READY, or not?

Daniel 3

“If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

I wonder, would I be ready and bold enough to state, “even if He does not I will not serve your gods or worship your images!”   I marvel at the stalwart stance of these three men and I think my faith is as strong and bold, but when faced with the fiery furnace would I bend my knee?

This causes me to reflect on normal, everyday life and the opportunities facing us all the time to bend our knees.  Jokes told around the water cooler that are off-color, taking that small token of appreciation from a vendor when company rules state we should not, or how about taking home office supplies or printing something personal on the company color printer – whose god am I serving then?  What about speeding, just a little, or my sudden burst of vocabulary choices, or taking advantage of a friend’s senior discount.  Oh, but no fiery furnace is attached to those minor infractions, right?  Maybe not today, but what about eternity’s choices?  The gods I serve in the here and now tell much about my relationship to the One True God whom I say has saved my soul.  Either I operate in this world without bending my knee to social norms and I serve the God who set me free from slavery, from sin and death or I don’t.  There’s really no middle ground.

Well that’s a lot to chew on today!  I wonder if we just get use to the temperature of today’s temptations, to the cultural norms that assuage our conscience and make us comfortable bending our knee.  After all, the music is usually quite lovely at the foot of golden idols, isn’t it?  mmmmm
suemccarysargis

I KNOW THE PLANS: JEREMIAH 29:10-11

I KNOW THE PLANS
Jeremiah 29:10-14

¹⁰ This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.

How often have I have heard and quoted Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you - plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future” but has anyone ever put this verse in context in a sermon or teaching?   I don’t remember ever hearing verse 10 conjoined to 11 and yet how crucial it to understand the environment in which this promise from God was set. 

² (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.)

It also follows God’s instruction to these exiles to build houses, settle down, have children, pray for peace of their captors because if it went well with them it went well with the Israelites.  In exile they were told it would be 70 years before they would go back to their homeland.   That means if they were 20 when taken into captivity they would be 90 when they returned home.   If born in captivity they would not even have a reference point for home other than the stories their families told them.   If one was 50 then most likely they would die in captivity.  In such circumstances I imagine most of us would question the validity of a promise from God, “I know the plans. . . .to give you a hope and a future” and yet it is, today, a coveted life-verse many hold on to.  

In those 70 years of hardship and toil would anyone have the resolve to live in such a way that, although held captive, they prospered and were at peace with their circumstances?  Would the plan God told them He had for them take place 70 years hence, or was there a deeper meaning we all too often miss? 

I believe we have missed the depth of this promise.  It is not a promise that God’s plans will fit neatly into our parameters for prosperity and peace and wealth.  It is not a promise that we will necessarily like the plans unfolding before our eyes.  It is a promise that right in the midst of the mess of life, the mess we ourselves often make of life God knows us, loves us, and God’s plan is to prosper us in every circumstance – even captivity.

These captives got themselves in this situation.  God promised safety in their own land if He remained their one and only God and they chose instead to meld into surrounding societal norms, adopting the worship of inanimate gods carved of wood and stone.  We are no different today.   In our own country, founded upon the knowledge of the One True God there is a culture invading hearth and home not at all unlike what the Israelites faced.  If we were taken into captivity because of our apostasy would we understand if God spoke such a promise as Jeremiah 29:11?  Would we humble ourselves, turn from our wicked ways, seek His face so that He could one day restore us to our homeland and in the meantime live IN his hope and peace, or would we live in rebellion because His promise didn’t seem to fit our parameters of prosperity and hope?

“Fixing your eyes on Jesus” comes to mind just now.   “In every circumstance I have learned to be content” also arises in my heart and mind.  That is what God told those held captive in Babylon who would be there for 70 years – keep your eyes on ME.  As I live with the eyes of my heart fixed solidly on Him, living each day knowing THIS DAY He fulfills His promise then the reality of Jeremiah 29:11 will be a life verse that carries me IN the good times and IN the bad and I will dwell IN the hope of His good plans.  IN them, in the midst of life’s mess – that’s the environment of such a great promise from God. For today, for tomorrow, for every day after than He knows the plans He has for me even when I make a mess of things.   Every day I can take this promise to the bank, and every day I can dwell in His promised hope.

suemccarysargis
8/22/2014

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CLOTHING?

I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness.      Isaiah 61:10-11

When I think of getting all dressed up I think in terms of outward appearance – what shoes, nylons, dress, jewelry will I put on.  I look in the mirror to make sure everything coordinates and that I look as good as I can.   Yes, I do want to look my best most of the time when I walk out my door.   Man, after all, does look on the outward appearance.

But God looks on the heart!

I do not think I have ever considered walking out the door having checked to make sure my interior appearance is spot on – will it be perceived by others as attractive, well-kempt, in order, neat and clean.   Isaiah delighted greatly in the Lord, so much so that he gave tribute to the clothing God provided for him, and which he took great honor in displaying.  Garments of salvation, a robe of righteousness – clothing that no human closet can possibly have hanging; clothing only God can provide.  

My feeble attempts at sewing my own garments of salvation will fail every time.  The seams will be wrong, the length and height and breadth and width will be all the wrong dimensions and in the end it will never save me, really save me.    Should I attempt to piece together a robe of righteousness from my cache of supplies that robe would be as filthy rags, it would wear out (and wear me out) quickly for self-made righteousness will never be able to stand the test of time.  Thieves will break in and steal it away, moths will eat away at the fibers, adornments will rust away from the humidity of life. 

But a garment of salvation provided by God – oh my what a difference.   For all time and eternity this garment will never wear out.  This garment is noticed by others as the real thing, and this garment is one God loves to see displayed on multitudes.  He doesn’t make a one-of-a-kind garment with a jacked-up price no one can afford.  Well, truth be told no one can afford to purchase it, but then no one needs to worry about that either. The enormous cost of this precious garment has been totally absorbed by Jesus.  The price has been paid and He offers it freely to all who believe and receive this garment of Salvation from His nail-pierced hands

And oh that robe of righteousness!   What a price was paid on Calvary by Jesus so that I could be given this robe  - free!  I don’t have to manufacture or try to replicate it, in fact there is no possible way to do so because it is the Blood of Christ that is the thread woven through it which makes it so precious, so valuable.  The wearer of this robe is reminded over and over again that he or she is saturated and adorned by something no human can possibly replicate.
 
The garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness bear the mark of the One who offers it to all.   Attention paid to my interior wardrobe must be more top-of-mind as I walk out my door so that the penetrating, everlasting Glory of God is on display.  That is my assignment on this earth – to show the world my Jesus.   My outward appearance can never do this.  Oh, the joy of the Lord will be evident as I speak and when I smile and when I reach out to give a helping hand but those acts of graciousness can just as easily dissipate when frustrations arise and my day doesn’t go as I planned.   As Isaiah said, I delight greatly in the Lord, and my soul rejoices  in my God for He has given me a garment and a robe that no one can take from me, that stays with me throughout eternity, and which a thread-bear world is desperate for.   If I walk out my door today purposefully conscious that I wear God’s Salvation and His Righteousness it can make all the difference in the world to someone I meet along my path today who needs to see much more than what my clothes’ closet holds.  Such attention to detail can Rock this world!

How humbling.   So - I’m putting on my favorite clothing now as I walk out my door to start this day.   Oh, may the beauty of Jesus be seen ON me.  Amen

suemccarysargis  7/30/2014

An old hymn says it very well:

Let the beauty of Jesus
be seen in me
All His wonderful passion and purity
May His Spirit divine
All my being refine
Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me

CLOTHE YOURSELF!

CLOTHE YOURSELF! 
Colossians 3:  9-17

“. . . .since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. ¹¹ Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. ¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Clothing.   It’s a necessary commodity and has been since Adam and Eve first donned fig leaves and animal fur.  It is a subject to which people all over the world pay much attention, even in impoverished areas it seems the attire is well-attended.  So when we are told to ‘clothe’ ourselves in scripture, the metaphor is something most of us can comprehend.  Yet even I skirt right past these scriptural admonitions much of the time.   I would never skirt the issue of clothing myself as I prepare to go to work each day.  I, like you, pay much attention to getting dressed and to looking the best I can.  I care, after all, what others think even if no one comments on how I’m dressed.  Why is it, then, that I can so lightly pass by verses like Colossians 3:12 – “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”?

Amazing, this spiritual clothing that affects all of society in ways my physical dress never will.  The son of a co-worker I have never met flashed through our offices late yesterday with mom trailing behind instructing him not to open doors, not to be so inquisitive, to stop and shake hands, to introduce himself.  He was not a child but an older teen and hanging around his neck was a sign that branded him – “Autistic”.   Why did he have to wear a sign like that, I wondered?   Why single him out like that – and yet I understood that his erratic wanderings in the safety of our own offices were probably looked on by the outside world with just a little disdain.  Did I?  If I am clothed with compassion it will come through loud and clear to that mom who has raised her son in a world critical of behavioral differences.  If I am clothed with kindness, that young man will recognize how I am dressed, as will he comprehend my gentleness and patience and the love of Jesus will pour the oil of joy and love all over the atmosphere! 

If I am to live the life of Jesus on this earth, if I am to affect those around me with His character and qualities – compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience – I have to actively participate in my own spiritual grooming.  The writer of this instruction does not tell me to stand still so that God can dress me and get me all prepped for my day.  I am told to clothe myself, and I want to do so simply because I am one of God’s chosen, holy and dearly loved people who gets to be the demonstration of His love each moment of each of my days on this earth.  What better clothing could I possibly attend to as I begin my day today? 

Lord, I want to be a humble, caring, compassionate, kind and gentle person as I step into this world today that is oh so much more interested in physical dressings than dressings that can affect a life for all eternity.  Moth and rust certainly does corrupt all other manner of clothing – but they can never destroy the works You do in and through me when I am spiritually dressed to meet the day.   So right now I clothe myself in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Right now I put on the covering of love, that  the world might know Your great love.  Amen and amen.

AS A HEN GATHERS HER CHICKS

“How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”  Matthew 23:37

I arrived home after a 2 ½ week vacation, proceeding to rake up the plethora of avocado leaves that had fallen on my yard.  It’s a never-ending job.  I’ve been home a couple of weeks now, and every day I have a new bag full of leaves.  I am hopeful it means a bumper harvest of the best avocados anywhere on earth.  I’m convinced they are, as are people I give them too when there are so many I cannot possibly eat them all.  But back to that first raking event post-vacation.

Under some plants I saw this white fluffy thing hunkered down and it seemed to not move at all.   So I bent down to get a closer look, reached out my hand to touch it and all of a sudden she flew up and away, protesting loudly.  A live chicken was sleeping in my yard!  Wow, I live in suburbia and while occasionally I have heard their wake up call and even had one neighbor’s pet hen come peck around my yard, this was something brand new.   A white hen was NESTING in my yard, I soon discovered.   Laying on the ground where she had dutifully, loving been sitting were 9 eggs.   OH NO!  I’ve scared her away and she was sitting on eggs that probably have babies inside.  My heart sank as I emailed my family asking them what to do.   Really, there was nothing I could do but pray she would find her way back to my yard and settle down on her babies again.   Thankfully, she did.   I arrived home that evening and quietly looked between the plants.  There she was, laying motionless once again on those eggs.

I did an internet search to see how long that process should take.  21 days, it said, and if it began to stink in the yard I could be sure the hen was sitting on at least one rotten egg.  That never happened.  I didn’t try to touch her again, but I checked every morning to make sure she was there on those eggs.  She was.

But then yesterday, just a week later as I was leaving for work she was not under the plants any longer.  She was on the cold, hard gravel and I was worried she was sick.  Why would she be laying on the gravel, all hunkered down?  I bent down to talk to her, and as I spoke gently to her I again reached out my hand, ready to pet her.  WRONG THING TO DO!  It startled her again and up she flew, this time revealing six baby chicks that scattered in every direction as mama squawked and squawked.   First, she ran around the yard trying to round them all up and then she came charging at me!  She was mad, obviously, and probably scared that I would harm her brood.  I ran up three stairs to my porch and assured her I was not going to harm her or her little ones.  She returned to the search for the babies as I quickly left for work – again praying that she would be ok and that no harm would come to her chicks.  I prayed she would find them all and gather them, once more, under her protective wings.

I don’t know then end of her story.  When I came home from work that evening she was no longer nesting in my yard.   Obviously she and the babies had gone to a safer place than this one where the inquisitive giant kept disturbing her.   There in the gravel, where she last lay covering her babies I noticed she had pecked and scratched until she got a nice well in that rocky terrain.  In the nest were still three unhatched eggs and my guess was she didn’t want to keep laying on eggs that had no babies inside when she now had six fast-growing little ones to tend.  Very carefully she had recreated a place for her brood, a snug, dry, safe place under her protection and the warmth of her wings until they were big enough to live on their own.

I’m sad she and her chicks are gone, and yet I couldn’t have taken care of them.  I’m gone all the time and besides, I’m sure she belonged to someone who is quite happy to have her and her little ones back home. 

I’ve thought often of the verse in the Bible where Jesus stood outside Jerusalem facing the culmination of His life on this earth – His stalwart journey to the Cross. . . .“I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.”  Those baby chicks I saw were not new hatchlings.  Obviously they had been out of those eggshells for some days by the time I saw them.  They knew their mamma; they knew they were safe under her wings and they also knew how to scamper when startled by the unexpected.   The image of Jesus gathering us, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings is a vision I now better understand.   I’m not a country girl, and though I had a sense of what this metaphor meant, while it brought peace to my heart that my Lord cares for me just as tenderly as any great mom cares for her kids, I had never seen a hen gather her chicks before.   I didn’t stick around to watch my white mama hen for fear she would peck me to death to keep me from harming her little ones, but I saw those babies under her wing, and I saw something else.   In that instant I not only comprehended the tenderness, but also the fierce protection she afforded her children.  In that instant I was touched to the core of my being with what it means for my God to gather me tenderly, ready to charge anyone who threatens my safety and security.  It’s not just a nesting place; it’s a hiding place, a sanctuary, a fortress – those wings of the hen . . . those arms of my Savior.

“But you were not willing. . .” 

That’s how Jesus’ sentence ends as He begins the journey that secured my place under His wings forever.  I wonder if those babies heard the cry of their mamma and scurried towards her, or if they thought they were strong enough now to venture out on their own, to live life as they wanted.   My hope is the later because I am a city girl and those babies would never endure a crossing on my busy roadways.   Those babies would not survive the predators if mama wasn’t with them, guiding them, teaching them, providing sanctuary for them when needed.   Of course they will not live forever under her wings – I know that.  And I suppose that is where the analogy ends for me and for the children Jesus longs to gather.   Another Bible verse comes to mind which embodies the bigger picture:  “Jesus said: ‘Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belong the kingdom of Heaven.”  Matthew 19:14

The greatest safety, security, sustenance is provided, not by my accomplishments and abilities in this world, but by His gracious, tender, strong, powerful, mighty, protective arms.   All my life I am to come to Jesus as His child.   He longs to gather me.  What a precious assurance.   A part of my mother heart understands this.  When I see my own children struggling I want to bring them home and smother them with my love and protection.   My longings for them can only provide temporary respite at best; my Savior’s longing, on the other hand, is always, ongoing, and eternal.  Oh may I never refuse such grace!

PALATIAL RUINS OR CONSEQUENTIAL LEGACIES

1 Kings 6

² The temple that King Solomon built for the Lord was sixty cubits long, twenty wide and thirty high. (about 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 45 feet high)

³⁷ The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. ³⁸ In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. He had spent seven years building it.

1 Kings 7

7 It took Solomon thirteen years, however, to complete the construction of his palace. ² He built the Palace of the Forest of Lebanon a hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high (about 150 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high)

It took Solomon almost twice as long to build his palace as it did to build the temple of the Lord, and when I read these verses the bent of human nature readily comes to mind.  It causes me to stop and ponder how much time I spend building the Lord’s dwelling and tending to the details of my life that project HIM to the world around me, and how much time I spend building and tending to the details of my own creature comforts.   Solomon’s palace was half again as long and wide as the Temple he’d had constructed for the Lord.  Again I ponder – do I put anywhere near as much into my dwelling place with the Lord, my innermost and uppermost quest as I invest in my own space.  These are rhetorical questions, I quickly realize and my heart simply will not let me lie to it.  I spend way more time on my creature comforts than I do building the Kingdom of God within and without.  It is not a proud moment to come to such an encounter in scriptures.   It is not the intent, I am well aware, of these verses to point out my human flaws and yet that is exactly what it does today - so how will these truths impact this day?  This is not a rhetorical question, but rather one that must be attended to swiftly if the light of Jesus is to emanate and radiate consequentially as I go about my day.

Lord, I don’t want to come to the end of my life and leave a legacy of palatial ruins.  I want to learn to enter each day with a heart that keeps constructing ever wider, deeper, longer, higher spaces from which You can bless all You chose to place along my path today.  Let Your love shine through me that the world may see Your great love

Sue Mc Cary Sargis 5/21/2014

THE DAY THE GIFT WAS GIVEN

I remember a year when my dad painstakingly reconstructed bicycles for me and my sister.   Somehow I knew he was collecting parts BEFORE the magical day arrived, and even as a young girl I felt the anticipation build.   But I could never have imagined the true joy of that gift before THE DAY came.  I rode that pink bicycle complete with streamers on the handlebars, wind in my face and I rode with all the joy I could ever imagine.   Even now as I am reminded of that Christmas long ago (for me, it is long ago), I feel the wind in my face and I see the pride on my dad’s face as his gift was received, embraced and loved.

This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, ¹⁰ but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  2 Timothy 1:9-10

This Grace was given to us in Christ Jesus BEFORE the beginning of time.   Phenomenal!   It is like presents have been under the tree and when THE day came, VOILA!  The revelation of all that lay beneath the wrapping. All throughout history God has been giving glimpses of His grace that would help us appreciate THE Gift when the day came for revelation. 

God gave us the grace of Jesus Christ long before we even knew, and oh the joy I am still bathed in as I remember my own Day of Revelation.   The day I was fully aware that Grace had entered my life forever – not because of anything I had done or will ever do – but because He has a purpose and He is full of grace and truth.   I unwrapped that gift as an eight-year-old and I remember being gripped with anticipation just as I remember waking each Christmas morning before my parents were up, wondering if it was ok for me to tear into the wrapping.  I recall the moment when I released my grip on the pew in front of me and stole down that aisle of that little country church into a revelation that changed my life forever.

Long before I was born; long before any of us was born, before the beginning of time this grace was given, and this is the grace we celebrated every year at Christmas.  

 In the beginning was The Word.  The Word was with God, and The Word was God . . . . The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His Glory, Glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1,2,14)   

Full of grace, Holy Savior
Full of grace and truth
May our hearts be filled with wonder
Of Your great, good news
May we bask in all Your splendor
And embrace the gift You bring
Gift of hope, gift of mercy
Gift of Grace, we crown You King

May the God of all grace fill our hearts and homes.   May many more be awakened to the revelation that came to earth over 2000 years ago wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

Sue McCary Sargis
December 10, 2013