Tied in a Threefold Knot

A gift from Ani and Daniel

Ani and Daniel are married and I had the great honor of being their officiant. I took it on as more than a simple honor and looked at it as a task that I was called on by the Holy Spirit to complete. I consulted with my friend Webster and found his definition a bit much for my simple pedigree; “one (as a priest) that officiates at a religious rite”. However, with the Easter message fresh on our minds I think that the power of His resurrection and the grace that Jesus affords us, that for a few hours, the definition had some merit in this instance.

The numeral three plays a big role throughout the Bible; three crosses, three days from cross to resurrection, the Holy Trinity, and many more. I fooled around with several terms for the title of this post – trifecta, triple, triad, threefold… Daniel is the third of our three children to get married and increasing our family many times over with the new families all tied together. The blessings are heaped up well beyond threefold and I cannot really do justice to the abundance of joy our kids bring us.

I led off my thoughts on love and marriage for Ani and Daniel with Ecclesiastes 4: 9 – 12; “⁹Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work; ¹⁰if one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! ¹¹Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? ¹²Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” I followed the scripture with these words for them, “I believe that you have found this to be true for the two of you and that is what brings us to this place; to see you wound together with God’s blessing as husband and wife – a three stranded cord.”

The short message was seasoned with several scriptures; what better way to see a couple married than using a liberal dose of God’s word? After some personal observations and notes for each of them I focused on improving our love by practice and action and ending the thought with Philippians 1:9, “⁹And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.”

I believe this to be true for the both of them toward each other; Ani to Daniel and Daniel to Ani – “⁴I have found the one that my soul loves.” Song of Songs 3:4.

We ended the message with a charge to the couple and the rest of the celebrants as well that I pulled from Colossians and I’ll end this post with the charge to all of us as well:

Colossians 3: 12 – 15a, “¹²Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³Bear with each other and forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ^15aLet the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.”

Amen 

Grudging Obedience – To What End?

Alas, the last paragraph had the hero being reproved by God. I had jumped to the end of the story in the hope of finding a happy ending, one that would portend good things for the end of the particular chapter in my own life that I am now wrestling with. That frequently happens when I look for an easy way out.

Have you ever had anything in your life where something that you knew was what you should be doing, that you knew in your heart was God’s desire for you to be doing and you had already decided to do it but you’d rather not because there were other things going on, good things, important things, also things that you believed that were in God’s will but they were all stacked up like dominoes, each with its set of steps that needed to be done in order for the task to be completed and you were at the point that you really wanted to focus on the other things and didn’t feel like working on the first thing? Did you get to the point that your obedience to the first thing was given grudgingly? The first thing seemed pretty right at the beginning but the closer it got the messier it became and the messier it became the more time it took and the more time it took the more you struggled with your willingness to do it. Of course by this time didn’t the joy you wanted in doing the other things, the next things diminish, become messier, and create conflicts of their own?

I needed help with my task – I’m a bit tired so I looked for a lesson from the past. The example that jumped up at me was Jonah and I grabbed my dusty bible (should read “trusty” but that’s another issue to wrestle with) and read Jonah’s book. It is surprisingly short and to the point and unfortunately for today the ending was a disappointment to me. The story itself is very familiar, one that we’ve heard since earliest Sunday School. God calls Jonah to go and prophesy to the people of Nineveh to warn them of impending doom. Jonah instead runs from the presence of the Lord and jumps on a boat to take him away. Don’t you find it interesting that a prophet of God thinks that you can run from God’s presence? God brings up a storm and the sailors panic while Jonah, like Jesus would later do, falls asleep with the ship about to be overcome. When confronted by the crew Jonah, rather than be like Jesus and command the storm to cease, tells the crew to throw him overboard which they eventually do. Jonah really did not want to prophesy to Nineveh.

After spending his three days in the fish Jonah worships and God has the fish toss him upon the dry land and then commands him to go to Nineveh and when he does, the people, led by the king, repent and God spares them. Exactly what God wanted, exactly like Jonah expected, and a happy ending except that Jonah got angry and wished his life over. The last paragraph, Jonah 4: 9-11 is God reproving Jonah and the story ends.

How disappointing was that to me? I had hoped to read that Jonah grudgingly obeyed God and fulfilled his duties and in the end was blessed for it. Not so. 

To be sure, I don’t plan on getting angry when God blesses the first thing in spite of my curmudgeonliness but I had better get my act in gear if I want to participate in the blessings and come away from it closer to God. I’m not angry, I am scared that I’ve accepted too much and that the people being served by the things I have in front of me won’t get it and be blessed and I’m kind of in mourning that I haven’t overcome more of my reluctance and have completely deferred a new passion (not counting this post). I don’t want to mess up but I know that He hasn’t required of me anything that He can’t see me through. Amen.

Many Mini-Miracles

Many Mini-Miracles

Jerry, called as a reclamation project to be a servant to children and now to encourage and challenge, to build up and inform, to ask and listen to friends and family, known and unknown. To the faithful Calvary's Thread readers.

Sounds pretty pretentious to me but I wanted to try it anyway with all those wonderful letters from Paul setting the standard for salutation. Somehow when he did it with his long and impressive pedigree it didn’t sound bad at all. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

I have a confession to make, actually I have too many to put in a post and still keep to my goal of one type-written page per post. I am gluttonous. I see blessings and little miracles almost all of the time; in fact, whenever I rouse myself to look I can see them. I want more; I want it all, including the big stuff. I want to see my mother-in-law walking down the hall because she wants to do something down the hall. I want to hear her laugh at a joke she made and I want to see her confer hugs and embrace her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I started writing this post weeks ago and every time that I thought I’d sit down to finish it I put it off hoping that the next visit to see her would be the one where I could write about the big stuff – seeing and hearing the real Jan and watching her be animated and involved, initiating lines of conversation with us.  We’ve seen her improve from comatose to various levels of alertness, combing her hair, brushing her teeth, and laughing at funny stories that are being told. She walks down the hall under the supervision of the physical therapists at their urging. Yesterday we visited and she vocalized more than at any other time, clear hellos and then I’m quite sure that she said something about the marriage contract when I joked about the small print in our agreement getting me out to a quilting show with Cindy. It was a good day for her. Her grand-nephew came later in the day and reported a similar experience.

I rejoice for a few minutes and then my gluttony takes over. All these mini-miracles are adding up and maybe even add up today to a good sized miracle; after all, we still have her with us and more so each visit. Still, I need more and why shouldn’t I have it? The test of faith is almost too much to bear. We ask and intercede for Jan and sign off on the prayers in Jesus name. Is the answer no or is it “show me your faith”? What?

I would like to understand how Mary did it. Look at John 2: 1-12 and read about Jesus turning water into wine. Mary tells Jesus about the wine running out and he tells her no, that it’s not his time. Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them and he responds to that with his first miracle and turns the water into the best wine of the feast. What was the key there? Some little thing that only Jesus’ mom would know that forced him to act? Faith for sure as she acted on what she saw as a need that could be filled by Jesus and to kick-start his career. But what was the real trigger and how can I implement it? It feels like a dangerous thing for me to question my own faith and to put the onus on myself. It scares me a little to consider these things.

I’ll take the mini-miracles and expect one or more each time I visit or hear a report from others. I’ll hope for them to pile up and when taken as a whole to have them add up to the big stuff. Who am I to question how God does things? He looks at the long range, further down field than I can. Perhaps He already sees her in one piece again and I only need to have a veil or two removed to see it as well. God help me.

Apply Within: Sending My Resume to Heaven

The title for this came to me early this morning and for once I did what a writer should do and wrote it down. I let the idea of putting a resume together for entrance into heaven run through my mind awhile wondering how I could make an application for entrance into the Kingdom of God. It was like a stream slowly meandering its way through a meadow. By all rights I should have been allowed to drift back to sleep on a lazy Saturday morning.

 

I think my mind is a bit fertile for this because I have found myself introducing Jan to Jesus while praying for my mother-in-law saying things like “Jesus, bring healing to our sister Jan, your servant, a Deaconess in the church, a woman of faith who serves the poor in spirit, the poor in the world, and serves the church. Remember her and bring restoration.” I have been building her resume to Jesus who knows all of that and more about her. I suppose I should just simplify things and stop the bargaining; “Jesus bring healing and restoration by your power and grace, let the act of your perfect sacrifice have its full effect.”

 

When I’m at work I often turn to those who have experience with the particular issue that I am wrestling with so why not with this issue? I sought out the wisdom and words of a couple of old-timers, Paul and James

Paul put together a very nice resume in Philippians 3, versus 4b-6; he has an impressive pedigree. Yet in versus 7&8 he sets that notion aside, “⁷Yet whatever gain I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him,”

So my anemic resume; son of pillars of LCPC, longtime youth worker, struggling Christian writer…really mean nothing when it is measured against the perfect sacrifice and doesn’t, in itself, get me any nearer to Jesus.

James sets the stage for his discourse on faith and works in chapter 1 verse 22 of the book of James, “²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” In chapter 2: verses 14-26 James juggles faith and works with the keynote in verse 17 “¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” And he follows this with “^18band by my works I will show you my faith.”

 

I have found myself checking off items on my Heavenly To-Do List thinking that this is the pathway to heaven. It is just no so; it is not as simple as that at all. While thinking over Paul’s and James’ words I picture an old-fashioned balance scale and for me to pile good works on one side so that works outweighs faith and sits firmly on the table is no good; I’ve simply made myself look good to others. And conversely, if I pile faith up on the other pan and it comes to rest on the table, I have deceived myself. This begs the question of how does one pile up faith without works; what does that look like? Do I sit around reading scripture and then walk around reciting the “I believe ins” of the Apostle’s Creed and count that as faith. No, I must achieve the great balance, first by believing and building up my faith and then by doing the things God sets in front of me because of my faith.

 

When all is said and done and I find myself at the Gates of Heaven standing in front of Saint Peter perhaps I will just make it simple and read him this while he checks for my name in the Book of Life, “Dear Peter, I am a sinner, a man with a weak heart and checkered past. I am here to throw myself on the boundless grace of Jesus and claim the power of His resurrection. Only Jesus’ forgiveness can get me in; nothing that I’ve done or not done, good or bad, can get me in.”

Stop. It's Time to Pray

Romans 8: 26 “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” NASB

A couple of Sundays ago Ashley, our Director of Children’s Ministries, spoke to the children that had gathered on the chancel stairs. I had a pretty good view from stage left of the chancel as I prepared to follow the children’s time with the prayer of confession. It is Operation Christmas Child time so the church family is busily gathering supplies and gifts to pack what we hope will be well over three hundred boxes for needy children throughout the world. Ashley shared how at the Samaritan’s Purse packing stations while the workers are preparing all of the collected boxes to be shipped to over a hundred countries a voice comes over the loud speaker system saying “Stop. It’s time to pray.” Everyone stops whatever they are doing and prays over the boxes, blessing them with the Spirit, and praying for the recipient to know Christ through the gift and the givers.

That phrase has stuck with me and is my nugget from the service. It has become a touchstone over the last couple of weeks. With my mother-in-law suffering a debilitating stroke and a few days later my sister-in-law was in a freak accident in which suffered a broken pelvis I have much to be in prayer and intercession for with these two who are so near to my heart in such deep need. At work, during my walks, working at home, and even while vegetating in front of the TV the phrase resonates in my mind and I have to quiet myself in some way and pray. Even while gathered with the family in the hospital room with my mother-in-law, one not fully aware while we carry on conversations of every kind, the reverb comes to me, “Stop. It’s time to pray”. And so I do stop and touch each one with a feather of prayer to aid in our vigil; we pray and hope, wait and see.

I found it interesting that in a place with people gathered in an activity inherently good and with a Christly objective that we are also in need of reminders to stop and pray. I think it is another instance of Martha versus Mary, Mary stopped, prayed, and paid attention to the best thing while Martha needed to be reminded to stop her good work and heed to the groaning of the Spirit. We need to be reminded from time to time to give voice to the groanings within us; pause a bit in our labors, in our joys, and in our sorrows, to acknowledge the Spirit within us that intercedes on our behalf.

Of all of the things I have to be thankful for, a list that I cannot do justice to or am deserving of, I am at this moment extremely thankful for the nugget that I picked up, the echo of hope that invades my conscious thought to give me an opportunity to thank God for that list and pray for those that the Spirit has placed on my heart.

Yes, one would be you.

In His grip, jerry

Love, the Word of Life

There is no doubt about it; love is running rampant in our family. Lauren and Taylor’s wedding was a great experience of love between the two of them as well as the outpouring that I felt with all of our friends and family celebrating with us. Our niece Kaylynn and her fiancé are a real solid couple and are next up on what is now a wedding parade. The Cornelius family with Ashley and Matt, Teya and Jeremiah, and Curt and Jean are a continuing love story that fills our hearts. I have to list Kayla and Grady’s marriage too, they are wonderful, and she’s our bonus daughter. And now to top the wedding cake in this parade are Ani and Daniel getting married. We just had the fantastic experience of meeting Ani’s family and friends at the engagement party and seeing Daniel’s friends and our side of the family get to know each other. I loved every minute, even kicking the evening off with the honor of blessing the rings and relationship in front of our new friends and I am indeed deeply honored.

It is only by God’s grace that such overwhelming joy should be mine and as undeserving as I feel that I am, I will take it just the same and in the spirit that it was given. In honor of these kids and God’s working in our lives I offer a few thoughts on love.

The first Epistle of John offers a clear picture of love and I appreciate how John starts his letter off from a position of strength, standing on the rock of his apostleship:

1 John 1: 1 – “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

Once he sets the stage and completes the foundation for his letter John talks about walking in the light and forsaking sin as a result of it. He addresses the letter to his dear children (2:1, 12, & 13), his dear friends (2:7), fathers (2:13 & 14), and young men (2:13 & 14). He tells us how we’ve overcome the evil one, been forgiven, and known the father. He warns us not to love the world and that the antichrist is already walking the earth. Then John tells us about love, where it is from and that it is the reason we can overcome the world.

1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

First we hear how great a love the Father has for us, giving his son as a sacrifice to reconcile us to Himself, then John tells us how to love with a couple of my favorite verses (yes, at least in part because it confirms my assertion that love is a verb), 1 John 3: 16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” with 1 John 3:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

John then continues with more warnings and an admonition to the test the spirits and comes right back to the powerful word of life that can overcome ungodly spirits. He counsels us with words that end in a classic three-word phrase; read it here, 1 John 4: 7 & 8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Love your friends, love your parents, love your children, love your God, and love all those He puts in your path. Love and cherish them all.

I struggled with the title for this post so I decided to bookend it with the alternate title:

Love: the Word of Life.

In His grip,

jerry

Something Old – Older Than Dirt

For Lauren and Taylor:

1 John 4: 7-8 “⁷Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

I did the math; it’s true. After all of these years of hearing it said of others and now approaching the time where it will be (if it hasn’t already been) said of me, “He’s older than dirt”, I have at last found something that actually is older than dirt. Love, and proved by a simple algebraic equation: if A=B and B=C, then A=C. Therefore, if God is love (1 John 4:8 above) and God created the earth or dirt (see John 1:3 below & Genesis 1) then Love is older than dirt.

John 1: 1-5 (New Living Translation) “¹In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He existed in the beginning with God. ³God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. ⁴The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

I could easily end this post right there and be vindicated in putting a little something out there that is worthy of a few moments of thought but I want to have a little fun with this and share what drove me to write this.

My family is consumed right now, and rightly so, with the marriage of a young man, Taylor whom I’ve known and enjoyed since he was in third grade Sunday School class and come to respect as a man, to our daughter, Lauren whom I’ve known, loved, enjoyed, come to respect as a woman, along with the whole litany of emotions dads have with their kids since I’ve known she was coming on the scene and that my story had a new character to be written in for the next few chapters.

The other day I was considering what to wear at the wedding in addition to my new gray suit and I thought of getting my Grandpa Matt’s watch out of the box I keep it in and having my own “something old” with me. It is not an expensive watch, nor is it beautiful beyond what it means to me. I’ve been blessed to feel special connections to both my grandfathers and this watch is what I have from Grandpa Matt. I still feel his presence from time-to-time and I’d like to say only whenever significant events like this one are on me but he’s been “around” a few times when I’ve made a bloody fool of myself and I’ve felt his disapproval of my behavior. Oh, that cloud of witnesses can be a tricky thing.

I picked up the self-winding watch with the intent of getting it repaired so that it would be ticking the day of the wedding. I set the time on that early morning and it began ticking immediately. I put it on and wore it to the office and throughout the day and when I took it off that night before bed it had stayed within a minute of the GPS time I had set it to.

I choose to believe that Grandpa Matt is smiling with me now as I wish Taylor and Lauren that thing which is older than dirt, Love. And Love abundantly.