At one time we lived near a ranch that bred and raised Arabian horses. They were magnificent animals, and often grazed in a field near the road that we usually traveled. One day, when I drove by the pasture, I had to slow down, as a graceful deer crossed the road in front of me, walked toward the fence , and easily leaped it to join the horses, some of which were grazing at the rack which held food in the field for them. Two horses stopped long enough to look up at the deer, and resumed their meal at the rack. The deer simply stood next to them and shared the feast. It didn’t stay long, but returned over the fence and into the woods. The image of that graceful, fragile looking wild deer next to the Arabian horses stays with me. The wild animal was such a contrast to the horses, that it seemed to represent an entirely different world, yet the deer was not shy about joining the horses.

The whole scene, experienced in only a very few minutes, reminded me of C.S. Lewis’ books in The Chronicles of Narnia, where the animals talk and interact like human beings. In describing the nature of Aslan, the great lion who is a savior figure in the book The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mrs. Beaver says, “He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

‘The Lewis story rests on prophesies of rescue of the world of Narnia by Aslan, of the return of spring and blessed living. In the Bible, the Book of Isaiah prophetically announces the coming of a rescue from darkness into light: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. . . For unto us a child is born. . . and he will be called ‘Wonderful Counselor , Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:2&6),

The promise of the coming of Christ has echoed for thousands of years. It is renewed at Christmas and Easter, and in individual lives throughout time. His coming into our lives cannot be forced or fabricated. He is not, after all “a tame lion.” the “wildness” of God is the source of hope for us, for His all sufficiency covers our entire well being.

That He can leap over the fences of our lives, and fellowship with us and even rescue us, is our hope for eternal life.

St. Paul experienced this: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) In life and in stories our God makes Himself known to us.

Love in Him,

Prue

When the Queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon as well as the palace,. . . the food on his table, . . . his officials,. . . servants,. . . and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed. She said to the king, . . . “Praise be to the Lord your God. . . Because of the love of your God for Israel. . . He has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.” ( 2Chron.(9:3-8)

The Queen of Sheba was not among the chosen people of Israel. She lived far to the south, perhaps on the continent ofAfrica, in what is Ethiopia today. The exact location is disputed, but it was at least a forty day journey with a caravan of camels such as accompanied the Queen. It was a treacherous undertaking, motivated entirely by reports of a king who spoke with the wisdom of God.

Many generations later Jesus spoke to some Pharisees and teachers of the law: The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now something greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:42) The Queen’s visit to Solomon was a signal to Jesus and to all believers that though the people of Israel were the chosen people of God, His Spirit was not confined only to them,but given to all believers. The Queen of the South believed, or perhaps at first only hoped, that the God of Israel was true and real. Her visit to Solomon was confirmation that her trip had not been in vain, that the extraordinary wisdom was divinely inspired and even transparent in the qualities of justice and righteousness. In an almost entirely pagan world, and from so great a distance, the Queen’s resolution and determination to see for herself the validity of the accounts she had heard, was itself inspired, for centuries later Jesus recognized her visit as the work of his Father.

The Queen of Sheba’s visit, and her recognition of the divine origin of Solomon’s wisdom and reign, can be an inspiration to us, who sometimes feel as far as the ends of the earth away from God. Nevertheless, we have at our disposal gifts, such as the Queen brought to Solomon , and that he in turn gave to her. We have the wisdom and sheer inspiration of justice and righteousness contained in our Bibles. We have lives to submit to God. More than all of these, we have the One who is “something greater” than Solomon in our lives. The Holy Spirit who inspired the Queen of Sheba is able to inspire us as well. How rich we are!

Love in Him,

Prue

OOPS

The last blog, Steadfast Love contained a glip, an ad for some kind of chair. Neither Jack nor I can understand exactly how that happened, but I’ll be monitoring more closely from now on. Also, if you do not receive a blog on a Sunday or a Wednesday, please let me know. So far, they have been published every week on those two days, yet some have not received one or more. I’m grateful for this technology, but mindful that nothing, and only One is perfect.

Love in Him,

Prue

Why does God love us? Is it because we are made in His image? Is it because His son loves us and gave his life for us? Are there more reasons? One reason draws us closer to Him throughout our lives: of all the living things in all creation, human beings are the ones who engage in the battle between good and evil both in the world and within themselves. The struggle in which we engage, engages Him, and He shares His Spirit with us to achieve our victory.

But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (Acts 7:55) Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian faith, had been chosen by the Apostles to serve and minister to the early church. Because Stephen’s sermon was offensive to the members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen, they could not endure his message and stoned him to death. Stephen received a vision of Jesus standing next to God Himself, who welcomed him to heaven as Stephen died. Stephen was an early believer in Jesus as the Christ, and never wavered, even when threatened by death.

The battle that Christians fight is an internal one as well . The battle to remain faithful, to renew our commitment to Christ, to forgive and to remain steadfast, is shared with us by the Holly Spirit; and our bond deepens. God loves this. It is a life-long experience and a journey that God loves to share. Because Jesus gave his human, physical life as well as his spiritual life to God we have favor with God. He has placed a path at our feet which, if followed, leads to more of Him in our lives.

Stephen found the path early, as did the disciples of Jesus. Paul found the path on the road to Damascus . Unknown numbers of people find the path in a local church, or in their own families, but each one must struggle to “keep the faith” in the face of a world of confusion and denial. “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord. . . will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” Why does God love us? Love is the very character of God. “We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

God loves us because of who He is.

Love in Him,

Prue

Whenever, as a child, I complained to my grandmother of some heinous crime that one of my sisters had committed, my grandmother would respond, “But she said she was sorry, and so we don’t speak of it again. It happened, and it is over with.” The message to me was that forgiveness is a lifestyle. It has a pattern and perimeters. An offense occurs, repentance follows, and forgiveness causes it to vanish. I think that my grandmother knew herself to be forgiven by God, and that made her confident in making forgiveness her lifestyle. She didn’t sympathize with me,or even acknowledge that I had been grievously wronged, but simply closed a door and opened another, healthier door.

David wrote in Psalm 51, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Part of the reason that God chose David as a “Man after His own heart” ( 1 Samuel 13:14) is hidden in this psalm. Here the psalmist acknowledged his wrong doing and wrong spirit. He bemoaned the loss of joy and gladness. He expressed the condition of all of sinful humanity in the face of our creator God, and held onto the hope of remedy and reprieve from God Himself. David knew that he could not help himself, and that God alone could make him, and us, clean. David’s intimacy with God enabled David to believe that, in spite of his own emptiness, God could and would fill him with His grace and life. He knew that forgiveness would bring joy and relief from sorrow and dismay..

Centuries later, after the birth of the one whom Isaiah had called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” the child would grow up to fulfill all the words of the prophets. The man Jesus taught his disciples, as well as us, a prayer that included , “ forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” (Matthew 6:12), and then he demonstrated the extent to which he would go to secure forgiveness for his people, by accepting death on the cross. The stakes are literally infinite, as Jesus’ words were received by his Father God: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

Forgiveness holds together families, friends, and even nations. It is connected to our eternal destination. It is the lifestyle of God, which he seeks in us.

Love in Him,,

Prue

Our Father God is quick to forget our sins when we repent. As Corrie Ten Boom once wrote, “He buries our sins in the deepest part of the ocean; and then posts a sign that reads “No Fishing!” He forgets our sins many times in our lifetimes; but there are other things that God never forgets.

Sometimes it is hard to feel in touch with Gd, and our prayers seem like sawdust. Those times can drag on longer and longer unless we remember that every believing prayer is bound in God’s “Bundle of Life” (1Samuel 25:29). The very prayer that was prayed for each of us at our baptism remains in God’s bundle throughout our lives. The prayers of our grandmothers are still in God’s bundle when our own lips are silent, and we can’t discern God’s presence. Our prayers, prayed under the influence of God’s own Spirit, remain in His memory all our lives and beyond. When we remember that He remembers, it is easier to approach God in prayer. We come to Him not alone, but accompanied by a host of believers whose prayers for us are in God’s bundle.

When Abigail met David, who was not yet the king, and offered him food for the men who followed David, she said to him, “Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies He will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling.” (1 Samuel 25:29) Abigail knew that the revenge that David sought would wreck his unique relationship to Israel’s God. She was protecting not only her own home, which David might have destroyed, but the heritage of David himself as God’s chosen king.

More than all this, God gave us His son, who presented the disciples with a prayer straight out of God’s bundle of life. The Lord’s Prayer is a gift from the Father to son, and to all of us, that we may partake of the goodness in the Father’s bundle of life. Jesus shared his birthright with all of us when he gave the Lord’s Prayer to us.

Mary received God’s bundle of life when her baby was placed in her arms. It is God’s plan that each of us receive that bundle and find His life in it. God loves to see His bundle grow and flourish. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,” (John 10:70)

Love in Him,

Prue

It has been said that the Hebrew people were the only ancient people who believed that time itself is “linear”; it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. All other ancient people believed that time is cyclical, exhibited in the seasons of the year, and the positions of the sun, moon, and stars.

The Scriptures give us a picture of God as being the Lord of time: “I will return at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” (Genesis 18:14) The act of the creation of the whole earth is the “beginning” of the word of God as He speaks into existence the light and the sky and the continents, the plants and trees; and as He counted the days, He created the water teeming with living creatures, and on land the creatures according to their kind. (Genesis1:24) On the sixth day He created one creature in His own image,to be followed by a mate for that creature: a man and a woman. Each creation was “timed” so that the man could name all the other creatures.

The ancient Greeks believed in a whole pantheon of gods and goddesses. The Romans adopted may of them, and added their own. The Greek and Roman gods were created in the images of their own inventors. Their lives and exploits were both natural and supernatural, and their dispositions were capricious and arbitrary.

In the days of King Hezekiah of Judah, God answered the king”s prayer through His prophet Isaiah: Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In days of old I planned it; now I have brought it to pass. ( 2 Kings 19:25) God rescued the city of Jerusalem in a dramatic way. In these words God displayed His plans and His character. Nothing that happened was beyond His notice and even His control. He lives in Eternity, yet created the time in which we live. He is the opposite of all other gods, the Father of both time and eternity. The God who lives in eternity knows all the creatures that live in time.

In a time carefully chosen by God, He sent His son , who would create the bridge between time and eternity. Jesus brought us the stunning assurance: I am the Resurrection and the Life . The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. (John 11:25) He whose love is immeasurable, died so that he could share with us his Father’s eternity.

Love in Him,

Prue

There are a least three Saints Teresa in the Catholic Church. The second one, chronologically, Therese of Lisieux, France was the one chosen by Mother Teresa of Calcutta as her namesake.

Therese of Lisieux was a young woman born in 1873 of a devout Catholic family, one of five sisters, all of whom became nuns. Therese was only fifteen years old when she became a Carmelite nun. Nine years later she died of tuberculosis in the Carmelite convent of Lisieux, the town where she grew up. She is not known for heroic exploits or great achievements of any kind. She worked in the laundry at the convent , and was the “novice mistress” for a while. Today there are great and beautiful cathedrals on virtually every continent dedicated to St. Therese of Lisieux, sometimes called “The Little Flower.”

When Therese was ill with TB her sister asked her to write some of her childhood reminiscences. Later this same sister spoke to the Prioress about Theresa’s impending death: “. . . you will not be able to obtain much information to write her obituary. If you were to tell her to do so, she could write something. . .” As a result, the Prioress did ask, and Therese willingly obeyed. She produced a book she called The Story of a Soul. On the basis of this book she was made a saint.

The Story of a Soul is the account of both her physical, emotional life, and of her spiritual life. She wrote of her discovery of the meaning of Jesus’ words, “I say to you, unless you be converted and come as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:3). Therese wrote, “The way of spiritual childhood is the path that leads to eternal life” She called her path “The Little Way,” and quoted Proverbs 9: “Whoever is a little one, come to me.”

It has been said that Theresa’s “Little Way” is simply the concept of humility, but in her book she reveals a soul who discovers the “smallness” needed to receive the greatness of God. Her method of divesting herself of the things that preoccupy the world in order to be filled with the Spirit of Christ, so resonated in the hearts and minds of Christian readers that she became one of the most popular of Catholic saints, mentioned in the writings of several popes, and inspiring the nun from Armenia, Agnes Bojanxhiu to choose “Teresa” for her Christian name before she became Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Therese’s book reveals a soul at home with the Spirit of God. Her words speak to every generation.

Love in Him,

Prue

The painted bunting is a small bird. It looks as if it has been dipped into four different paint pots: blue, red, green and yellow, all brilliant in the sunlight, less noticeable in the shade. “Noticeable “ is an understatement , for the sight of one of these in a splash of sunlight is unforgettable. They look like brilliant gemstones clustered into a priceless brooch, and given the breath of life,

In watching these birds on the deck overlooking Possum Kingdom Lake, I was struck by how oblivious they are of the interest that human beings have in watching them. People come from other countries, and around the U.S. hoping to catch a glimpse of these small patterns of living color. The female bunting is lime green in color, with pale green buff color breast. Both male and female are small and seemingly fragile. Though they are not yet on the endangered species list, their numbers are declining.

I cannot see these these creatures without thinking of their creator and mine: The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, and all who live in it, for He founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. (Psalm 24:1-2) The many colors on the male remind me of the rainbow. When the Israelite people made a scroll of remembrance concerning those who feared the Lord, and honored His name, our God answered: “They will be mine” says the Lord, “when I make up my jewels” (Malachi 3:17)

That a bird small enough to be held in a child’s hand should evoke so strong a response in human beings , speaks of the marvels of nature that God intends us to enjoy and for which he looks for praise and thanks. Noah saw the first magnificent rainbow, but we can see a rainbow in our own bird feeders, if not the painted buntings, then cardinals, blue birds, gold finches and an array of warblers to mention a few. I believe that the delight we experience in seeing God’s jewels is a delight that He shares with us while waiting to make us up into His own.

Love in Him,

Prue