Ask for An Enduring & Thank-filled Faith

...we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:9-14 ESV)

 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. (James 5:7-8 ESV)

 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, (2 Corinthians 1:3 ESV)

This Father of mine not only has love in his heart towards me, but also the ability to act, completely unthwarted, on it. 
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8 ESV)

Knowing God Personally

J.I. Packer on page 39 of Knowing God:

Knowing God is a matter of personal dealing, as is all direct acquaintance with personal beings. Knowing God is more than knowing about him; it is a matter of dealing with him as he opens up to you, and being dealt with by him as he takes knowledge of you. Knowing about him is a necessary precondition of trusting in him ("how could they have faith in one they had never heard of?" [Rom 10:14 NEB]), but the width of our knowledge about him is no gauge of the depth of our knowledge of him.
...If the decisive factor was notional correctness, then obviously the most learned biblical scholars would know God better than anyone else. But it is not; you can have all the right notions in your head without ever tasting in your heart the realities to which they refer; and a simple Bible reader and sermon hearer who is full of the Holy Spirit will develop a far deeper acquaintance with his God and Savior than a more learned scholar who is content with being theologically correct. The reason is that the former will deal with God regarding the practical application of truth to his life, whereas the latter will not.

May God give us much grace to be men and women who "deal with God regarding the practical application of truth" to our lives and not simply have all "the right notions" in our heads without it taking control of our hearts. What joy and peace there is in knowing God in this way! 

Father, please send your Spirit to open our hearts up to your word in our lives each day.

"Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous thing out of your law." - Psalm 119:18 ESV

photo: July 15, 2007; Tuscany, Italy

Jean Griswold, witness to Christ

Jean: It's sad to this day...but the Lord has given me so much....When I think about this, I cry and it's sad. It's part of me...the Lord had not kept my husband with me, and I still don't have the answers to that, really....I hope girls learn how to trust God for whatever comes. Life's not a bowl of cherries all the time. Maybe every once in a while. And you have to learn how to hold steady through the down times... 

me: How did you learn that? What did you learn about trusting God in the down times? 

Jean: Well sometimes I didn't. If there was not a deep sense in me that I had been born again, that God had met me, and Christ had come into my life, there was forgiveness, and there's cleansing in the blood, and we must keep knowing that....It was just lovely...but I got so hurt by the way he acted towards me. I don't know; I still don't know....I didn't always manage well. 

Doug: Sounds to me that your relationship with Jesus was the steel in the structure that kept this house from crashing down.

Jean: ...from me going down underneath it all, yes.

Doug: Losing a child, having a divorce some years later, and the awful things in between, it really comes down to a woman's walk and relationship with Jesus.
...
Jean: Just put first things first in your life. Have that which is important in God for you. Let the pressures of life fall away. I don't think we need to be struggling, Christian young women, if they know that their hope is in Christ.

me: And even after all you've been through, you can say that.

Jean: That's right. And that's what matters. You can get old like me and that's still what matters. Nothing else is as important as Jesus Christ.

This is a segment from an interview with Jean Griswold, an 85 year old lady in my church. My pastor Doug and I visited her one afternoon and captured such rich sweetness from a woman who's lived grounded in Christ in the reality of a broken world. I came away deeply affected and marveling at the paradox of a life of faith. Jean's faced a life full of many of my fears, feeling their reality deeply so that they are part of her even today and still bring sorrow and tears decades later. And yet they have not overcome her. God has proven true to his word in her life, and she perseveres for the realization of the rest of his promises. She is a radiantly beautiful daughter of God who studies and treasures his word and sings his praises in her life. 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  (Hebrews 12:1-3)

I'm thankful for the saints who have gone before me. And how blessed am I to be surrounded by so many of them! Both my parents have memories of times with Jean as single young adults in Community of Believers, or maybe it was called Lancaster Covenant Church by then (now going by the name of Crossway Church!)


You can listen to parts of our conversation with Jean on our church blog here. 

photo: August 13, 2011; last family vacation 

at the hunting cabin in Tioga county

A Father to orphans

1Hope4Africa-Mission Team and Muphamuzi Baby Home Opening!

The above links to a vimeo of the Muphamuzi Baby Home in South Africa that my friends Donovan & Heather Drew will soon be heading up. They've recently left Crossway Churh and Lancaster and will be traveling there in a few short months to lead this ministry to orphans in Donovan's home country.

What a privilege to watch God at work, and what amazing grace that he has saved us and allows us to participate in his work in this world.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
(John 14:18 ESV)