My mother didn’t have sterling silverware to use when guests came for a lunch or dinner; but my aunt Mildred made sure that all her nieces had sterling silverware, by giving each of us a spoon or fork or knife for every birthday and Christmas. As a child, I thought it strange, but not unkind, of my Aunt to give me such a gift, but my mother explained over and over that some day we would all appreciate having sterling ware to put on our tables for special occasions. I thought of the silverware as a growing treasure which would one day be kept in a treasure chest. I was sure that somehow I would know when to use it. My sisters and I sometimes talked about when that might be. When each of five nieces graduated from college, Aunt Mildred finished the set of ten place settings plus serving pieces. By that time we each had a chest to hold our treasure.

It didn’t matter to me that sterling silver was no longer fashionable, and that many of my friends felt that I was “showing off” even to own the silver. I didn’t repeat to everyone how I came to own it, but I knew that the person behind the silver, My Aunt Mildred, meant more to me than the silver. She was a school teacher, and sometimes when I saw her, she gave me advice. She was not wealthy, but believed that the gifts she gave her nieces would be a lasting blessing.

Jesus spoke of those who know how to give good gifts to their children. He compared them to his Father God, who gives the Holy Spirit to those who willingly ask for it: If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! (Luke 11:12)

It took a long time for me to begin to appreciate the gift; I disliked having to write thank you notes to my aunt. In the same way It’s hard, too, for new Christians to remember to read scripture, and even to pray and to remember to thank our Father for His gifts. As I grew older I began to understand the sacrifice and the trouble Aunt Mildred spent to give such a gift to each of us.

I never asked to know the Holy Spirit until God had already sent Him, just as I never asked Aunt Mildred for silverware. Now every time I read Jesus’ word I know He is speaking to me.

When my daughter was born I chose a silver pattern for her and bought her a spoon.

Love in Him,

Prue

Of the sixty-six books in the King James Bible, twenty-four of them admonish the reader not to be afraid. Some of them emphasize courage, and some explain reasons for not fearing; but all associate fear with an absence of faith. Probably the simplest, gentlest and most direct message of “Do not fear,” comes from the lips of Jesus himself: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

As a child I sometimes had a bad dream at night and would wake up calling my mother. She came unfailingly yawning, and sat by my bed until I was able to go back to sleep. She used no other remedies but her presence and her remedy never failed. I once asked her why, with all that she had to do when she got up, she would spend time just watching me go to sleep. Even when I was quite young I marveled that she, the mother of four children at that time, would take her precious sleep time to sit with me while I went back to sleep. “That’s what mothers do, Prudy” she said. “ It comes with the territory.” I didn’t know what that meant, but they were reassuring words to me.

We live in tumultuous times that could easily give anyone a nightmare, especially when so much information and almost immediate visual images of war and destruction from around the world are present in our very homes. Almost inescapable are the pictures and sounds of reports from locations of strife as well as natural disasters on our planet. The strife gets louder and louder, and it is impossible to see a way through either domestic or foreign chaos. If possible, it would be enough to silence the “still small voice” of God, (1 Kings 19:12) but there lives in us a voice that speaks to our spirits as He did to Joshua: “Do not be afraid, Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)

It is from God that courage comes, from God that we overcome our fears, from Him that we learn not to hug our fears, but to relinquish them. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives that made Jesus’ words of comfort possible to believe in his time. The presence of God is the reason for us not to fear.

How can we find peace? Our peace grows as our faith grows. Jesus’ words to his disciples are meant for us all; God’s pleasure is to give it to us. It comes with the territory.

Love in Him,

Prue

“ Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? This is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord take away my life,for it is better for me to die than to live.” (Jonah 4:1-3)

These are the words of the prophet Jonah after he had spread the word in the city of Nineveh of God’s displeasure at their sinfulness, and His plan to destroy the city if there was no repentance. Jonah had resisted this assignment unsuccessfully sailing in the opposite direction to hide from his God. Jonah’s reaction to the repentance of the king and population of Nineveh was strange, for he knew God well enough that the citizen’s repentance would bring forgiveness from God, as it did.

We sometimes think of Jonah as a coward, but the story unfolds with Jonah insisting that the crew of the ship on which he was escaping to Tarshish, throw him into the very stormy sea, a solution to quiet the storm that the crew rejected until there seemed to be no other option.

Jonah, who appears to behave out of cowardice, proves that in fact he is incredibly brave. In reading his story, I wondered about Jonah’s anger when God relented and refused to destroy Nineveh; and it occurred to me that Jonah Might not have been afraid of losing just his own credibility, but that the citizens of Nineveh would repent without acknowledging Jonah’s message, the God who had sent him. It seemed that Jonah was actually afraid of his God’s credibility being ignored, with his own credibility destroyed.

Jonah was facing a faith crisis when God sent him to Nineveh. He was mostly afraid that the Spirit of God that was the center of his life and ministry would be discredited, an outcome worse than death to Jonah. Physical death was less abhorrent to Jonah than the loss of credibility both to Israel’s enemies, the citizens of Nineveh, as well as to the rest of the world, who might hear of his ministry and believe it to have been in vain.

Centuries later Jesus chose Jonah to compare to his own ministry: “The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, but now something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matthew 12:4) Jonah was very brave, and he talked with God, but the grace of a God who would die for him was unknown to Jonah. He had never known Jesus , the one who was greater than he.

Love in Him,

Prue

Saint Theresa of Avila lived in Spain during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. She was a nun who had begun to write of some of her experiences in prayer and the answers to prayers when she was called in front of the Inquisition to determine if she had violated the church’s laws in any way. It was a turbulent time in Spain. Theresa wrote that on one occasion she had been so distraught over the problems she was facing, that she found herself unable to pray until she recalled the words of Jesus from Mark 6:50: Take Courage! ! It is I. Don’t be afraid.

Jesus spoke these words while miraculously standing on the water, approaching the boat that held the disciples. The The message from him not to fear was a message that Moses , Joshua, and others had received, but none had received it in such an immediate and personal fashion : He was about to pass by them, but when they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out, because they all saw him and were terrified. (Mark 6:48,50) Others had heard the words “Don’t be afraid,” but on the day that Jesus walked on water he showed us why and how we could be fearless: “It is I.” In the flesh God was present with the disciples and His very presence was enough to dispel their fears. Christians are not to be brave because of our own strength or ability, but because the all powerful One is with us. The very words strengthened Theresa’s spirit, as they dispelled the fears of the disciples. Peter, in fact experienced the fearlessness to join the Lord on the water after Jesus said, “Come.” Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried “Lord, save me!” (Matthew 14:29-30) There is no other reason not to fear, than the one Jesus gave: “It is I.” It was enough for Peter, andJesus knew that some day it would be enough for all of his disciples.

In our world of heaving waves of uncertainty, the storms of distrust, broken faith and threats, there is only one source of genuine courage. It’s attached to the person of Jesus the Christ, who places himself at our disposal if we believe and risk getting out of the boat. “It is I “ was all that Theresa needed, all that Peter needed, and all that we need today. Indeed, the assurance of God in our lives , of His intimate and constant love, is the source of all the courage we need in our confusing, turbulent times. When we are puzzled or dismayed, the living Christ has said, Don’t be afraid. “It is I.”

Love in Him,

Prue

By this we shall know that we are of the truth, and reassure our hearts before Him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. (1 John 3:20) In Lent we can comb our consciences to bring to God the sins we recognize that He has forgiven. It’s part of the bath our spirits take that David mentioned in Psalm 51:7: Wash me and I will be whiter than snow.

I have often heard someone say, “Of course I know that God has forgiven me, but I just can’t forgive myself.” When I hear those words, I know that I have said them myself until I learned that no one can forgive himself or herself; for that is the task that Jesus alone took upon himself. I believe that our sense of self forgiveness locks us in a cell of self sufficiency that is a serious shade in our spirits and prevents us from being “washed white as snow.” David hungered for that washing, as he realized that he himself had no soap that could make him clean. Instead of turning inward and hugging his sins, David looked outside himself to God, who alone could help him.

When the Apostle John wrote “By this we shall know the truth,” he was acknowledging the cleansing that we can receive when we recognize that “ God is greater than our hearts,” and that His surpassing greatness is what we are denying when we refuse to “forgive “ ourselves. The burden of guilt that results in “not forgiving ourselves” distorts our relationships and our most important relationship with God Himself. The apostle John’s insight that God is greater even than our hearts means that God is greater even than our consciences, a scary but liberating truth, as John affirms.

Linda, a friend of mine, told me this incident. She was riding in her car while her teenage son was driving, as he had just acquired his permit. He had stopped at a stop sign near their home, when he noticed the car behind him was driven by one of his friends. “Mom,” he said, “Get down! Get down!” Linda cooperated by lowering the back of her seat and sliding down so that she couldn’t be seen from the window. The boy in the other car finally recognized his friend and drove up next to the passenger side of Linda’s car. Looking from his window he smiled at Linda and said, “Hello, Mrs. Fox,”

to the chagrin of both Linda and her son.

During Lent it is good to remember that God is greater than both regrets and intentions, and the clean air of His Spirit in our spirits brings a sensation of purity and freedom that can be found nowhere else but in Christ. This is the truth.

Love in Him,

Prue

This weekend I watched an advertisement for a new kind of dog collar that contained a GPA that kept track of the dog and brought him home safely. The claim was that it was 93% effective, the first of its kind. Other collars could deliver a pain when a dog left the designated perimeter, but those also sent a pain at the dog’s return. This one hurt at leaving , but the return was painless. The ad. Proclaimed it almost perfectly kept the dog in easy distance of its owner: “Pain to leave, none to return.” The testimonials were gushing.

It certainly seemed remarkable to me, and I enjoyed watching the ad. It occurred to me that the notion “pain to leave, and pain to return” was self defeating, and very reminiscent of much of the behavior of human beings. It seems like a hopeless cycle that would naturally result in getting lost.

The Scriptures describe a different relationship for us with God. The psalmist, like us, would wander, but when he seeks a return he has hope: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. (Psalm 51:10-12)

The dog collar comes with a trainer who in one session helps the dog know the new routine. Prone as the dog is to wander, he is happy to return painlessly to his yard. The pain of leaving is enough to keep him home.

In 1758 Robert Robinson wrote the hymn Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing, which contains these lines: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.”

It took a long time for the makers of an electronic dog collar to realize that the pain of returning would discourage the dog and fail in its design to keep him in range. The psalmist and the hymn writer knew that the gracious, forgiving God would wait for His wandering children with warmth and understanding, and without strings attached, for them to return. During Lent we can examine ourselves and return peacefully to our Lord from all the ways we may have wandered. We may wander in self examination for forty days, and our return will be an extraordinary joy without pain. The Prodigal experienced that joy.

Love in Him,

Prue

The Lord said to Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablet, which you broke.” (Exodus 34:1)

The Ten commandments are the backbone of the nation of Israel. They were God’s tool for forming a slave population into a nation of laws of their own. The Ten Commandments etched in stone were carried in the ark of the Covenant, and occupied the most holy place, first in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple.

Those stone tablets, though, were the second edition of God’s word. The first edition had been shattered by Moses when he saw the calf idol being worshiped by God’s people, including Aaron, Moses’ own brother. In spite of such an egregious departure, the Lord ordered the stones to be replaced exactly as they were written first. He didn’t change a word of the first stones. The transgressions of the people did not change God’s purpose or His saving plan for them. It was perhaps the first inkling to Moses and the people, of God’s constancy and perseverance which would one day lead to the cross of Christ

God didn’t instruct one of His gifted craftsmen to carve the Commandments, but He wrote them Himself—twice. The second set was the one that was finally placed into the ark. The second set of tablets proved God’s immutable decision to be committed to His people, the all powerful God committed to a barely emerging nation.

When everyone except Moses, and perhaps Joshua, perceived God as merely one God among many, God remained constant in delivering the ten commandments. These, along with “The Greatest commandment,” were the glue that held the nation together : Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your strength. ( Deuteronomy 6:5)

In a way, Jesus is like the second set. He revealed the second message of God’s constancy in the midst of humanity’s sins, and he sealed it with his blood. The author of Hebrews wrote, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) Jesus, as his Father God, is eternally committed to his people.

Love in Him,

Prue

My Grandfather’s dairy farm was on a gently sloping hill rising from the Susquehanna River in New York State. As a child I loved to visit the farm and my grandparents. From their back porch where we sometimes ate breakfast or dinner, there was a sweeping view all the way to the river.

Many years after Grandpa died and Grandma had sold the farm, I visited the village and drove past the farm. All the land between the house and the river had been sold separately, and it was now filled with mobile homes and campers. Gone entirely was the view to the river, and there was heavy litter where there had once been a pasture. I was actually depressed when I saw what had happened to the farm. I called my siblings and we commiserated on the phone, but it didn’t help. I felt as if I had experienced a great loss, though in fact I had never owned the farm or lived there for any great length of time.

“This day is holy to the Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10) In Nehemiah’s time, some of the people of Israel had returned from exile to rebuild the destroyed temple of Solomon. When Ezra and Nehemiah read to them the long forgotten scriptures, they began to weep at the realization of what they had lost. It was then that Nehemiah spoke these famous words to the people. God gave His people the simple direction in which to look for joy. He made it clear that joy itself belonged to Him, and that He gave it generously delights to share it. It is hard, though, to let go of our griefs, and so we sometimes miss the joy that waits for us to ask for it.

to those who would seek it in Him instead of in the world. Joy is part of God’s character, and He

Joy is part of the contract that God makes with His people. It is healing, renewing joy that only He provides. God desires us to ask for joy, because He knows that such a request means that we have come to know Him. When I remembered the farm, I knew that it had left a bright goodness in me that would outlive the farm itself, and continue to deliver joy. Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. (John 16:24). Joy is a contract with God. He never fails to deliver.

Love in Him,

Prue