems, broken marriages, the loss of a parent and financial crisises. I seriously doubt if a single one of them ever dreamed of those circumstances as young girls.

As I was thinking about this yesterday, I realized that our mistake is not that we dream, but that our dreams are about what WE want in life, not about what God wants for us. I can vaguely remember telling my kids they could be anything they wanted to be, but more than that I distinctly remember telling them that the most important thing in the world was for them to find what GOD wanted them to do with their life and follow Him.

I think what I want to tell my granddaughters is this: Give your dreams to God. Don't "pre-plan" how your life will be. God's plans for each of you is different. Be open to whatever He puts before you, realizing that it will include good times and bad, storms and rainbows.

I saw a TV show last night about a family who found they were about to give birth to a baby with Downs Syndrome. The dad was devastated and didn't want "damaged goods". Someone explained to him that his baby was a gift from God and each package comes wrapped differently.

Our lives are gifts from God, too. And each of them comes wrapped differently, with different instructions for the journey He has mapped out us personally.

We may have dreamed of a blissful life, but the reality is that life is hard. But, it is in the storms of life that we really connect with God, and we understand ultimately that it was never about US! When we received Christ as our Savior, we gave our lives to Him and along with our lives should have gone our expectations!

Eric and Leslie Ludy wrote a wonderful book, When God Writes Your Love Story. I highly recommend it to young people who are searching for their life's mate. But the premise of this book leads me to think of what our true mindset about life should be. We should hand God the pen of our lives...our total lives, not just our love lives.... and let Him write our story just the way He wants to do, understanding that HIS plans are best for us even as twisted and chaotic as they may sometimes be, because as HIS child, He desires nothing but the best for us.

Something beautiful

Something good

All my confusion

He understood

All I had to offer Him

Was brokenness and strife

But He made something

Beautiful of my life.

--Bill and Gloria Gaither

EMOTIONAL FRAGILITY

"Emotional fragility"....now there's a term that hit me squarely between the eyes if there ever was one!! Of all the polls and games on FACEBOOK that are meant to identify you, I have not seen a one that identified anyone as "emotionally fragile". Yet I can certainly relate to that term.

John Piper wrote "I have found in [my disappointments and discouragements] there is a great power of encouragement in keeping before me the life of men who surmounted great obstacles in obedience to God's call by the power of God's grace.

One of the pervasive marks of our time is emotionaly fragility. We are easily hurt. We pout and mope easily. We break easily. Our marriages break easily. Our faith breaks easily. Our happiness breaks easily. And our commitment to the church breaks easily. We are easily disheartened, and it seems we have little capacity for surviving and thriving in the face of criticism and opposition."

If Piper is correct, and I believe he is, then what sort of men went before us?

William Carey is a good example of what sort. Piper writes of him, "For his first two years in India, [he] got no mail. During his first seven years he got no converts. After nineteen years of hard labor a fire destroyed his precious manuscripts....and ten versions of the Bible. He had an accident and was lame to the end. He lost two wives to death...and he never went home...for 41 years!! So what kept Carey going? Incredible faith in the sovereign goodness of God.

When I left England my hope of conversion for India was very strong; but amongst so many obstacles it would die unless upheld by God. Well I have God and his word is true. Though the superstitions of the heathen were a thousand times stronger than they are, the example of the Europeans a thousand times worse; though I was deserted by all and persecuted by all, yet my faith fixed on that sure Word would rise above all obstacles and overcome every trial. God's cause will triumph.

When he saw the smoldering fire that destroyed his work, with tear filled eyes he said, 'In one short evening the labors of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the ways of God....The Lord has laid me low that I may look more simply to Him."

Now there was a man who made no acquaintance with emotional fragility!

Lest you think, however, that there are no lionhearted saints still left, read on....

"A thirteen-year-old Nigerian Christian has told Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) sources how she was forced to watch her pastor’s murder, and has also spoken of her four-day ordeal as a prisoner in the besieged compound of Islamist group, Boko Haram.


On 26 July, Mary was in church with her pastor, his brother and an older Christian woman when a group of fifty militants broke in. She and her pastor hid as the group killed the pastor’s brother and dragged the older woman out of the room. On discovering their hiding place, the militants cut off her pastor’s hand to stop him holding on to her, then hacked him to death with machetes before setting him on fire.


The girl and the woman were dragged to Boko Haram’s compound in Maiduguri’s Railway district, and were placed in a room with around 100 other Christian women and girls. They were all asked to renounce their faith or face continued imprisonment, while Christian men were given the choice of renouncing their faith or dying.


Mary vividly describes how she was forced to wash the blood stained clothing of Boko Haram fighters. She was in the camp for four days, but managed to escape with a few others when military forces intensified their attack on the compound.


Mary’s pastor was one of three Christian ministers targeted and killed by Boko Haram during last week’s violence. Photographs showing the corpse of one murdered pastor from the Church of Christ in Nigeria, Rev Sabo Yakubu, indicate that his heart may have been ripped out.


Stuart Windsor, CSW’s National Director said: “CSW is deeply saddened by the appalling nature of the crimes committed by this sect against innocent civilians. Local Christians have also expressed disappointment that some western media have disregarded the targeted nature of attacks on their community, and the brutal murders of Christian pastors. Unless this aspect of the violence is recognised by all and dealt with effectively, people in Northern Nigeria will continue to suffer because of their religious beliefs”.

As we stand on the precipice of the last days, will we be like William Carey and Mary, or will be the poster child for "emotional fragility"? Maybe it would behoove us to check ourselves to see if perhaps our diet is too full of "junk food" instead of feeding on the solid meat of the Word of God so that we can be workmen who need not to be ashamed.

DON'T LOSE HOPE

When the way seems dark, when there seems to be no answer, when you're weary of the load you are carrying, when your pillow is soaked with your ceaseless tears......

Remember this:

"There shall be a performance" Luke 1:45
"My words shall be fulfilled in their season" Luke 1:20

There shall be a performance of those things

That loving heart has waited long to see;

Those words shall be fulfilled to which she clings

Because her God has promised faithfully.

And, knowing Him, she ne'er can doubt His Word

'He speaks and it is done'...the mighty God!

There shall be a perfomrance of those things

O burdened heart, rest ever in His care

In quietness beneath His shadowing wings

Await the answer to your longing prayer.

When thou "has cast thy care" the heart then sings

There shall be a performance of those things.

There shall be a performance of those things

O tired heart, believe and wait and pray

At eventide, the peaceful vesper rings

Though cloud and rain and storm have filled the day

Faith pierces through the mist of doubt that bars

The coming night sometimes, and finds the stars.

There shall be a performance of those things

O trusting heart, the Lord to thee hath told
Let faith and hope arise and plume their wings

And soar towards the sunrise clouds of gold.

The portels of the rosy dawn sing wide

Revealing joys the darkening night did hide.

---Bessie Porter

Matthew Henry says "We must depend upon the performance of the promise when all the ways leading up to it are shut up."

Proverbs 3: 5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths."

Though your path may be dark today, TRUST the One who loves you and is working all things for your good. He will perform it for you in His time and in His way, rolling back the dark clouds and revealing the sunshine once again. Cling to this today, dear friend, do not lose hope!!

COFFEE WITH GOD

Starbucks has become a national phenomenon in a very short period of time. There's one on every corner.

People have been drinking coffee for ages, so what's the BIG DEAL?

I am convinced that Starbucks is NOT about the coffee...it's about the comraderie.

You rarely see people drinking coffee alone in Starbucks, unless maybe they are waiting on someone to join them.

Starbucks has become the local "watering hole" so to speak. The place where friends gather to chat; business associates make deals; couples share a quiet moment.

Do you like yours black or with lots of sugar? Prefer espresso or latte? Straight up or flavored? Doesn't really matter....just as long as you have someone to share it with.

In years past, neighbors used to chat over the back fence. Old retired gentlemen gathered at the local drug store. Women caught up on the gossip at the local beauty parlor. In the 21st century, people do Starbucks!

Again, the key element, however, is not the coffee, it's the connection.

I am blessed to have a host of friends and acquaintances. Some go back to my childhood, others are new. But all are blessings. And, I enjoy nothing better than having lunch with them. It always brightens my day.

So, you ask...why all the talk about Starbucks and coffee??????

I don't do Starbucks. Nothing against Starbucks, but I usually only drink one cup of coffee a day, and that is first thing in the morning. I DO share with a friend, just not at Starbucks.

You see, I begin my day having coffee with God. There is no better start to the day!

When I was a teenager, I discovered a little devotional book entitled Open Windows. It came at a time when I really needed encouragement. I still have many of the devotional pages that were so meaningful to me at that time stored safely away in a file. But I don't have to look at them to remember what many of them said.

One of my favorite ones I had taped to my dresser mirror for years. It was one phrase:

If you ask God to direct your steps in the morning

You won't have to ask Him to forgive you for taking the wrong

path in the evening.

I guess that began my journey with God in the mornings. Although I have not always been a morning person, I have always made an attempt to connect with Him early in my day. It has not always been easy, especially when my children were small. Often in those days it was just a snatch of a few minutes early....the other snatches throughout my day as I could work it in.

Now that my house is quiet, my early morning time with God is the most precious part of my day. I love sitting quietly with Him on the porch as I sip my coffee and drink in the beauty of the day or curled up on my sofa with Bible and devotional.

Yes, I'd rather begin my day having coffee with God and connecting with Him than just about anything else I can think of. I look forward to it every morning. It prepares me for the day like no $4.95 cup of joe ever could, and it puts me in touch with the One who knows me like no other. I don't have to get dressed or get in my car. I don't have to put on makeup or be sure I'm fashionably dressed.

Coffee with God. Yes...there's no better way to start your day. Why not pour yourself a cup right now and join Him. He's waiting for you.

DO YOU EVER WONDER....

Do you ever wonder.........how God must feel when people ignore Him day after day after day....especially Christians?

Do you ever wonder.........if God looks down as He watches us as we struggle to live the Christian life, and HE wonders "Why don't they just read the instruction manual I gave them?"

Do you ever wonder........if God gets weary of trying to show people how much He loves them, and yet they seem to not see?

Do you ever wonder..........how God feels when there is so much evidence around us to demonstrate how awesome He is, yet there are those who still deny His existence?

Do you ever wonder...........if God sighs when he sees us making the same mistakes again and again and again, and if He ever says "Not again!"

Do you ever wonder.............when God steps in and saves us from something that could have been disastrous and we call it 'luck' instead of recognizing it was Him, if it pierces His heart?

Do you ever wonder..........if God looks down as we do "church" and says to Himself, "You people just don't get it, do you?"

Do you ever wonder.............how many times a day God whispers "I love you" to you?

Do you ever wonder............what the lost people around you will think when suddenly one day you are snatched from this earth, when in the "twinkling of an eye (which is faster than you can blink), you will be "caught up with Him in the air"...aka the rapture?

Do you ever wonder...........what it will be like when you finally see Jesus face to face?

I can only imagine................

SAILING BY THE HEAVENLIES

"He went out, not knowing whither he went." Heb. 11:8

"It is faith without sight.

When we can see, it is not faith, but reasoning.

In crossing the Atlantic we observed this very principle of faith. We saw no path upon the sea, nor sign of the shore. And yet day by day we were marking our path upon the chart as exactly as if there had followed us a great chalk line upon the sea. And when we came within twenty miles of land, we knew where we were as exactly as if we had seen it all three thousand miles ahead.

How had we measured and marked our course? Day by day our captain had taken his instruments and, looking up to the sky, had fixed his course by the sun. He was sailing by the heavenlies, not the earthly lights.

So faith looks up and sails on, by God's great Sun, not seeing one shore line or earthly lighthouse or path upon the way. Often its steps seem to lead into utter uncertainty and even darkness and disaster; but He opens the way and often makes such midnight hours the very gates of day. Let us go forth this day, not knowing but trusting.

Too many of us want to see our way through before starting out. If we could and did, from whence would come the development of our Christian graces? Faith, hope and love cannot be plucked from trees, like ripe apples. After the words "In the beginning" comes the word "God". The first step turns the key into God's powerhouse.....Waiting on God brings us to our journey's end quicker than our feet!"

-----From Streams in the Desert

MY GOD

There is something so comforting to me about the words "MY GOD". 'My' is a personal pronoun denoting ownership. God is the God of the universe, the Creator of all things, the Sustainer, the One and Only God....holy, righteous, infinite, eternal, the Alpha and Omega, the King of kings and Lord of lords. I am His and He is mine!!!!!!!!!!!

David wrote throughout the Psalms about his God. Though he was in the pit many times throughout scripture and lamented long and loud of his condition, he always came back to the one central point...God was his God and that is where his hope rested.

Listen to him and see if you do not find yourself in these verses:

"Innumerable evils have compassed me about; mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. Withhold not your tender mercies from me; let you lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me." Psalm 40: 12, 13, 11

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God. I shall yet praise him for the help of His countenance." Psalm 42: 5

"Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime and in the night his song shall be with me and my prayer shall be to the God of my life." Psalm 42: 8

"Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted with in me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and MY GOD." Psalm 42: 11

"For thou art the God of my strength...why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? O send out thy light and thy truth; let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God MY EXCEEDING JOY!.....Why art thou cast down O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God for I shall praise him who is the health of my countenance and MY GOD!" Psalm 43: 2-5

If you find yourself in a pit today, if your soul is cast down...realize that your hope...your only hope...is found in God. Not just a god or any god, but in your GOD, the God of your salvation. If you know Him, he is yours...he is nearer than breathing, closer than hands and feet. If you don't know him, I'd love to share with you how you can. (You may contact me through the CONTACT button below)