Dana's Christian Journey

musings of a thankful cancer survivor

Author: Dana

  • in

    —

    Dana

    You’ve heard the story about the famous tightrope artist who claimed he could walk the tightrope across a raging river while pushing a wheelbarrow. Before attempting the feat, he asked the large crowd how many thought he would make it. Almost everyone raised a hand and voiced support of this daredevil. Then he asked, “Who will ride in the wheelbarrow while I push it?” No one volunteered.

    What is the faith God is after? The type that says, “I believe Jesus is the Son of God” or the type that says, “I believe Jesus is God’s Son and I trust Him with my life”? When we put our faith in Him, Jesus comes to live in our hearts and our lives will not be the same. But why doesn’t everyone come?

    A painting called “The Light of the World” shows Jesus knocking at a door. Holman Hunt, the artist, included an interesting detail. The feet of Jesus are pointed away from the door, insinuating that it is likely that He not receive an answer. We may resist getting “into Christ” for fear of the ride, or we may resist inviting Him “into us” because we don’t want to give up control. The truth is: there can be no relationship with the Father until such a union takes place… and this union only comes through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

    We in Him and He in us. It was the same relationship Jesus had with His Father, though the disciples often failed to understand. When Phillip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us”, Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Phillip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

    I built a fire this past weekend and left the iron poker in the flame. When I pulled the poker out of the fire and placed it on a piece of newspaper, the paper ignited. The iron was in the fire, but the fire was also in the iron. So it should be with those who follow Jesus.

    “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me.” Revelation 3:20 (Jesus speaking)

    “… Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

    “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” II Corinthians 5:17

    “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” John 15:4 (Jesus speaking)

  • relationship

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    Dana

    Certain places are stamped in our memories. I visited such a place this past week when we went home for Thanksgiving. A little over two years ago, outside an old barn, I told my dad I had cancer. However long I live, I’ll always remember that time and place. A distant onlooker wouldn’t have noticed anything special about a conversation between father and son, but, in reality, something very deep took place. To an increased degree, I cherish every moment I spend with my dad… and I imagine he cherishes every moment he spends with me.

    The prophet, Malachi, predicted the day the hearts of fathers and children would turn to one another: “See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” (Malachi 4:5-6) In this intriguing prophecy, God communicates His heart as a Father. When Jesus came to earth, He lived out the relationship God wants to have with all His children.

    In our Christian journey, if we fail to see the place of “relationship” in God’s salvation, we miss the Father’s heart. God, who already knows us, wants us to know Him. He desires fellowship. Jesus knew this was why He came to earth. “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

    Some might suggest such “relationship” talk just leads to laziness. Aren’t we to be about the work of the Kingdom? But what does intimate relationship produce? I don’t think there’s a thing I wouldn’t do for my dad… and he’s already done everything for me. It was “relationship” that allowed the perfect Son to do anything His Father asked. And though God allowed His Son to suffer immensely, Jesus proved we can trust this perfect Father with all our hearts.

    May the fathers know the children; may the children know the fathers; and may the sheep know the Good Shepherd.

    “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14-15

  • prepare the way

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    Dana

    “Make straight the way of the Lord! Prepare the way! Repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance! One is coming who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

    This was the message God sent through John the Baptist as the Messiah was about to be revealed. So what message is God sending today? If such a bold proclamation came at the first coming, will any word come before the second? Scripture reveals He will overtake those in the dark, but those in the Light should not be caught off guard. Paul explained: “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like the others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self controlled.” I Thessalonians 5:1-6

    But what if we are like the “others”? What if the church is “asleep”? Will not God’s kindness call for godly sorrow that leads to repentance? Such pleas are made in the letters to the churches in the first chapters of Revelation.

    In 1977, a song was released by John Michael Talbot called “Prepare Ye The Way”. A couple of years ago, the group, Caedmon’s Call, released it again. Here’s the first verse and chorus:

    The Word of the Lord came one evening
    Concerning His bride’s great sin
    He’d send down His Word to renew her
    To prepare for the Bridegroom again
    The Word said repent from seeking vain glories
    While the gifts in the Lord’s name you give
    Repent of all the first stones cast to kill
    While your own self-righteousness lives

    Prepare ye the way for the Lord
    Prepare ye the way for the kingdom
    Prepare ye the way
    Prepare ye the way for the Lord

    “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Matthew 24:42-44

  • enter

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    Dana

    It was very humbling to have friends cry for me while I was so sick. What is involved in entering the suffering of another? What brings us to that point where we can’t hold back the flood of tears?

    Though Jesus knew His Father was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, He wept as He saw Mary and her grieving friends. Though He knew a great miracle was about to take place, He entered the pain of others. Do you think He enters our suffering today? Perhaps a greater question is: Do we choose to enter His?

    Only John and a handful of women entered the most intense time of Jesus’ suffering. Though others knew what was happening, only these few actually stood at the cross. How painful it must have been for Mary to see her Son die in such a way, but where else could she go? How horrifying it must have been to see the Master hang on a tree, yet John and the other women did not shrink back. I wonder sometimes if John’s involvement in this part of His Savior’s pain helped transform him from a “son of thunder” to the “apostle of love”.

    Will we dare enter the suffering of Jesus today? Be assured He does suffer. “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me… I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

    I want to give you a challenge: Get to know the suffering Church of Jesus Christ. If you are not aware of the persecution of Christians in our world, you may be bothered at first (I was). It is more pleasant not to think about these things, but Jesus invites us to draw close. Most of these brothers and sisters don’t live in our land, but we can enter their suffering… through prayer, through fasting, and through giving. For over thirty years, The Voice of the Martyrs has served the persecuted Church. Visit one of their web sites and ask God to let you embrace the suffering Body of Christ. Jesus wept; will we? www.persecution.com www.linkingup.com

    “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Hebrews 13:3

  • turn

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    Dana

    I went to an interesting meeting Saturday, where John Rosemond, a family psychologist, stood before a large crowd and said, “Psychology is evil.” He was not accusing all members of his profession as being evil, but he boldly declared that humanistic thinking that puts man in the center of things is clearly opposed to God.

    A dear missionary friend visited our home this past weekend. She is preparing to go to Athens, Greece to prepare for an outreach during the 2004 Summer Olympics. Anna, a native of Brazil, shared about the spiritual forces and mindsets in this part of the world that oppose Christ. The apostle Paul dealt with such matters when he visited Athens long ago. Though God used the Greek language to bring us a large portion of Scripture, the “Greek wisdom” that influences so much of the western culture is opposed to Him.

    If we are brutally honest, we’ll admit we have all been deceived by man-conceived thinking that opposes our Heavenly Father. So what should we do when such conviction comes? Where can we turn but to God? What can we do but humble ourselves and ask for His truth? Yet so often we do not turn to God, and so often we are anything but humble. We have been taught to think for ourselves, and sometimes we are actually convinced we have the answers.

    In the second chapter of Jeremiah, God spoke to His people in a very direct way when such thinking reigned. “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” God saw Israel perfectly just as He sees us perfectly. He constantly calls His children to turn to Him. “Return, faithless Israel… Return, faithless people, for I am your husband… Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.”

    I hear God calling us to turn from all thinking that is not from Him. “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Oh that I heed this call and receive this blessing!

    “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” II Chronicles 7:14

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