David was a man who had received an extravagant promise. Anointed by Samuel, David had been told in the presence of his whole family, that he, David, would be the king of Israel even though everyone knew that Saul, the present king, had an ‘heir and a spare’ to succeed him.

The time between David’s anointing and his emergence as the king of Israel was a tumultuous , even agonizing time that included David’s victory over Goliath and Saul’s eventual murderous jealousy that forced David too leave Israel altogether. Many of David’s psalms reflect some of the angst of that period in his life: You number my wanderings; put my tears into your bottle; are they not in your book? When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know, because God is for me. ( Psalm 55:8-9) The back and forth of apprehension and confidence in the help of God, is a picture of David’s life, as he is fearful for his life and his family’s lives, but his fear sits on a shelf of confidence in the presence of God to protect and even prosper him. David’s relationship to God is deeply personal. He has needed God to preserve him ever since Saul perceived David as an enemy. It was a very delicate balance that David had to walk for the rest of Saul’s life.

When even David’s own men urged him to kill Saul, David answered, “The Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed.” ( 1Samuel 26:11) Though David could see no path to the crown, He refused to take into his own hands the working out of Samuel’s anointing him king. (1Samuel 16:11-13) This refusal became a strong bond between God and David, making a way for God to act in David’s life hugely. Throughout his life David placed his faith in the covenant relationship he had with God. Almost no one in his acquaintance understood the strength of that bond.

Eighteenth century theologian Adam Clarke wrote, “The cry of faith and prayer to God is more dreadful to our spiritual foes than the war-whoop of the Indian is to his surprised enemy.”

When David sinned, it was his cry to God that restored him, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me! (Psalm 51:11) When David was anointed he received God’s Holy Spirit. It was from that Spirit that David drew his knowledge and assurance that “God is for me.” This Spirit was a free gift to David as the Holy Spirit is a free gift to us through Christ. We, too, can say, ‘God is for me!’”

Love in Him,

Prue

When my brother was born he was given the name Richard Burdett. The first name was also my Father’s name, and the second was my mother’s maiden name. While he was growing up he was always called “Burr”, to distinguish him from Dad, but when he left home for college he began to use “Dick.” The plan seemed good to the whole family, and it was followed with each of his sisters except the last. Nancy was to call herself “Nan” when she left home; and I, called “Prudy” as a child, was to become “Prue” as an adult. “Holly” was to be “Hollace”, but Margot, the youngest, had no alternate name. Nancy, who had pretty red hair, didn’t like “Nan”, so she called herself “Rusty”while she was still in school. None of the family or her friends could consistently remember to call her “Rusty,” so she remained “Nancy.” Sometimes I reflected upon the fact that no one else I knew had been given multiple names for different stages in their lives.

In the Bible, naming a child is very important. Hannah named her firstborn son “Samuel”, which means “heard by God” (1Samuel 1:20), and the long lists of genealogies testify to the care taken in preserving names. Jesus’ name was important enough for God to give the Angel Gabriel the child’s name to give to his mother Mary: “You will conceive and bear a son, and you are to call him Jesus”( Luke 1:31)

“Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you what ever you ask in my name. . . In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on our behalf. No, the Father Himself loves you because you have loved me, and have believed that I came from God.” (John 16:23,27)

Jesus’ name was the same as Joshua’s, but translated from the Greek instead of the Hebrew. Most important, perhaps, is that the name means “God is Salvation.” It was not an uncommon name for a Hebrew boy, but when Jesus tells the disciples to pray in his name, the name of Jesus became a link to God Himself. “Ask in my name” is a powerful bond, as if God has given the believer an actual key to the Kingdom of God, and that is the very truth, When the Holy Spirit puts the name of Jesus into our minds, And we receive it prayerfully, we are united to God in the love we have for His son.

Names can be quite meaningless, but God has supplied a name that takes us directly to Him. In giving us his name, He is sharing with us His love.

Love in Him,

Prue

There are versions of a story that has circulated simply by internet or word of mouth since the 1930’s. It’s the story of a U.S Navy warship in Canadian waters on a very foggy night. To the surprise of the captain, he perceived the lights of another smaller vessel through the fog, dangerously close. He demanded that the other boat turn 15 degrees south to avoid a collision. The response was, “We are not moving. Turn 15 degrees north to avoid a collision.” the captain of the naval ship was enraged. Finally he commanded the other vessel to move, “This is the Aircraft Carrier USS Montana. We are a large warship of the U.S. Navy. . . Divert your course now!!” The reply came quickly: “We are a lighthouse. Your call.”

It is such a popular story that it has been called an “urban legend” Members of the U.S. Navy have sometimes used it in presentations, but there is no documentation of its truth. I first heard it from a preacher in a sermon. Whenever I’m reminded of this story I laugh again. That may be why it has survived for so long: it’s funny to think of mistaking a lighthouse for a ship, and funny to think of the embarrassment of the captain. In some ways, though, we are all like that captain. We sometimes live in a fog, a fog of unknowing our own selves. Thinking we are moving in a direction of our own choice, we miss important signs that tell us the truth of God’s plan for us.

King David experienced the need to rest the course of his life in his prayer, Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:9-10)

The fog is sometimes in our own lives when we wonder where our God is. It’s then that we need to check our charts for a glimpse of the way to turn.:Your teachers will be hidden no more . Whether you turn to the right or the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:20-21) When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12) The light within can keep us from colliding with a lighthouse,or making selfish decisions to our own hurt. That light was given to the disciples to carry into the world. They received it and carried it and it is still shining in our own time. The light within is God’s Holy Spirit.

Love in Him,

Prue

The story of Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem when he was twelve years old, is a signal story. It’s more than a children’s story, for here we show a glimpse of a developmental moment in the life of the son of God. At this three day long moment we can witness the beginnings of Jesus’ passion for worship: Why were you searching for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house? (Luke 2:49)

In the Old Testament, perfect worship occurred at the dedication of the temple in Jerusalem when the priests installed the ark of the Covenant in the holy of holies, and then had to withdraw, for the cloud of God’s presence filled the temple. (1 Kings 8:11)

As a grown man with twelve disciples, Jesus talked to a woman by a well in Samaria. Worship was the subject: “Believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. The time is coming and has now come when true worshipers will worship God the Father in the Spirit and in the truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit and His worshipers must warship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:21-23)

When Jesus visited the temple in Jerusalem with his disciples, he was dismayed at the buying and selling that was filling the building. His angry response was a rare occasion that revealed his personal attachment to the place he once called his Father’s house: When Jesus visited the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. “It is written, he said to them, ‘My house will be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of robbers.” ( Luke 19:45) Jesus’ passion for the house of the worship of his Father, the house that was a tangible link to God, was apparent when he watched a widow drop two small coins into the treasury, knowing it was all the money that she had: “Truly I tell you this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.” (Mark 12:43)

Jesus knew that worship was his link to his Father, and that real worship was the only hope for his people to have a relationship with God. By the time he spoke with the Samaritan woman, Jesus knew that real worship was not confined to the temple or to any other place. Instead, he talked about a Spirit that is in us that is recognized by God, for it is His Spirit as well. When God looks at us and recognizes the Spirit of His son in us, we have achieved worship, for this was the passion of Jesus.

Love in Him,

Prue

“From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.(Luke 22:68) These are the words of Jesus when he stood In front of the chief priests and teachers of the law, accused of claiming to be the Messiah. From there he was sent to Pilate, then to Herod, then back to Pilate before he was crucified.

A short time after Jesus’ death and resurrection a follower of his, Stephen, was stoned to death for proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah. At the scene of Steven’s stoning he looked up and received a mission of Jesus : “Look! He said, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God! (Acts7:56) The author of Hebrews wrote this: When this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. (Hebrews 10:12)

It may seem insignificant whether Jesus stands or sits at God’s right hand, but I think that to Steven it meant something important. It meant that Jesus was intensely interested in Steven’s ordeal, and that he even honored Steven in Steven’s martyrdom . Jesus stood up to honor Steven in his death. That Jesus should sit at God’s right hand was intended as the ultimate honor for him, but for Jesus to stand up at Steven’s death is also a very great honor for Steven. Jesus’ standing displayed to a band of believers the unique bond between Jesus and his followers.

No longer are God’s commandments and His ways messages to a whole nation, but intensely personal communications between Jesus, son of God, and those he calls his “ friends”, and “brothers”. At the Last Supper, Jesus expressed his love for the disciples : I no longer call you servants. . . Instead I have called you friends. (John 15:15) On the day of his resurrection he told Mary Magdalene, “ Go to my brothers and tell them that I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17)

I believe that Jesus stands up whenever he sees a sacrifice from one of his own brothers or sisters. I believe that he rejoices when his believers display their love for him in spite of hardships and dangers. I believe we have a Savior who is our brother.

Love in Him,

Prue

The reason that the church marks the days of the birth and the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ with services of equal devotion is that each of them is a salutary medicine for us, because he was born so that we might be born again, and he died that we might live forever. ( St. Augustine , sermon 314)

Three weeks ago the Christmas catalogs began to arrive in my mailbox as a “salutary “announcement” that the holiday season has arrived. None of the catalogs made mention of the Author of Christmas, but the signal was sent to start now to embellish the celebration by spending as much as possible.

Nevertheless, in spite of the secularization of the holidays, Christmas and Easter remain essentially religious for Christians. Sometimes a speaker can be heard to say that Christmas would be meaningless without Easter; but then I remember the “salutary medicine” of St. Augustine, and I know that God doesn’t do meaningless things at any time in His relationships with His people, or at any other time. His medicine is always healing, always renewing.

On no other occasion in the Bible did God empty His heaven of angels to celebrate anything in the history of His people, except at the birth of His son. It was a huge salutary medicine applied to an obscure group of shepherds that changed their lives, and over two thousand years later continues to change ours. At Christmas God put on human flesh and entered our fallen world, making a permanent change in the lives of believers. The enormity of this event is cloaked in simplicity, humility, and obedience. It is shaped by God in the measure of His attachment to His people, and the readiness in the souls of Joseph and Mary to identify themselves with the God of the Old Testament.

One day in early spring my eight year old grandson asked me, “Mimi, have you ever had a Christmas feeling when it wasn’t even Christmas?” “Yes,”I answered, I have had such a feeling.” “Because I’m having one right now,” said Isaac. We were sitting on our patio watching some birds.

The salutary medicine of Christmas really does extend throughout the year. It can’t be compared to Easter, because they are both participants in the wholeness of God, the medicine we all need.

Love in Him,

Prue

Believe. Faith is a great hold-all, a great jar in which you can receive a great gift. Get a jar ready for yourself, because you have to approach a great spring. What does it mean, get it ready? Let your faith grow, let it be enlarged, let it become strong, don’t let your faith be slimy and muddy; let your faith be fired, not shattered, by the tribulations of this world. (St. Augustine, sermon 339)

In this short paragraph St. Augustine wrote of things with which we all struggle, even as our faith grows, we struggle with what seems a growing gap between today’s world and the world of the Scripture, of Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and Paul. Augustine lived through the first great sack of Rome ( 410 AD), when Christians questioned their faith and the will of God in the face of apparent chaos and catastrophic destruction. Augustine was a bishop at the time, living and ministering at Hippo, in northern Africa. Many Christians from Rome escaped to Africa and many asked Augustine , “Where was our God in the midst of such devastation and catastrophic loss?” Augustine sometimes preached to address these questions from his people. His advice to “let your faith be fired, not shattered” resonated then and it resonates in every generation in times of confusion beyond our control.

His message reaffirms that Christians have a connection with the only One who does have control, and through faith we can approach the “great spring” to have that faith grow in us such that awesome adversities become growers of our faith, and not defeaters of our spirits: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us…neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of Good that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-36)

Today more than ever we need the “great Jar” to be filled with faith for confronting the many uncertainties in our world. The “great jar” is an open heart that desires to be filled by God for the peace that passes understanding. (Philippians 4:7), a peace that only He can give and that enables our faith to be “fired” instead of becoming “slimy or muddy.” Augustine wanted his devastated people not to turn inward and despair, but to fill up on the Spirit of Christ and know that faith can grow, and even be enlarged and even become strong. I need this message every day.

Love in Him,

Prue

This summer’s fauns have outgrown their spots and are leaping and playing in the cooler weather around Possum Kingdom Lake. A family that lives year-round near the lake feeds the deer, and so they have multiplied and and stayed in the area. The fauns are especially fun to watch as they play together. Their thin legs look almost too fragile to support their little bodies. Though they are quite bold, they can and do run very fast for cover if we get too close. Most of their activity seems to be for sheer fun, curiosity, and fellowship. Sometimes their gracefulness and beauty take my breath away.

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds; and God saw that it was good. ( Genesis 1:25)

Many centuries after God created the animals and called them “good,” a man after God’s heart also saw goodness in nature. David wrote, As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul pants for God, for the living God. ( Psalm 42:1-2) David saw the deer as an inspiration in his psalm, of his own yearning for the “living water” that God alone supplies. I believe that at the Creation God knew and intended that we would, like David, find a reminder of our invisible God in His creatures.

The deer find their way into other scriptures as well: Look! Here he comes, leaping across the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.”( Song of Solomon 2:9)

In the Old Testament, deer were some of the “clean” animals that the Hebrews were allowed to hunt and eat. They have been food for human beings since the fall, but their appeal is in the reminder they display of the work of creation, and the Father who loves them even more than we do.

The deer at the lake stare at me as I stare at them, and then with a flick of their tail they wheel and dash away. They’re not really tame deer, but they are accustomed to the presence of people as long as we keep a certain distance. They have no idea of what an inspiration they are to me, but their Maker knows.

Love in Him,

Prue

My great Aunt Fish owned and operated a tea house in the small upstate New York farming village of Otego for several years. At some time or other nearly all of her female family members, including my mother, were employed at the tea house. It was a popular place for people to come for Sunday dinner. The specialties were fried chicken and steaks. Customers came up from New York City for Sunday dinner and the famous chocolate cake with a four inch high meringue icing. Auntie Fish’s pies were legendary.

The tea House was an oasis of good food set in the midst of a community of family dairy farms and rolling hills. I never saw the house while my great aunt owned it, but I was raised on stories of the place, and recipes that I still enjoy.

The Lord’s justice will dwell in the desert; His righteousness live in the fertile field. The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. (Isaiah 32:18)

That small town seemed to me to be an “undisturbed place of rest” whenever we visited it. We had grandparents and cousins and friends who were their neighbors, and it was always a welcoming place to visit. My family was treated like natives; it was always a joy to hear my parents say, “We’re going to Otego.”

When I finally read the book of Isaiah for myself I was surprised that the writer must have had a place like Otego in his mind when he wrote of quietness and confidence, of fertile fields and peace , and I thought that God surely loves the things that we love, and looks with joy on many of the things that bring us joy.
In the tumult of today’s world it’s hard to find confidence and peace, not to mention quietness and rest; but knowing that these things are in the heart of God, and that He desires them for His people, draws me more and more to Him. It’s still possible to take a drive and see the fertile fields, to witness a breathtaking sunset and a peaceful sunrise; and to know that these things are His gift to us.

Auntie Fish finally sold the tea house, and gained fame when she went to work for a department store in a near by city. She made pies for their lunch counter. It is said in our family that in one day around Christmas Auntie Fish baked one hundred pies, mostly apple.

Love in Him,
Prue

When a man believes with all his understanding that he will not die before he is raptured into heaven, he has one expectation of life, very different from one who does believe that he will die, and in fact that it will be a very uncomfortable death. St. Paul was both of those men. We who are still alive will be caught up together with those in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

(1 T Thessalonians 4;17) Later in his ministry Paul knew that in fact he would not be spared the death of a martyr: I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. (Philippians 1:20-22)

Paul was a man of contrasts. Before his conversion he was a merciless pursuer of Christians, and held the garments of those who were stoning Steven to death. Steven was a disciple who was preaching the Gospel of Christ. Only a few years later Paul wrote one of the most enduring definitions of love ever written. He wrote 1 Corinthians 13, that ends with , And now abide faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love. The man who could hardly have acknowledged such a thing as love became the great definer of love. This would be a total mystery except for the presence of the Spirit of Christ living in Paul.

To me an even greater mystery is Paul’s saying that for him, “death is gain”, when he has earlier believed that his very real relationship with the risen Christ would preempt death for himself altogether. When he knew the truth, he never withdrew, but actually grew in faith: Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready, not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 21:13)

If there were no other evidence in the whole New Testament of the existence of the risen Christ, the life of Paul could suffice to reveal the Living God present in the soul of a human being, simply by the changes wrought in Paul and the fruit of those changes. Finally, Paul wrote: For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:6-7) Amen and Amen.

Love in Him,

Prue