When asked what kind of ice cream she would like, my mother always answered, “Anything but strawberry!” I didn’t think much about it until someone asked her, Why don’t you ever eat strawberry ice cream, or even strawberry jam?” She answered, Whenever I had to take a pill, my mother always crushed it up in strawberry jam . I came to hate it.” We tried to talk Mom out of her aversion for things strawberry, to no avail. She did, however, like fresh strawberries.

In every soul there are pathways that link us to our own past in ways that may or may not be relevant to our present lives. In some cases those pathways are beneficial, or at least harmless. I did laundry every Friday until recently, only because my mother had always done it on that day. Many of the pathways in our souls are almost hidden from our own selves. Attachments to people and things that were developed in years past, and attitudes that we pick up from those around us, form pathways in our spirits that are not always wholesome. Bitterness at old offenses and regrets for lost opportunities form pathways that are like threads woven into our spirits. Griefs from the loss of loved ones can leave a bitter pathway. Sometimes we are not even aware of them, but usually we assume that no one else is aware of them in us, and we can ignore them.

The psalmist perceived a different truth: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”(Psalm 139:1-4)

Doubts, fears, resentments, angers, and self pity all make pathways into our spirits, but the psalmist says there is a God who transcends these, with the full knowledge of where the pathways reside in us. Our work is to relinquish these and let them go. For a Christian the pathway of the Holy Spirit enables us to shake off the grip of our most hidden pathways ; and by abandoning them, we receive the gift promised by Isaiah: “Forget the former things!. . . See, I am doing a new thing! I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:18,19)

Jesus added confirmation of Isaiah’s words hundreds of years later: “Whoever believes in me, . . . as the scripture said, Living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:37) When we really surrender our own “pathways”, God sends living water to replace them.

Love in Him,

Prue

The story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American woman to receive a degree in medicine, after being rejected by twenty-nine medical schools, inspired me wen I was a schoolgirl. In the biography that I read, Elizabeth was appalled when she was presented with a human hand to dissect and analyze. At first she was afraid that she would faint and sat staring at the object on her desk. Gradually she came to believe that the hand in front of her was a marvel, and her curiosity woke her up to try to understand all she could about it. Her natural revulsion disappeared, and she came to see the severed hand as “beautiful.”

Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil?

To save life, or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger, and deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and his hand was completely restored. (Mark 3:3-5)

No one questions the need for healthy hands, yet for many, our focus is on ourselves, and not on the One who designs our hands: “For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you. . . Do not fear, for I myself will help you”, declares the Lord. (Isaiah 41:14)

Elizabeth’s attitude changed as she realized that the “hand” was the beginning of a way for her to heal other hands and bodies of patients as a doctor. She confronted her own fears and was helped by a sense of the beauty in an otherwise distressing object. Jesus made the man with the withered hand to stand up publicly so that others could see the miracle clearly and know that something very good had occurred. Nevertheless, it was possible for observers to deny the goodness in the healing, and reject the one who performed it. Isaiah’s words from God are a preview of Jesus’ words to us as believers: “Do Not be afraid, little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Elizabeth graduated at the head of her class, and had a long career as a doctor. Her achievement opened the door for her sister Emily to become a doctor also, and eventually many more women, both in the United States and in England.

This very day Jesus’ words are bringing eternal life to all who are willing to hold his hand.

Love in Him,

Prue

All things on earth, including the earth itself, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are villages in some parts of the world built upon the successive ruins of as many as nine previous communities on the same site. Beginnings, middles, and ends are pervasive throughout the known universe. It is hard to imagine any reality other than “time.”

Nevertheless, there is one reality, intimately close to us, and also far away, who does not have a beginning, a middle, or an end: the very Spirit of our God. For this reason we sometimes have trouble imagining Him, or even praying to Him. He seems so unlike us that we hardly know Him.

The first clue in the Bible that God intends to share the lives of His own creation is this: Let us create man in our own image, in our own likeness. . . (Genesis 1:26) God had many ways of revealing Himself to people in the Old Testament. None of those were wasted, but God knew that the great divide between Himself and His creation would have to be bridged by Himself. While human beings barely knew Him, and He wanted more than a casual relationship, He knew that He must send Himself as a human being with a beginning in Bethlehem, a middle in Israel and Samaria, and an end on the cross of Golgotha. Jesus would be the bridge between humans who live in time, and God Himself, who lives in eternity.

To make sure that people understood his relationship to his Father, Jesus said to some leaders of the people, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the son also does.” (John 5:19) When asked, “What must we do to do the works that God requires?”, Jesus answered , “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” (John 6:28) These words of Jesus convey life itself to those who believe, for they are an invitation to join the bridge and become part of the very relationship between God and His son. His words are common, but their meaning had never been expressed before he said them. He speaks of a relationship between beings who are confined in time, and a Being who lives in eternity. Jesus, the bridge, is vital to both His Father, and to us. Through him we reach the Father and become part of the family God sought at creation.

Love in Him,

Prue

When I was in my early twenties, I went on a blind date with a New York State Trooper. He was very courteous. At one point his hand brushed across my cheek as I was getting into his car. “Oh,” he said. I had forgotten how smooth girls’ skin is!” I remember nothing else about that date, not even his name; but I thought that communication might not be clear or easy.

In a wonderful number of ways the Scripture expresses God’s intention for our relationship with Him: He has given us His great and precious promises, so that through them you my participate in the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4)

Hardly anyone seems to be interested in “participating in the divine nature,” and only recently has it seemed too me to be a real life pursuit. Peter wrote that the “Great and precious promises” were the path to sharing God’s life, and the life of Jesus as well, and so I looked at some of them and turned first to the promise of the rainbow. Beside being an object of delight for nearly everyone, it conveys a promise and reveals the sensitivity of our God, that His people not panic whenever it rains.

The promises, though, become larger and stronger. God shows His desire for human beings to be able to fellowship with angels and with God Himself, a promise laced with His very great promise of eternal life. The promises accumulate and find expression in individuals who experience God’s presence in their lives: Both the One who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family, so Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. (Hebrews 2:11)

The greatest promise of God was made by His son Jesus to Martha, the sister of Lazarus: “Jesus said to her, “.. . . ‘The one who believes in me will live, even though they die’” (John 11: 25) the promise was fulfilled at the resurrection following Jesus’ death on the cross. The promises hold the “secret” of God’s desire for His relationship with us. There are countless other promises, as well, all converging on the cross. His promises contain His desires and His intentions.

The state trooper was polite and even generous, but I could not connect with him. Our God communicates His divine nature to every soul who seeks Him, and more.

Love in Him,

Prue

We moved into the house that we now occupy on the 8^th of December, eleven years ago. It was a frantic sort of Christmas but blessed with children and grandchildren. By Christmas we had met only one neighbor, the very nice man who lived next door. One day, about two days before Christmas I was getting the mail when I heard a man’s voice say, “Merry Christmas!” It was the adult son of the family living across the street, and he shouted it in such a happy tone, he could have been saying, “Welcome to the neighborhood!” His welcome struck home in me, and I returned it with great pleasure.

Few times are we as receptive as when we enter an entirely new environment , and find ourselves looking and listening for a connection, a connection that tells us that we can function in this environment, and even prosper.

As a child , Jesus sought that connection in the temple when he was only twelve years old: “Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49) As an adult He knew himself to be constantly in communication with his Father: “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me who is doing His work.” (John 14:10-11)

The indwelling of the Spirit of God is especially clear in Jesus’ conversation with the Pharisee named Nicodemus. In this famous encounter Jesus spoke to such a one as he might have visited at the temple when a child. Nicodemus was a man faithful to the temple worship, but had never experienced the Spirit that lived in Jesus, who said to him: “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘you must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell from where it comes or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7)

The Bible is full of the stories of men and women who are “born of the Spirit.”Their experiences are as varied as their lives, but they have in common the assurance that the Spirit of God Himself does live within their own spirits. That Holy Spirit lights the fire that connects us to God.

The greeting of the young man across the street carried a message of welcome that made a difference in my life. The coming of the Holy Spirit changes us so that we find the connection to our Father God within ourselves.

Love in Him,

Prue

My mother measured a good time by the amount of laughter it produced. When she came home with my father from an evening with friends she might say, “Laugh!” I thought I’d die!” Then my sisters and brother knew that she had had a really good time. It happened most often when she spent time with her cousins. Then the laughter really flowed.

In the Bible , Sarah laughed in disbelief at the thought of bearing a child in her old age. She laughed in joy at the birth of the child that she named “laughter”, or “Isaac.” God’s plan in shaping a people was begun with Abraham and his son “Laughter.” At Isaac’s birth, Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.” (Genesis 21:6) Sarah’s laughter turned to rejoicing when she held her baby Isaac.

There is no scripture that mentions Jesus laughing, or even speaking of laughter, but at the Last Supper Jesus told the disciples that future grief at losing him would turn to rejoicing: “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” (John 16:22)

Laughter is a gift that is wrapped up in rejoicing. It’s a gift of fellowship when it’s shared. The laughter of unbelief can turn into the laughter of joy. The experience of despair and resignation can turn into the laughter of a joy that is lasting, and even life changing. Jesus assured his disciples that following his death there would come great rejoicing. Jesus prayed to God his Father in the presence of the disciples , just before his death. “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of joy within them.” (John 17:13)

Laughter is common; it is fleeting; it is even inconsequential, but it can also be holy. Jesus knew that he would be dying soon, and the greatest legacy he wished to leave was a holy joy in the hearts of his disciples that would enable them to overcome the many adversities that lay ahead for them.

Abraham’s son wasn’t named after his father or any of his predecessors, but after the joy and laughter at the fulfillment of God’s promise of a son.

My mother’s laughter sweetened all of her children’s lives: “Laugh! I thought I’d die.”

Love in Him,

Prue

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 39)

St. Paul, a man in whom loving kindness was rarely observed until after his conversion, wrote these words. He wrote other words, too, about love, that have become a priceless part of the Christian message: “And now abide Faith, Hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” ( 1 Corinthians 13:13) Paul knew and experienced thelove of God in Christ in such a way that it reshaped his character, and made him a “new creation: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Immediately after Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus he began to understand the change that his experience on the road would be for him. In the course of his post conversion life, Paul experienced an astounding number and kind of hardships: “ Five times I received the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. . .” Paul’s life could have seemed out of control, full of danger and unexpected disasters, yet he wrote the words above, of Romans 8:39. How is it possible that he could believe that nothing could separate him from God’s love? The answer was simply that the love of God in Christ for Paul is the very cement that holds life together. His list of terrible things that happened to him continued as he hung between life and death on several occasions, yet the cement held. Better than wealth, or influence, better than good health or even close friendships, Paul experienced and knew the love of God in Christ. It was food and clothing and shelter to him, even as Jesus told us all: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. . . Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.” (John 6:51, 57) The Love of God in Christ is the true cement that never cracks or breaks up, but continues to strengthen souls today as He did St Paul’s. He holds eternal life securely, and never slips away. The cement is a Person.

Love in Him,

Prue

The promise that God gave to Nathan , David’s personal prophet, was a whopper.: “The Lord declares to you that the Lord Himself will establish a house for you. . .’ I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood,. . . and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he will be my son. . .Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” (2 Samuel 7:11-14)

Previously God had made His covenants with Noah and Abraham and with all of Israel through His prophet Moses. That covenant brought the nation to the Promised Land and gave the ten Commandments and shaped His people into a nation. This promise God made to David is personal to both God and to David. and extends eternity to David and his descendants. This promise is a foreshadow of the coming of His own son in the House of David. Ultimately, all the covenants converge in the descendant of David who will indeed live forever, and extend eternal life to humanity, the son of God.

When God made the next covenant promise, He sent His Angel to a young woman who, like Moses and David, was surprised to be chosen by God in His plan for humanity. Mary and Joseph, descendants of David, raised God’s son in the light of the Angel’s prophesy: “ He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his Father, David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:32-33)

Jesus fulfilled the prophecies uttered by prophets throughout the Old Testament. His death and resurrection confirmed the gift of eternal life contained in those prophecies. The love of God so desired the restoration of His people to Himself, that He moved through centuries of time to enable His created beings to know and even to share His Spirit in their lives. All individuals who turn their eyes and trust to God find a whopper of a promise fulfilled in their own lives. The knowledge of, and especially the contact with an eternal person who also lived in time has restored countless believers to God’s family, discovering that the house of David, and the house of God, have been given to us, too.

Love in Him,

Prue

“If you once get to nature’s God, and believe Him and love Him, it is surprising how easy it is to hear music in the waves, and songs in the wild whisperings of the winds, to see God everywhere, in the stones, in the rocks, in the rippling brooks, and to hear Him everywhere, in the lowing of cattle, in the rolling of thunders, and in the fury of tempests. Christ is to me the wisdom of God. I can learn everything now that I know the science of Christ crucified.” (Charles Spurgeon, Autobiography, The Early Years

Charles Spurgeon was only sixteen years old when a snow storm kept him from attending church on a Sunday morning. As he struggled in the snow, he came to a small chapel of Primitive Methodists who were meeting in spite of the storm. Only a few were present , and a lay speaker preached on the text, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 45:22, KJV) The speaker went on to say, that seeking God was futile; that salvation required only one thing: “Many of you are looking to yourselves, but it’s no use looking there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No! Look to Him by and by. Jesus says, “Look unto Me!”

It was then that Charles experienced what he had been so earnestly seeking: the regeneration that comes from Jesus’ own words: Very truly I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3) The “new birth” brought to him a sense of newness of life,of another dimension to life that he had never before found. Many years later Charles’ father, an Independent minister, wrote of the evening of Charles’ trip to the Primitive Methodist Chapel: “We sat up long into the night, and he talked to me of his being saved which had taken place that day, and right glad I was to hear him talk. In the text, ‘Look,Look, Look’, Charles said to me, holding up his hands, “I found salvation!”

The memory of that experience never left Spurgeon. It formed a well that grew deeper and clearer throughout his life and ministry. His sermons were attended by all classes of people , from members of the British royal family, to homeless street people. On one occasion he preached to twenty three thousand people without amplification. It is estimated that in his lifetime he preached in person to ten million people . Many more millions were reached by his writings and the publication of his sermons.

Spurgeon walked in prayer: spontaneous, clear, and real. He knew the God of nature, and he loved Him.

Love in Him,

Prue

When you’re old enough to think about human nature, and to wonder about cause and effect, you discover in the Bible some behaviors that could be described as most unlikely. For instance, it was cause and effect that Lot’s wife would turn into a pillar of salt, as she did the very natural thing of looking back at her home town burning after being warned by God not to.

On the other hand, it was entirely unlikely that Hannah would walk her little two or three year old son to the tabernacle and present him to Eli, the high priest, then turn around and leave him there for the rest of his life. It’s true that Hannah had made a promise to God that she would do this if He gave her a son, but all of human nature was against it. Hannah was the childless second wife of her husband, and the first wife had both sons and daughters. Hannah had no children of her own, and if she was ever widowed, she would be without anyone to provide for her or to protect her. She was already the object of abusive remarks from Peninnah, the first wife. Hannah had no reason to believe that she would have more children than Samuel, her little boy. Everything was weighted against her giving up her only child.

This was when one of the most unlikely events occurred, as Hannah walked to the Tabernacle with Samuel, whom she had just weened, and said to Eli, “I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord,” and he worshiped the Lord there. (1 Samuel 1:26-28)

The likeliness of such an action can be explained only in the prayer that Hannah had prayed. She had wept and prayed from her heart. She didn’t stop until Eli rebuked her, and a certain peace came to her: Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. (1Samuel 1:18) Hannah’s prayer was answered before she was pregnant. The Holy Spirit of God had communicated with her to bring her peace. What she offered to God, her as yet unborn son, was sufficient for God to accept and answer her prayer . It wasn’t her words, but her spirit, that God answered, for He knew that Hannah would keep her promise. In return, God added three sons and two daughters to Hannah, for God’s bargains are never entirely mutual; He always gives more. When Samuel grew up, he established his home in Ramah, where his parents and siblings lived; and Hannah’s unlikely bargain changed Israel forever.

Love in Him,

Prue