Do you?

 

Friday we were left with words such as Disappointment, Dismay, and Desolation.  

But it’s Sunday morning. Mary Magdalene and others go to the tomb of Jesus, filled with Dread. They believe their Lord and Savior is Dead and His cold body will be lying there. Instead, the tomb is empty, Jesus’ body is gone. They are Desperate to find it, to find Him.

And He finds them and their Despair is quickly turned to Delight. Jesus is their Deliverer.

A week later, however, we encounter one last D word. Doubt. You know the story. Thomas, one of the disciples, wasn’t with the others when Jesus appeared to them. He doubted what they told him. He wouldn’t believe until he put his fingers where the nails had pierced Jesus’ hands.

When Jesus appeared to him, Thomas did just that – put his fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hands and in His side. Then he no longer doubted.

What about you? Without having seen Jesus yourself, do you believe in the resurrection? Do you have faith that Jesus Christ came to save you from your sins?

I pray you Do. May God bless you, Chris

So Many D's

This past Sunday night, Hubby and I were supposed to fly out of Minneapolis, heading to Seattle to visit his nephew for the week. I’d been watching the forecast the whole previous week, and it kept saying that snow was heading our way. But Minneapolis, Minnesota? Where a foot of snow is the same as an inch of snow anywhere else? Surely the eight to ten inches that was forecasted wouldn’t affect our flight.

8:30 Sunday morning, twelve hours before our scheduled takeoff, I got a text from the airline saying our flight was cancelled. What? Twelve hours away! Anything could happen. Come on, people, give it a chance.

Hubby and I reviewed all our options, tried to come up with every possible scenario to save this trip, but it just didn’t feel like it was going to happen.

We were so disappointed. But then my pain jumped up again Monday morning and kept me miserable for three days, so maybe the trip would have been a wash anyway.

Disappointment. But nothing compared to what Jesus’ followers felt on the first Good Friday. Dismay, despair, desolation, dread. So many D’s.

And what about Jesus? Death. An excruciatingly painful death on a cross.

But Sunday is coming.

Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled

 

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give peace to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard Me say that I am going away. But I am coming back to you. If you love Me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father. The Father is greater than I. I have told you this before it happens. Then when it does happen, you will believe.

            “I will not talk much more with you. The leader of this world is coming. He has no power over Me. I am doing what the Father told Me to do so the world may know I love the Father. Come, let us be on our way”. (John 14:27-30, New Life Version)

There is nothing I can – or should – add to that. Today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. Good Friday is only days away. But remember, Easter Sunday is coming. God bless you.

I Want to Live

It will be a year on the first since I threw out my back, and this horrible cycle of pain began. For the last few weeks, I had been doing pretty good; then, I was afflicted with vertigo, followed a few days later by a cold. But still, the pain wasn’t bad at all, except for my neck, which I couldn’t turn without getting dizzy.

Then, I woke up Monday morning with another spin of the Wheel of Misfortune. Right pelvic pain to the point where I couldn’t walk. Over the last eleven months, I’ve had this before, and it usually eases up after two days.

So I woke up yesterday morning, and the right side wasn’t too bad, but the left side was horrible. That has kind of been the trend. Not only is my left pelvis still hurting this morning, but today my left neck is stiff and killing me. 

I’ve dealt with all of this as best I can. Some days, like yesterday, I hit the wall and wasn’t very nice to my husband or son, as if any of this was their fault. But overall, I’ve accepted that this is life.

There was a time, however, last fall when I couldn’t cope anymore. God wasn’t answering my prayers to take away the pain, and He wasn’t answering my prayers when I kept asking why this was happening to me. A depression descended on me, a black cloud. I didn’t care if I got up in the morning; I found nothing to make me laugh. My prayers become times of begging God to take me home to heaven.

I scared myself and the friends and family members who I told about my feelings. I started thinking of all the ways I could kill myself, which looked like an accident.

Then, one afternoon in November, I got crushing chest pain while taking my walk. Instead of going straight to the ER (do not pass go, do not collect $200), since the pain went away by the time I got in the house, I called and made a doctor’s appointment for the following week.

But in my head, I thought, ah-ha, finally, God has listened to my prayers, and He’s going to take me.

I made it to the appointment and had a bunch of tests that day, which all came back pretty okay. But the doctor wanted to run one more test, which took a month to get in for. 

Still, I thought, this is okay. I’ll die from a heart attack before then.

The day of the appointment came, and I was still alive. I made it through the test, and a few days later, my doctor gave me the results. He tried to cover up his concern, but I could tell he didn’t like something about the results. He scheduled me to see cardiology.

I went home and looked up everything I could find online about the number he didn’t like, that one little blimp on an otherwise normal test. What I saw stopped me in my tracks. The words “increased risk for sudden cardiac death” jumped off my computer screen.

I looked out my window and whispered, “But, God, I don’t want to die.” Then I wanted to shout, “I don’t want to die.”

I was like George Bailey near the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” hanging on to the bridge railing, his mouth bleeding, repeating, “I want to live. I want to live again.”

When I saw the cardiologist, she said that the one abnormal number on that test usually didn’t mean anything, but she’d schedule one last test just to be sure. That one came back totally normal, and I was cleared; there was nothing wrong with my heart.

And my mind? That is good again, too. Coz I don’t wanna die. No matter how much pain I’m in or what new ailment assails me, I want to live.

Yes, I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39, New Century Version)

 

Everything

Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”

            Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

Can you imagine living in that moment? Being one of the chosen twelve disciples? Being one of the men whom Jesus entrusted with EVERYTHING about His life? And trying to understand it all.

We don’t realize how lucky we are. We have the entire Bible to study and learn from. We aren’t living in the moment, two thousand years ago, being told by our Teacher that bad things were going to happen to Him and then watching this Friend die on that cross.

But we still don't know everything. All we have is the indescribable joy of knowing that He rose from the grave on the third day. 

The Tree of Knowledge

When bad things happen, everyone asks – why would God do this? Why would a loving Father allow believers to suffer? Why would He let innocent little children die painful deaths?

People search all over the Bible for answers to those questions, and they sometimes find good ones. I’ve asked God all those things – and more – as I struggled with pain and a list of other maladies over the past eleven months. And I’ve found some answers in the Bible, too. But way back in the second chapter of the first book of the Bible is the answer which works best for me.

Then the Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and guard it. He told him, “You may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden, except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day.” (Genesis 2:15-17, Good News Translation)

Maybe we just aren’t supposed to know why things happen. Maybe if we knew the answers to those questions, we wouldn’t be able to handle it. Maybe we just need to trust God that He knows what He’s doing. He has knowledge and that needs to be enough for us.  

Who Is the Holy Spirit?

“If you love me, obey me; and I will ask the Father and he will give you another Comforter, and he will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who leads into all truth. The world at large cannot receive him, for it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you do, for he lives with you now and some day shall be in you. 

"No, I will not abandon you or leave you as orphans in the storm—I will come to you. In just a little while I will be gone from the world, but I will still be present with you. For I will live again—and you will too. When I come back to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. The one who obeys me is the one who loves me; and because he loves me, my Father will love him; and I will too, and I will reveal myself to him.” (John 14:15-21, Living Bible)

Once again, the apostle John packs a lot into just a few verses. So, I’m going to focus on just one thing here – the Comforter. Other versions of the Bible refer to this as the Advocate, Encourager, Helper, or Counselor. But Jesus sets us straight when He says that this is the Holy Spirit.

When we think of God the Father, we can picture a grandfatherly man or another older person with a kind yet strong demeanor. Everyone has pretty much the same picture in their head when they think of God the Son – you know, that painting of Jesus with shoulder-length brown hair, a neatly trimmed beard, eyes looking heavenward, wearing a white tunic. (I’d share that picture here, but I want you to see it in your own mind.)

But what comes to mind when we say God the Holy Spirit. He’s a spirit, right? So maybe He doesn’t have human form and maybe that’s why He’s the hardest element of the triune God for us to understand.

But maybe He should be the easiest. Read what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit – He is with you forever and will never leave you, He lives with you now and later will be in you. And remember, He is also your Comforter, Advocate, Encourager, Helper, and Counselor.

And also, usually portrayed as a dove, and not the goofy bird above.  

Another spin of the wheel, or of the merry-go-round

The only amusement ride I've ever liked. 

I’m sorry that I didn’t write a blog on Wednesday, but the Wheel of Misfortune spun a new one on me. This time it wasn’t pain, it was vertigo. Room-spinning, floor-tilting, nauseating vertigo.

I had one ER trip, one doctor’s office visit, and one therapy appointment, in three days. If any of you have ever had this – medical term usually being Benign Positional Vertigo, or BPV – you know it can be debilitating. We’ve all been dizzy or off-balance, but this is like having had too much to drink and then stepping on an amusement park ride, but there’s nothing amusing about it.

The cure is simple – something called the Epley Maneuver. (I know BPV already sounds a little sketchy and then you do some kind of maneuver? Creepy.) (Just kidding.) 

Working in health care, I’ve heard of this before, but silly me, I was under the assumption that this little maneuver would cure the vertigo after one hit. Nothing is ever that easy, right? And certainly not that easy in my life.

So, I do this thing – turn my head and lay down and let the dizziness pass – twice a day and it should get better in a few weeks. It’s all from crystals in our ears getting into the wrong canal and this move makes them shift back to where they belong. I still find it hard to believe that this is actual traditional Western medicine.

Anyway, wish me luck, once again.

Will Jesus Answer our Prayer?

“I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! (John 14:12-14)

What a great thought! Believe, do as Jesus has done, and then ask for anything; it is as good as done!

So, then, how come all our prayers don’t get answered? How come we can pray night after night for a relative to be cured of cancer? Or for a loved one to come to know the Lord? Or for safety during a tornado or other disastrous event? And those prayers don’t seem to be answered?

A couple of things are happening in the short final sentence in the above Bible verse.  First, “Ask for anything in my name.” Did you ask in Jesus’ name? Sure, you said Christ’s name in your prayer, but did you mean it? Did you feel it?

And do you know what it really means to pray that way? It means you have turned your request over to Jesus, and it’s now his decision how he “will do it.”God isn’t a puppet on a string to do our every bidding. We must trust that both God the Father and God the Son have our best interests and will take care of us and our prayers.