His Shoulders

Deuteronomy 33:12 KJV
And of Benjamin he said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.

This scripture paints the perfect picture of a father and his child.  As a little girl, there was no one in the world like my Daddy.  There is an old song that I love so much called Daddy's Hands and it perfectly describes my Daddy.

I remember Daddy´s hands, folded silently in prayer.
And reaching out to hold me, when I had a nightmare.
You could read quite a story, in the callouses and lines.
Years of work and worry had left their mark behind. 
I remember Daddy´s hands, how they held my Momma tight,
And patted my back, for something done right.
There are things that I´ve forgotten, that I loved about the man,
But I´ll always remember the love in Daddy´s hands.

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin´.
Daddy´s hands, were hard as steel when I´d done wrong.
Daddy´s hands, weren´t always gentle 
But I´ve come to understand.
There was always love in Daddy´s hands.

I remember Daddy´s hands, working 'til they bled.
Sacrificed unselfishly, just to keep us all fed.
If I could do things over, I´d live my life again.
And never take for granted the love in Daddy´s hands.

Daddy's hands were soft and kind when I was cryin´.
Daddy´s hands, were hard as steel when I´d done wrong.
Daddy´s hands, weren´t always gentle 
But I´ve come to understand.
There was always love in Daddy´s hands.

I am so thankful for my Daddy and his love for me and my boys.  They love their Poppa to pieces and they respect him and learn from him just as they do their own Daddy. They know that there are two of the most wonderful men in their lives whose safety they can dwell in and whose shoulders they can rest between.  They know their Poppa and Daddy love them because they can feel it, because they see it.  

And what we are trying to teach them by raising them in church is that there is a third man who loves them even more than Daddy and Poppa ever could. Jesus. At 3 years old and almost 2 they know how to pray, they can say their Bible verses, they look forward to Sunday School and they can pretend preach like nobody's business.  We are preparing their hearts so that when Jesus calls on them, they'll not hesitate to accept Him as Savior, they'll not hesitate to rest between His shoulders.

He gave His life for me, for my boys, for you.  He was an innocent man, perfection in flesh, accused and betrayed by His own people, sentenced to die a criminal's death. 

As an adult reading about the crucifixion in the Gospels has opened my eyes to things I'd never really comprehended before.  Once condemned by the people Pilate had Jesus scourged in hope that it would appease the riotous crowd, Matthew 27:26.  Scourged.  I didn't know exactly what that meant so I looked it up and it gave me chills. It was a beating that left Him mutilated, extremely weak, near death. The scourging was a whipping with a leather whip with sharp pieces of bone and metal embedded in its thongs.  And still they were not satisfied.

They mocked Him and they spit upon Him while they readied Him to be crucified.  As He carried His cross to Golgotha, they gave to Him wine mingled with myrrh, a stupefying drink sometimes given to those in great pain and suffering, Mark 15:23.  A drink which He refused.  I wasn't aware of the significance of this until later in the scripture.

The Gospels do not give a detailed account of Jesus being crucified, only that He was. Psalms 22:14-17 however paints a vivid and painful picture.

14. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

15. My strength is dried up like a postsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

16. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

17. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

So completely spent was Jesus from the scourging and carrying the cross to Golgotha, that he felt as if He were water poured out on the earth.  As if distended upon a rack, the process of crucifixion had undoubtedly stretched His body out of recognizable human shape.  Christ likens Himself to a piece of broken pottery that has been fired in a kiln so that every drop of moisture has been driven out of the clay.  He suffers tormenting thirst, so much so that He cries out, and they bring Him vinegar, not water, to drink. His hands and feet were pierced, nailing Him to that cross.  So emaciated was He hanging on the cross that you could count His bones.

And yet all the while He hung on that cross, between the two thieves, He was thinking of you and I.  Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. Luke 23:34.  Already He was begging for the forgiveness of our sins.  Thus the reason he didn't drink the wine and myrrh mixture.  It would've numbed Him and He wanted to be in complete control of His senses.  The pain He felt would've been unbearable and yet He never cried out for the drug.

As Christ hangs on the cross between the two thieves, we see something amazing happen.  Both thieves openly reviled Him and mocked Him and yet in Luke 23:39-43 we see a transformation take place in one of them.  That thief saw the justice of his own punishment, the innocence of Christ, believed He is the Savior, believed He would resurrect and asks Christ to remember him when He enters into His kingdom. It was that simple and that easy for grace to happen. He accepted Christ and Christ welcomed him into paradise.

In John 19:25-27 we see a third act of mercy and grace before Christ gives up the ghost making the ultimate sacrifice and greatest show of love ever made.  

25. Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.

26. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son!

27. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

Jesus sees His Momma standing there in the crowd, witnessing all the horrible, torturous things done to Him.  This woman carried Him in her womb, delivered Him, nursed Him, raised Him.  He was as much hers as my boys are mine and there she stood watching Him hang on a cross for the sins of men who mocked Him, betrayed Him, and hated Him.  He saw her and loved her and told John to take her from there and care for her.  What amazing love.

In John 19:30 after receiving the vinegar to fulfill the last of the prophecies, He says It is finished, bows His head and gives up the ghost.

Christ crucified.  Love personified.  Sins forgotten. Life eternal.

Because of Christ's love for us, I can understand my Daddy's love for me, my boys can understand Brandon's love for them.  Christ's arms were outstretched on that cross to create the resting place for us on His shoulders.  Christ walked that long, lonely road so that we don't have to.

Faith and Sufferings

Romans 8:18 KJV
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

In my 27 years I have seen more suffering than some but far less than others.  Brandon and I have lost our home and all our worldly possessions in a house fire, we have had 2 miscarriages and buried a son, we have lost family because of our faith, we went 8 months with very little to no income, nearly lost our home, and experienced utter financial ruin.  But Paul tells me in Romans that the sufferings of my present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed.  I need not dwell on the trials I have suffered here in this world because if I did I would be a miserable mess.  My faith tells me that I have so much more to look forward to.

1 Peter 1:3-13 tells us about the glory that will be revealed unto us.  Verse 4 tells us of an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that is reserved just for us and it cannot fade away. Verse 5 tells us we are kept by the power of God through faith.  Once we've accepted Christ as our Savior we fall under his protection.  We are His. But like gold, our faith must be tried by fire because it is much more precious, more valuable than gold is. Our faith  brings praise, glory and honor unto Jesus so we must rejoice even in our heaviest seasons.

Faith and sufferings go hand in hand.  We cannot have one without the other.  Our faith would be superficial if we never had a trial or tribulation to be faithful through.  Our sufferings would be unbearable and all consuming without our faith to see us through. 

But it is not all for naught.  

1 Peter 1:9 KJV
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

If we received nothing else at the end of our course except for the salvation of our souls we have received the most priceless gift of all.  Because of our faith we have the one thing that even the prophets and angels have desired and haven't known.  The prophets absolutely believed in the coming of the Messiah and the grace he would bring with Him but they never saw it fulfilled the way we have in the Gospels.  You want to talk about faith, they had it.  Believing and rejoicing in Him with unspeakable joy and glory and yet never having known Christ and His sacrifice.  And the angels.  Can you imagine looking upon Him and yet not knowing and receiving the love and mercy and grace that He holds for us? 

Yes, though our faith be tried by fire, though we may have sufferings here on earth, it cannot compare to the glory that will be revealed in us.

There are far better things ahead than any we leave behind. --C.S. Lewis

A Mother's Love

1 John 4:7-10 KJV
7.  Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8.  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9.  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

There are very few people on this earth I would die for and none I'd give my sons' lives to save. That is the very honest, very blunt truth.  

I have often thought that the only love we can truly comprehend and compare to Christ's love is a mother's love.  And a mother's love is not something you can truly experience until you become a mother. I had no idea what my Momma felt each time she saw me hurt, sick, or afraid until my boys were born. Every tear, every skinned knee, every nightmare is felt to your core. Paranoid, overprotective, smothering...I may have been called these a time or 2 in my mission to keep them out of harm's way.  But it is an instinct you can't override.  It's there and you can't ignore it. I had no idea what my Momma felt when she saw my tears of joy, when she saw me succeed, when she saw me just plain ole' happy...until my boys were born. When my boys are happy, I am happy. When my boys are excited, I am excited.  I go out of my way to make them giggle because it is such a beautiful sound.  From the moment I knew they were growing in my womb they became my world.  I loved them.  Undeniably. Irrevocably.  Immeasurably. Not because they loved me, not because I deserved to be loved, but because they were mine, they were wanted, they were pure and perfect.  

As deep and profound as a mother's love is, Christ's is greater still.

God sent His one and only Son to pay our ransom.  His one and only Son came willingly to shed His blood for us.  Not because we loved Him, not because we deserved to be loved, but because we are His, we are wanted, we are washed as pure and perfectly white as the snow by His crimson blood.

I cannot comprehend how deep the Father's love for us is that he should give His only Son to die upon a cross for our sins.  I cannot comprehend Christ's love for us that He should willingly leave His throne in heaven to die upon a cross for our iniquities.  As a Momma I cannot fathom sending my sons to die for another's transgressions.  And yet I don't have to comprehend His love to receive it.  I must simply accept it.  God is love. And I know how very thankful I am that Christ came, died, and rose again.  I am saved by His mercy and grace and I know that because of His love that He will save my sons one day.  My duty as their Momma is to raise them in His will, to know Him and to love Him, so that when the Holy Ghost conviction falls upon them, that they'll not hesitate to surrender and accept Him as their Savior. And the assurance I have in my heart that He will save them is as strong as my mother's instinct to shield them from harm.

How deep the Father's love for us, how vast beyond all measure.  That He should give His only Son, to make a wretch His treasure.

Healed By His Stripes

Isaiah 53:3-6
3.  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him: he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4.  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5.  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

When you're in the midst of sorrow and grief it can seem impossible to feel anything but your pain.  When I lost Lachlan, the pain and grief and sorrow were the only things I understood.  I didn't know why my baby had died. I didn't understand God's will or purpose.  I was filled with anger and hurt.  He knew how much I wanted a baby, that it was all I had ever dreamed of. I had suffered one miscarriage and then endured 18 long months before we conceived again.  For months I didn't pray and we weren't in church at the time so I didn't seek Him out to worship either. God was the last one I wanted to turn to for comfort.  Not until I found out I was pregnant again 6 months later did the ice around my heart finally begin to thaw, little by little.  With each week of my pregnancy a little more ice fell away from my heart.  And when my precious Kieran was born, my heart began to beat again, and I thanked the Lord for my beautiful son.  

The hurt wasn't gone but I could finally turn to God for comfort.

And now I ask myself why did I wait so long?  When I read these verses in Isaiah I realize just exactly what I did in those 6 months I turned away from God.  I despised and rejected Him, just as He had been by the very ones He came to save.  He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Who better to turn to in my sorrow than Him? Yet I hid my face from Him and esteemed Him not.  He bore my griefs and and carried my sorrows and I was an ungrateful wretch. I went astray and turned to my own ways, forgetting the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

No matter how great my sorrow was, no matter how grave the situation, it couldn't compare to what He suffered for me. And that is what I failed to remember.  My trials and tribulations here on earth, my sufferings, are nothing in comparison to the horror and misery of the hell He saved my soul from.  

He took my sin upon Him while He hung on that cross.  He took your sin upon Him and those of His rejecters.  He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, so that by His stripes we might be healed.  All I had to do in my sorrow was to turn to Him, to remember the sacrifice He made for me.  If I had prayed, if I had turned to my Bible for answers in my grief, I would have remembered just exactly what He did for me on that cross and just exactly what is waiting for me in heaven as a child of the King.  

Jesus meets us where we are, if we but call upon Him, but He does not leave us where He finds us.

Strength

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 KJV

9.   And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

10.  Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

How far can our own strength take us?  People say that in a burst of adrenaline we can do amazing things, abnormal feats of strength, like a mother lifting a car off of her child.  Each one of us has differing amounts of strength.  My husband is capable of lifting hundreds of pounds at a single time.  I am capable of carrying around a 30 pound toddler all day.  Differing strengths, differing purposes.  We must have physical strength to endure this life.  But what of our spiritual strength?  In 2 Corinthians chapter 12 we read of the thorn in Paul’s flesh.  3 times he asked the Lord to remove it from his flesh.  The Lord’s reply?  My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  His strength is made perfect in our weakness.  When we are at our lowest, spiritually and physically, His strength is made perfect.

In May of 1940 in the Netherlands, terror struck.  The German Blitzkrieg ran through the country and within months the “Nazification” of the Dutch people began and lives were forever changed.  48 year old watchmaker, Corrie ten Boom, found herself in the midst of the Holocaust.  She lived with her 80 year old father and together with other members of their family, they led the Dutch Resistance against the Nazis.  Corrie was a devoutly religious woman who had established a youth club for teenage girls in her community, teaching them of God and his love and forgiveness. She knew she must do whatever she could to help the Jewish people.  A secret room was built into Corrie’s bedroom above her father’s watch shop, behind a false wall.  It was no bigger than a small closet but could hold 6 people standing upright.  Numerous people moved in and out of the Beje house in Haarlem.  Some would stay only hours, others days, while new “safe houses” were located.  The entire ten Boom family risked their lives day in and day out to help these people.  In February of 1944, a fellow Dutchman informed the Gestapo of the ten Booms activities.  The Gestapo raided the house and kept it under surveillance.  35 people, including all of the ten Boom family, were arrested.  However, though the whole house was thoroughly searched, the 6 Jews concealed in the hiding place in Corrie’s room were not found.  They were rescued nearly 3 days later.  It is estimated that the ten Booms and the others in the Dutch Resistance saved the lives of 800 Jewish people.   Corrie and her family were taken prisoners and held captive in Nazi concentration camps.  Her father died 12 days after being captured.  She and her 59 year old sister Betsie, were moved in and out of 3 concentration camps in just 10 months, the final being Ravensbruck.  Corrie and Betsie faced unspeakable horrors within this concentration camp.  Women were starved, beaten, gassed, and tortured to death.  Barracks that were built to hold 400 women, held 1400, making living conditions worse than deplorable.  And yet through it all, Corrie and Betsie remained faithful, witnessing to the women they were imprisoned with using a smuggled Bible.  Many women were led to Christ in this nightmarish place.  Betsie died behind the walls of Ravensbruck.  Corrie lost her entire family to the Nazis.  It is said that she was released due to a clerical error, just 1 week before all the women her age in Ravensbruck were executed, proving Christ can use even paperwork as a catalyst to see His will accomplished.  Corrie went on to begin a worldwide ministry that took her to 60 different countries, telling her story, and praising God and telling of his love and forgiveness.  She never became bitter about her loss and her time in the concentration camps.  She praised Him and thanked Him under such horrific conditions.  Even thanking Him for the fleas in the barracks that kept the guards away while she read from her Bible and witnessed to the other women.  She did just as Paul said to do, she gloried in her infirmities so that the power of Christ could rest upon her. 

Suddenly our infirmities, our weaknesses, our ailments, seem very miniscule.  Corrie, like Paul, turned to God during her greatest time of weakness and struggle and He made her strong.  His strength became hers and she survived. 

We may not always understand our trials and tribulations.  We may not always understand how God’s will is being done.  But we must remember,

“There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Corrie ten Boom

We must take pleasure in our infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake.  For when we are weak, then are we strong in Christ.

The Perfecter of Our Faith

Hebrews 12:1-3 KJV
1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Faith.  What is it?  Have we got it? Where do we get it?  Do we need it?  How do we keep it?

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The essence of faith consists in believing and receiving what God has revealed to us in His Holy Word.  It is such a simple concept. 

But we have faith in every one other than who we ought to, Christ.  If our Pastor, our spouse, our parent tells us something, most likely we’ll believe it.  Whether we’ve got tangible proof or hard evidence of it often doesn’t matter.  We trust the person so we have faith that what they are telling us is true.  We believe it and receive it. Worry, anxiety, doubt, these are my Achilles heel.  They put my faith into a tailspin every time I’m faced with a new hardship.  Why? Because I don’t look to Jesus in faith when faced with my problems.  I want to talk about them more than I want to pray about them.  I want to call Brandon or my Momma first when what I need to be doing is turning to God for my comfort and my answers. 

Verse 2 of Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith.  I moseyed on over to dictionary.com and looked up the definitions of author and finisher. An author is the maker of anything, the creator, the originator.  Finisher means to complete and to perfect in detail.  I’ll let that sink in a minute and you’ll be shoutin’ just like I was.  When faced with anything in our lives we are to look unto Jesus who is the creator and originator of our faith and who will complete it and perfect it in detail. Christ is where we get our faith.

Do we really need faith?  If the definition of faith means that it exists whether we can see it or not, why should we worry about having it?  Hebrews chapter 11 not only tells us what faith is but it gives many examples of the great heroes of faith in the Bible and their acts of faith.  In verses 5 and 6 we read about Enoch.

Hebrews 11:5-6 KJV
5. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
6. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

I want nothing more in this life than to bring glory and honor to my Savior so that I may please Him.  I cannot do this without faith.  He tells us plainly that without faith it is impossible to please Him.  Enoch so pleased Him that he walked with God and did not see death.  God took him to be with Him in heaven because of his testimony.  Can we aspire to the same? 

Now that we understand what faith is, that we have a definite lack of it, where to get it, and that we most certainly need it, how do we keep it?  First we must lay aside every weight and set aside the sin that doth so easily beset us as Hebrews 12:1 tells us.  Then in verse 3 we are told that when we are wearied and faint in our minds to consider Him. Consider what of Him? Consider what he endured for you and me.  He endured the cross, despising the shame and the contraction of the sin against His perfect self, and is set down at that right hand of the throne of God.  John 10:15 and 18 tell us that He willingly laid down His life for us so that we should have eternal life through Him.  Let no man deceive you into thinking that he was forced onto that cross.  He was a willing sacrifice, taking all the sin and depravity of the world into Himself, to become our Intercessor.  

If we cannot have faith in Him, how can we have faith in anyone?

The Good Shepherd

John 10:10 KJV

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

A thief uses the necessary tools to get the job done quickly and effectively.  Professional thieves spend time in preparation learning and scoping out the mark and location, learning their habits, finding their weakest points.  They want to be prepared for any eventuality.  They lay in wait until the timing is perfect.  And then they strike. 

Satan is a thief.  He comes to steal.  He comes to kill. He comes to destroy. And he will use whatever means necessary to accomplish his tasks.  Satan uses grief, worry, anger, frustration, doubt, jealously, bitterness, and fear as tools at his disposal.  He uses our emotions against us.  He uses the burdens in our lives to tear us down and then he will strike.  He comes to steal our joy, to kill our faith and to destroy our lives.  I have dealt with this firsthand numerous times in my life.  Worry has always been my biggest downfall.  Satan knows that and he uses it time and time again to sneak his way in, just as a thief would.

To protect our homes, our families, our possessions, we take precautions and put up safeguards against intruders and thieves in the night. We install security systems, we keep firearms, we purchase safes.  All so that we may feel secure in our homes.

How do we protect our hearts?  

We turn to The Good Shepherd.  He has come so that we may have life, and have it abundantly.

John 10:11 KJV

I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

John 10:27-28 KJV

27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

It has taken many years and many trials and tribulations, through which Satan has done his everlovin' best to steal my joy, kill my faith, and destroy my life, for me to learn to turn to Christ with my worry and my doubt and my fear.  I still stumble and it is not always easy but when I turn to Him, He is my Peace, my Solace, my Comfort.  Through Him I have eternal life and nothing here on this earth can pluck me out of His hand.  I am safe and secure.

We must safeguard and protect our hearts and our faith against Satan just as we would our homes and families against intruders.  The only way to do this is to turn to Christ before the intruder strikes.  Accepting Christ as our Savior does not mean that we will never face hardships, but it does mean that we will have Comfort in the times of trouble.