He (Jesus) says that in spite of her incredible pain, a new mother is filled with joy at the sight of her child. So Jesus has the audacity to say “That’s just a dim hint of the joy I sense when I look at you. All my suffering, torment and death I have willingly borne, for the greater joy of saving and loving you.” Until you see that and believe and rest in that, you cannot be born again. ( “On Birth” page 83, by Timothy Keller.)

Dr. Keller’s reference to Jesus’ words comes from John 16:21: A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her hour has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. Dr. Keller suggests that the image of the mother giving birth was chosen by Jesus so that the disciples could contemplate their own new birth when the risen Jesus returned tothem after suffering the cross, and the disciples received the Holy Spirit. At least some of the disciples had been present when Jesus told Nicodemus That, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3)

After all these years, the words “Born Again”, or “second birth” are puzzling to many Christians and almost all non Christians; but the words echo real experiences to the many Christians who say with wonder and joy, “I have been born again! I have received second birth!”

With Holy Week approaching, it’s good for me to focus on the love that fueled Jesus’ decision to fulfill his purpose for being on earth and sharing the lives of his people. Dr. Keller’s writing of the births of babies reminded me of Jesus ‘ emphatic love for children: “Let the children come to me and don’t hinder them, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14, and two other Gospels)

Dr. Keller affirms the need to have a second birth, rooted in an experience of the deep love of God in Christ. To receive the “second birth” is not a reward or an initiation. It is God sharing His own Spirit with ordinary people. It is the gift that God intended to give when He first sent Jesus, and it is priceless.

Love in Him,

Prue

In 1858 Christina Campbell and her husband settled in the frontier town of Salina, Kansas. They opened a small store and traded with the Indians for pelts and furs. Christina was in charge of the store and befriended the Indian women who traded with her. When Christina and her husband set up the store, she insisted that it be closed on Sundays, an idea that her husband dismissed because their customers did not have calendars, and would not recognize a Sunday from any other day. Nevertheless, Christina persevered. She painstakingly explained to their customers the reason for the one day out of seven closing. The Indians began to send a rider into town to ask, “Big Father’s Day, No swap?” If it was a Sunday, there was no complaint; everyone waited until Monday. (Pioneer Woman, Pg. 116 , by Joanna Straton)

“Remember the Sabbath day , to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:8-10 ) This is the fourth of the ten commandments given to Moses too give to the ancient Hebrews. Throughout the centuries the fourth commandment has been interpreted in countless ways, but at its core is the admonition to “remember”. It continues: For in the six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Exodus 20:11)

The message to human beings to observe and remember the seventh day is simply the message to the Hebrews that they are to be like Him, a message sent by Jesus as well. Each of god’s “commands” are doorways to His character, and as such, God looks for those who keep His words and thereby grow closer to Him. When I read the story of Christina Campbell and her simple act coming from her faith, I was reminded of god’s call to be like Him. Both the Old and the New Testaments repeat this call: “Be holy because I am holy.” ( Leviticus 11:44) even one step toward that holiness is pleasing to God, and intended to increase our joy in Him. Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. (Mark2:27)

The Sabbath is a gift to humanity from our God who desires to share His life with us. To the Indians in Kansas it was simply Big Father’s Day. For us it is family day with God.

Love in Him,

Prue

In one of the adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes, the great detective was approached by the servant of a nobleman of the Royal family to help discreetly to recover the noble man’s son. The boy was only eight years old, and had disappeared from the boarding school he attended. Holmes agreed to the assignment, and began by interviewing the father, who was haughty and dismissive of Holmes. Before long Sherlock Holmes knew that his hands would be so tied that he couldn’t rescue the boy. Holmes confronted the father, who finally “opened up” and gave Holmes the information that he needed. Together the father and Holmes and Dr. Watson discovered the boy’s location and reached him in time to save his life and return him to his family. The father learned a lesson in life, found a closer relationship to his son, and a new outlook on his own and his family’s lives.

When the episode was over the lordly father handed Sherlock a check for his services. “This is a king’s ransom!” remarked Holmes. The father replied, “You gave me more than money could buy. You gave me hope and a future, not just by rescuing my son, but in showing me what is really important. I will always be grateful.” Gratitude itself was actually new to this character, and he faced a brighter future because he had experienced it.

These are all fictional characters, but they echo the truths of the Bible: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

A King’s Ransom is the highest price paid for a captive. A King’s Ransom is what Jesus paid when he went to the cross, for he paid his very life, the life that had been given to him by God. His gift is still at work in the world, and it is the opposite of fiction. It is the reality of the unimaginable gift of eternal life to souls who have lived and experienced nothing but terminal life. By Jesus’ resurrection, souls who have been imperfect from birth are extended the very life of their creator. Such free access to a different “reality” is beyond our understanding. Only by the Holy Spirit and Jesus himself can we catch a sense and maybe a view of what it will mean in each of our lives.

To be like Jesus means to know what we don’t know now, and to love more than we love now, and to receive entirely, a love we have only tasted. All of this comes to mind in this season of Lent, and at Easter we know we have been bought with a King’s Ransom.

Love in Him,

Prue

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