Words and Meditations: A New Blog

After a brief hiatus from my lenten writings, I am returning to writing, and sharing my writing.  I am thankful for everyone who read my writings during Lent and I am thankful for the kind words that you shared of your own.  God has blessed me with a love for writing and an ability to do so.  It has helped me grow in my relationship with Him and has also been very healing at times.  Sharing love and hope and God's truth is a powerful thing and I want to continue to do so.

I will be spending my summer as a camp counselor serving God in the beautiful Green Lake, WI.  Christ's love was modeled for me as a camper at Quest, and now I am returning to model Christ's love for others and learn from them as well.  Although wifi is sparse, I will be sharing some words and meditations this summer.

Psalm 19:14 says "May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer."

I absolutely do not know it all.  And I will never claim to.  God is working with me where I am at, and bringing me beyond that.  My hope and my striving is that God's words and truth can be found in the words I publish here.  My identity is in Him and I long for that to shape all that I do.  I also long to be honest, because I believe God calls me to be.  Honest in my frustrations and honest and sincere in my love for Him and others.

I chose to call this blog How Great Thou Art, because God is great.  He is first and He is the center.  This is about Him.  This is His truth.  I don't own it, but I want to share it.

~SP

http://howgreatthouartblog.blogspot.com/ 

Easter Sunday: Reedemer

I know my redeemer lives.  They came to the tomb that morning, and it was empty - which must have been terrifying at first.  Jesus began appearing to His friends and followers.  Some believed immediately, and for some, it took a minute.  He bore the holes in His hands where the nails had been, but He was completely whole.

Almost 2,000 years later, how do I know that my Redeemer lives?  It is His promise.  His promise that surely, He is with us to the very end of the age.  His promise to come again.  His promise that His spirit is present in our heart and in our lives.  I am learning to trust in His promise through experience and faith.

My heart hopes that one morning, I will wake up, and I will be sitting with Jesus, at His table, in His home.  I don't know when that day will come, but I have faith that it will.  I know that it will.  I know because it is impossible, even when I close my eyes, to deny the glory and the presence of God around me.

This is a day very high in emotion.  It marks the return of a beloved friend and savior.  During this season I have been praying for anyone and everyone that has come across these writings.  That they would hear God's words, and not mine.  I pray for anyone who doesn't know Christ, or wants to know Him better - I pray that they meet Him, allow Him as a friend into their lives.  I pray that everyone experience God's peace and God's love as we spend another year celebrating the life of our friend and Savior, Jesus Christ.

May God bless you this Easter, and always.

~SP    

Holy Week Saturday: Buried in the Grave

Today is the Saturday between Good Friday (Jesus' death) and Easter Sunday (Jesus' resurrection).  In my upbringing in the church, there was never a formal name for this day.  I know that in some Catholic traditions it is referred to as Easter Vigil.  This is a day of waiting.  A day right after a huge wave of sorrow and loss.  A day of stillness and quiet.  The opening line to Buried in the Grave says it well:

There was a day we held our breath

and felt the sting of bitter death

When all our hopes were buried in the grave

That is what this Saturday must have felt like so many years ago.  Jesus' family, friends and followers were holding their breath.  They were still sorting through emotions and feelings.  It was probably still hard to fathom that Jesus was really gone.  

The song goes on to say this:

All we had, all we had

was a promise like a thread

holding us, keeping us from fraying at the edge

Jesus tells his disciples that He will overcome death.  He foresees his death, and his resurrection.  Luke 18:31-34 shares that prediction and promise.  Jesus gave that promise to His people, that He would fulfill the prophecies, and in doing so, fulfill God's will.  It was a promise.  Promises are often given simply through words, and they can seem as fragile as a thread.  Believing in promises takes faith.  Maybe a good name for this Saturday would be Faithful Saturday.  We were waiting, standing on the promises, standing on the faith, holding on to what we could no longer touch.  

The song also gives this idea - there was grace in the tension.  There have been times when in the midst of struggle and frustration, I have experienced an unexpected peace.  I don't see it coming and I don't know how to explain it.  But it washes over me, overwhelms me.  It reminds me that I am not capable of calming the storm, God is - and He knows just when to do so.  I think that is God's grace overwhelming our tension.  He continues to calm storms from a place on high.  I can imagine that on this day long ago, there was tension - a painful tension.  But because of the promise that Jesus had left, there was grace present there too.  Even if they didn't feel it overwhelm them, it was there.

So we wait.  We could also call this Waiting Saturday.  We will wait sustained by the promises and the grace - which we may not realize are there, but they cover us nonetheless.  

~SP 

Good Friday: Revelation Song

Today is Good Friday.  We may not think Good to be the best descriptor because this is the day that Jesus laid down His life.  It is a somber day, a painful day, a heavy day.

The lyrics to Revelation Song go like this:

Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty

Who was and is and is to come

Good Friday is a snapshot.  It is like a picture we hold on to of a painful but important memory.  That picture is finite - but Christ is not.  There was a long journey up to the cross, an painful sacrifice on the cross, and life after the cross.  We have to remember those things - we have to think of the whole picture.  Good Friday would be absolutely devastating if we could not put it in the context of Jesus' life and the fact that Jesus lives.

Let's talk about Hoosier basketball for a moment - and on a completely serious note.  For Hoosier fans in Bloomington, and across the globe last night, we watched our team fall to Syracuse.  After an incredible season - one unlike Hoosier fans had seen in a long time - it ended in two 20 minute halves.  It seemed like a flash of light compared to the season leading up to it.  When we stop to consider the journey, it is inspiring.  Coach Crean and his staff built up a team from the rubble, made them work hard and prove themselves when the odds were against them.  They played a tremendous season.  And now there is promise for Hoosier basketball's future.  In the moment, fans and players were heartbroken - but we can't discredit the journey behind us and the journey ahead.

The same is true of our Savior.  His journey up to the cross is terribly important.  He left us with so much through the love that He shared with those around Him, the teachings that we find in the Bible.  His journey beyond the cross is wonderful, because He still continues to love and be present in our lives.  Today we honor Jesus' death on the cross, knowing that there is hope for tomorrow.

~SP

Holy Week Thursday: I Have Decided to Follow Jesus

I have decided to follow Jesus

This is a song about surrender - one of the hardest things we are called to do.  We find safety in control, in being able to decide what happens, predict outcomes.  Following Jesus means giving those things up.  If I had been sitting by the water fishing one morning, and a man passed me and told me to drop my nets and follow him - what would I do?  I have job security, I'm making a living, and this man just wants me to leave it behind?

The choice to follow Jesus is a radical decision.  I used to think that if I was asked to give my testimony that it would bore people - no one would care.  I was born into a family that shared Christ's love with me from the day they brought me home.  I watched a lot of Veggie Tales, went to Church Camp...but because Christ is part of my story, because God has penned by story, it is worthy of telling.  Everyone will come with a different story.  When God has the pen in hand, there is no story that is not worth telling. 

Though none go with me, I still will follow

There are times when we will feel like we are walking alone.  There are times where we will feel like we don't have any support.  There will be some days when you turn around, like Forrest Gump, and realize that half of America is walking with you.  There will be other days when that is not the case.  But you are never alone on the Journey.  God has made the promise to walk it with you.

The cross before me, the world behind me

When we get up and follow Christ, we are headed toward a marvelous light.  We are headed toward a strong and steadfast cross that symbolizes the sacrifice and the promise that was made for us.  The cross is a representation of another home.  A home that God has prepared for us.  As we get closer and closer to the cross the world starts to fade behind us.  It is God's lighthouse, beckoning us home.

~SP  

 

Holy Week Wednesday: In Christ Alone

In Christ Alone is a classic hymn that has made its way into praise music.  It has great, descriptive lyrics - but also sets forth some simple ideas.

The opening line says this:

In Christ alone, my hope is found

He is my light, my strength my song

In Christ alone.  It hasn't happened to me before, but I often think about how I would answer the question why do you choose to be a Christian?  Why do you choose to follow Christ?  I could give tons of reasons.  I could talk about kindness and love, how to treat your neighbors and your enemies, the abundance of God's grace and mercy.  

Why do I choose to live me life this way?  Why do I choose to have a relationship with a living God?  It is because of Jesus Christ.  There is no one like Jesus Christ.  I could search in any other place, through any other religion or faith system, but I would not find anyone who compares to God's Son.  I have never known another person who would carry a cross on their back - the cross that they were going to die on.  He would endure that embarrassment and that shame for my life.  

I am in awe of His selflessness.  He laid His life down to pay a debt in advance - for those who believed at the time and those who were still struggling.  He laid His life down for those who wouldn't believe, so that salvation would be there if they want to seek it and choose it.  

I choose Christ because He is where my hope lies.  Hope in anything else fades or disappears.

This is what I believe.  I believe in a loving God.  I believe in a God that tells us that the way to eternal life with Him is through a relationship with Jesus, His son.  I believe that God is not a condemning God - He wants all of His children to come home.  I believe that the Shepherd will seek every last sheep.  That is where my knowledge stops.  God is so much greater than I am - there is nothing that He is incapable of.  I don't get any say in who spends their eternal life where.  But I know that He desires us deeply, and He will always want for us to choose a relationship with His son - He gave us Jesus so He could be near to us in that way.

Christ Alone.  He is all that I need.  He is what I choose.  There is no one like Him.

~SP   

Holy Week Tuesday: How He Loves

I put of videos by both David Crowder and John Mark McMillan.  I couldn't choose which version!  The opening lines of the song go like this:

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

A few weeks ago I talked about boasting - our boasting.  We are called to boast in nothing but Christ.  An old hymn says I will boast in nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness.  We do not need to boast, we do not need to prove our worth through what we can do or what we have.  We have a God who boasts in us.

I have noticed that in the world today, we have trouble doing things without an audience.  Giving or receiving a compliment, doing charity work.  We feel like we need someone to see it or hear to make it worthy of anything.  But in truth, we devalue what we are doing by doing it for attention and self-glory.  I am guilty of this.

God truly is jealous for us.  His affections for us truly are great.  He says, let me boast in you, I know your worth, you don't have to prove it.  Isaiah 49:16 says "See I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me."  God is proud of us.  And He owns the rights to that pride and all of the glory.   

Jesus showed us the perfect sincerity and humility.  Sometimes we strive so hard for those things - we aim to be the perfect Christian.  But there is not perfect Christian - only a perfect Christ.  God meets us right where we are at.  He loves us, and boasts in us for who we are every day.  

I once had a teacher in high school that tried to convince our class that every parent picks a favorite child.  He must not have been familiar with God's parenting style.  God has room on His hands for everyone's name.  He affections are truly that great.  God does not need to prove our worth to anyone, because He knows it.  He boasts in us because He loves us.

~SP