Sweet Words from Maine

Authentic

Happy Spring, Male Cardinal, Sullivan Maine

Although generally shy, male cardinals are unable to hide their brilliant color which marks their identity. However, who we are as humans is more about our core character than physical appearance or titles. Traits of honesty, reliability, caring, and compassion vouch for one’s genuineness, and sincerity is necessary for intimate relationships. Warren Buffet is quoted as saying that although confidence and initiative are important for success, the most important characteristic is integrity.

The Psalmist raised the importance of integrity in matters of faith when he asked an important question: “O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill?” He immediately framed an answer: “He who walks blamelessly and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart; who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; who swears to his own hurt and does not change…” (Psalm 15:1-5) He repeats a similar question and answer in Psalm 24 verses 3 to 5.

Hypocrisy is devastating. It empties faith of meaning. Christ has shown us what genuine faith looks like. One cannot think of him without acknowledging his remarkable integrity. He lived and died sacrificially, held no self centered ulterior motives, and was unwaveringly persistent in trusting and obeying his Heavenly Father. When he faced adversity, he endured and did not despair. His anger was righteous. Tempted, he did not fall but remained steady in confidence and purpose. He was powerful and performed the miraculous but remained humble and rejected status seeking. He was intelligent and logical but not deceitful or manipulative. He was uncompromising, loyal, and protective but not judgmental. His motives were pure. He was merciful, forgiving, and not vengeful. He spoke truth frankly but with a loving heart and good purpose. His love was deep and radical. He was bruised, cursed, and humiliated for us but accused no one. He personified divine truth and grace.

Christ is the real deal. His integrity is impeccable. Nobody measures up to his perfection. We all live with broken, fallible natures unable to self generate anything close to his perfect living and love. Realizing that fact is freeing because it moves us away from the futility of legalistic attempts at self righteousness, forces us to recognize our universal need for redemptive grace, and points us to the perfection and righteousness of Christ who is God’s perfect solution for our dilemma. He is the righteous one who showed us righteousness and died to give us righteousness. There is no other path to salvation. There is no human power, intellect, ideology or self effort that can forgive, redeem or reconcile us with God apart from trusting Christ, who is the authentic manifestation of God and His saving love.

If we are to be authentic God images, we must believe and walk as Christ did – in God’s grace and with His love and mercy.

Beauty Within the Seeds…

Monhegan Island Poppies

These beautiful poppies delight us. Fortunately, the wonderful ability to replicate their beauty is tightly wrapped inside them. However, if those tiny seeds are inappropriately used, there is potential for harm, addiction, destruction, and death lurking within them. With that in mind, the poppy seed becomes an example of what is so disordered with creation and its creatures.

Within human nature lie the seeds for godliness, goodness, grace, mercy, and love. However, disordered thinking and corrupted spirits have released the hidden dangers of envy, jealousy, greed, malice, pride, character weaknesses, and capitulation to unhealthy temptations. Jesus said that evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, lying and slander come from the heart.

Such attitudes and behaviors are lethal. They result in emptiness, anxiety, depression, anger, guilt, shame, broken relationships, and spiritual death. Yet, those actions, emotions, and consequences also prompt a desire for personal change, improvement, and redemption. However, our imperfections and motives are too impure to lift us beyond our brokenness. Our endeavors at self-righteousness obviously miss the mark. Isaiah, who was a plain talking prophet, flatly stated that “all our righteousness is like filthy rags” in light of God’s holiness!

Happily, there is a solution for our unrighteousness. However, spiritual wholeness must originate from outside ourselves: “It is not by righteousness we have done but by God’s mercy” we are saved. Jesus died to take the guilt and shame generated by our sins so that we can experience complete forgiveness and a repentant life motivated by gratitude and love for God and His great mercy.

Knowledge of God and His Gospel can grow into believing faith and eventually blossom into beautiful righteousness: a life of humility, peace, forgiveness, integrity, and love.

the wings of healing…

“The day is coming!”

That pronouncement draws our attention! Predictions intrigue and sometimes unsettle us whether they are speculations about the stock market, actuarial tables, prognostications associated with diseases, habits and medical treatments, or discussions about political outcomes, Some of us even resort to tarot cards and fortune tellers to garner what might be coming down the pike.

The prophet Malachi introduced a futuristic view of God’s promised justice, deliverance, wholeness, and joy with the phrase “For behold, the day is coming.” The follow up special prophecy is a beautiful word picture of the hope of all God-believers: “For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. (Malachi 4:1-3)

That truth had been tested and proven on many occasions when God brought redemption and joyful reconciliation to Israel after they had erred but then had repented of their sinful ways. The principle that redemption follows repentance is the overarching Gospel which flows throughout the Old Testament and New Testament.

Malachi’s vision of a magnificent bird with widespread wings soaring over the land spreading healing is an awesome image which also foreshadows Christ, the “Great Physician,”who healed bodies and souls everywhere he went.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah foretold that Jesus would have a healing ministry at the cross: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

Healing and wholeness are the essence of Jesus’ wonderful promise: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” He told those whom he physically healed that they were made “whole” by their faith and restored others with spiritual healing and forgiveness of sins (John 5:6) (Luke 17:19)(Mark 2:1-12).

The Apostle Paul reminded the Colossian Church that their sin had alienated them from God, but through faith they were reconciled to God by Jesus’ death so they could be presented “holy and blameless and above reproach before Him” (Colossians 1:21-22). He told the Thessalonians that God is the one who makes spirits whole. (1Thessalonians 5:23-24).

That is the Gospel. God through Christ brings new spiritual life with forgiveness, righteousness, joy, and reconciliation to all who repent of sins and trust in his atonement for humanity’s sins.

Of course, Malachi’s prophecy also refers to a future time when the Son of righteousness will arise with powerful healing for all His people, a day when justice will prevail, wrongs will be righted, evil will be banished, tears will be wiped away, death will be no more, and God’s creation will be completely restored to its intended, glorious purpose. Jesus made this coming day possible as he offered the world forgiveness, peace, healing, and eternal hope.

“For behold, the day is coming” is a prediction worthy of consideration.

Burdened but Beautiful

Winter in Sullivan, Maine

The way these trees and chairs have successfully held up under a heavy snowfall remind us that courage and strength withstanding the whims, burdens, and trials that life tosses at us are “beautiful”.

Difficulties (whether self-inflicted, other-inflicted, or the complications of a broken universe) are the crucibles which reveal our core character. They refine us, mature us, and help us clarify what is important. Scripture clearly teaches that there is meaning in all of life even if we don’t understand the why’s of our situations, that God is always near and responds to those who reach out to Him, that He can make everything beautiful in His time, and that all things will work for good when one is relying upon and desiring Him (Ecclesiastes 3:1) (Romans 8:28-29). Jesus’ brother James, who knew all about the struggles of poverty and loss and the horrors of persecution, testified that perseverance must finish its work so that we become mature and “complete, lacking nothing (James 1:4).”

These teachings are not always easy to accept. Our responses to suffering and adversity are a choice and may or may not be “beautiful.” When we are vulnerable, we may react with bitterness, or anger or be paralyzed by anxiety and depression. Or we may respond to challenging situations with thoughtful problem solving, strength, determination, patience, and joy-filled belief in God’s goodness in spite of the circumstances.

C.S.Lewis said that God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Our weaknesses declare our need for God. Life beyond our control proves how fragile our little worlds are and points us to how dependent we are upon the sovereignty and providence of God, who alone knows the reasons and holds the purposes of our situations and has the power to bring good out of evil just as he brought grace, mercy and salvation out of Jesus’ merciless, cruel crucifixion.

Understanding and trusting that God is unchangingly good, that He desires to redeem us and our circumstances, and that faith will be challenged and purified by “fiery trials” make it possible for believers to see the beauty and rejoice even though they may weep!

Above the Mountains

A View of the Mountains of Mt Desert from Sullivan Harbor, Maine

J. Greshem Mechen, a Presbyterian theologian and founder of Westminster theological Seminary, was an avid mountain climber. His love for majestic peaks and beautiful vistas included hiking the peaks of Maine mountains.

In a 1934 article for Christianity Today, he wrote: “There is far above any earthly mountain peak of vision a God high and lifted up who, though he is infintely exalted, yet cares for his children among men.”

Accepting that exulted view of God as one who cares about creation and its creatures should bring us to the conclusion that we live within His sovereignty and providence. Viewed only from the standpoint of God’s holy nature and perfection that is scary because we stand as broken and undeserving to be in His presence. Yet, He views wayward, struggling creation with such amazing grace, passionate love, and divine patience that His ultimate goal is restoring our distortions and disorder with meaning and truth, bringing righteousness and justice, renewing our material world, ending all evil and suffering, and bringing us into His kingdom.

His “care for his children among men” was fully expressed in the humble, sacrificial life of Christ. The Apostle John told his readers: “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10) Because of that sacrifice, we can set out upon the path to full restoration by our faith (2Corinthians 5:18).

Christ is the reason for our confidence that there is a day coming when all wrongs will be “righted.”

Getting a Grip

These roots are reminders of the phrase to “ get a grip,” which can have various meanings such as securing a physical hold on some item, exhibiting emotional control in an intense situation, or rethinking one’s position during a heated discussion! However, it also raises other considerations.

We attach ourselves to relationships, “things,” actions, or beliefs which give us a sense of security. We build our intellectual and emotional lives around ideas or values which seem logical and appeal to our sense of justice. However, when these values are not grounded within the context of who God is, we create our own “truths” based on our desires or what we choose to believe and live. “Self truth” veers from the revealed reality that we exist to know God and to reflect His character.

The prophet Isaiah nailed this self-problem with a simple, rhetorical question: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary” Isaiah 40:28-31). The profound implication is that we may not have a personal, meaningful, conscious awareness of God and His loving, sovereign character. We easily hold a diminished view of God and undervalue His role in this life.

Isaiah gave a gripping response to his question. God is not only sovereign but is also a caring Father whose enduring strength sustains and empowers those who are spiritually weary and faint. Isaiah understood and trusted in God’s exhortations for His people to “hold fast” to Him and to heed His words and promises because they reveal how much He loves believers and guides and guards them in in a broken world. (Deuteronomy 10:20; 11:22-23)(Joshua 22:5)

Scripture instructs everyone to beware that “the wisdom of this world” is folly with God (1Corinthians 18:19-20). The Christian Church is warned about being taken captive to the empty deceit found in worldly philosophies/influences which ignore the person and teachings of Christ, through whom God showed his passionate love for humanity as Jesus struggled perfectly with life’s temptations and difficulties only to die a lonely cruel death in order to bear our sins and secure our redemption.

Someday we all will be forced to release our grip on our intellectual gymnastics, worldly allures, individual agendas, personal “truths,” earthly relationships, and all that has “bewitched” us. These earthly values and treasures can neither comfort us nor go with us or save us when we leave.

We have a limited and uncertain amount of time to grasp onto God’s reality concerning meaning, purpose, and eternal values . That is why Scripture says “now is the time” and exhorts us to be “rooted” in faith, in love, and in Christ -to hold fast to what God promises us through the powerful Gospel of redemption. (Proverbs 4:4) (1Corinthians 15:1-2).

When we hold onto Jesus, we are secure. He is the hope that anchors the soul forever. (Hebrews 6:19)

Singing Sheep

Sung by “the people of (God’s) pasture” and “the sheep of his hand,” Psalm 95 overflows with thanksgiving and gratitude to the Almighty, Sovereign Creator and Redeemer who is worthy of worship because of His wonderful, protective salvation.

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

For the Lord is a great God,
    and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
    the heights of the sun and mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    and the sheep of his hand.

This Psalm then juxtaposes the sad truth that some of us “go astray in (our) heart with the reassuring truth that God’s redemptive grace grants our spiritual safety. Understandingthe magnitude of God’s grace in the face of recognized rebelliousness results in praise. Therefore, it makes sense that the Psalmist’s praising ends with both a warning and a gracious offer. He wrote, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts…” because those who will not listen and have hearts which oppose God “shall not enter (His) rest.” Clearly, there is an underlying hope tied to that direct and distinct warning; there is the promise of “rest” when one heeds God. This hope foreshadows Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who gave his life for his sheep and calls for them to “rest” securely in him: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (John 10:27-28)

History’s story is one in which God beckons us to be the “people of his pasture.” Some of us may choose not to follow Jesus, not to be “sheep in his hand,” and not to rest within his protection. But faith leads to grateful, joyful songs of praise for the great salvation found in trusting the Good Shepherd, “the Guardian of our souls.”

Thankful sheep sing even if it is just a joyful noise!

A Song for Every Day in The New Year… “You Are Here For Me”

Acadia Mountains across Frenchman’s Bay from Schoodic Point, Maine

From rising sun to rising sun

The days continually run

Your glory rises over the mountains

Your splendor sets far out to sea

You hold the day between

And what You intend for me

From rising sun to rising sun

The days all run

Through the darkness, but this I know

Though mountains shake and harsh winds blow

Though the earth cracks and breaks

Though kingdoms rage and nations fall

You are my refuge, my strength , my all

None my trust will take

With the rising sun

You bring every day over the mountain

Then set it far out to sea

Sovereign King, you have reigned

mighty in power with purposes

unexplained from eternity

Yet in Your amazing grace

You are here with me

From rising sun to rising sun

You are my strength, my all

In You my trust will always be

Though mountains shake and nations fall

You are my shield, my refuge,,

You are ever here for me

CDM

The Light that broke the darkness…

Sunrise, Sullivan Harbor, Maine

What will come with the rising sun? Aggravation or happiness? Dispair or hope? Disaster or blessing? Or even a long desired but barely noted and unexpected miracle?

Who could have known?

When the sun rose that morning “the light of the world,” the “true light that lighteth everyone” was arriving to fulfill one of history’s most significant, mysterious prophecies! (John1:9) Celebrated with heavenly brilliance and angelic joy but with little earthly recognition or ceremony, the long awaited child of ancient prophecy would be born in a stable and lie cradled in a manger amidst barn animals. Seven hundred years before, Isaiah had predicted his birth: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

That momentous day, heaven graciously gave humanity its greatest gift: “…when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

A totally unprepared world found it difficult to accept this child born into poverty in a Bethlehem stable as “Immanuel,” God with us. “Downwhere” a Canadian Rock Band, poses some questions that were and continue to be asked : “ A child in a manger? Lowly and small, the weakest of all/ Unlikeliest hero, wrapped in his mother’s shawl/ Just a child/ Is this who we’ve waited for?” “Cause how many kings stepped down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? And how many Gods have poured out their hearts/To romance a world that is torn all apart? How many Fathers gave up their Sons for me?

The Apostle John answered the implied “why” of those questions centuries ago: “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins”(1 John 4:9-10). This vulnerable child came as the powerful, visible manifestation of God’s love for all humanity! God’s investment of unconditional and unlimited love, immeasurable and unmerited grace, and miraculously unbounded power for our eternal salvation through this Christ Child is the reason to celebrate a joyous Christmas.

He lights everyday with great hope for all who believe!

The Last Leaf

King Solomon wrote that “There is a time for every purpose under heaven.” Although heaven has plenty of “time,” we live in increments and stages which have beginnings and endings. Darkness recedes in dawn’s early light. The sun sets. Transitions eventually complete. Projects are finished. A final page is turned. The last leaf falls. Years pass. We age. Our lives finish! We live one last earthly day! Time eventually brings the irreversible!

Remember how Jesus cried out from his cross, “ It is finished.” Was that a cry of relief from all the poverty, misunderstanding, mistreatment, hatred, and earthly trials he had suffered? Was it because he had perfectly withstood all temptations so that no fault could be found in him? Was it because he had completed Old Testament prophesies concerning him? Was it because he had flawlessly met the demands of the Law or had fulfilled his Father’s redemptive mandate with his selfless sacrifice for the salvation of the world? Did he mean he had fully paid the sin debt for humanity on that shameful cross?

Perhaps all that and much more!

It was the victory cry of a spiritual conquerer! The time had come for Christ to fulfill God’s unique redemptive plan. Unfortunately, we are not morally pure, and our self-righteousness cannot atone for our sins. So, thankfully, God provided the path to salvation through Christ’s righteousness. The power of sin’s shame and condemnation ended at the cross. There despair ends and hope begins for all who trust in Christ’s sacrifice. And just two days following that horrendous event, resurrection and an empty tomb took away the fear of death.

We finish here? But with a new beginning! Redemption ushers the believer into a kingdom for which there is no end.

World without end! Amen.