Deep and Wide

The past few days have been extremely busy, and I haven’t had a lot of time to spend talking with Gram. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Gram complain about anything, really, even the lack of time people get to spend with her. I had told her, at the inception of this blog that I would be writing down her words and sharing them with others. I sat down with Gram for a while yesterday and she was speaking again of God’s love. She never tires of talking about all He means to her!

Gram spoke of the ocean. She said, *“God’s love is like the ocean. When we stand at the shore, and can see miles of ocean all the way to the horizon, and we feel small as we try to take it all in, knowing that the ocean stretches all over the globe. What we can’t see is the ocean under the surface. It’s like viewing the tip of the iceberg. Under the ocean, hidden from view, is a vast expanse of life and miles of depth. There is another world full of activity constantly moving and fluctuating. Even if we could see the entire surface of the ocean, encompassing the earth, we would still only have a small idea of what the ocean is really like. Underneath the sea, there is marine life so colorful and majestic, we can only imagine the beauty of it all, even with what science reveals to us today.”

Gram continued, “Our perception of God’s love while we’re here on earth is like viewing the surface of the ocean. It’s beautiful and breathtaking, but we can only comprehend a fraction of what really exists. When we get to heaven, it will be as if we are being plunged under the waters, and can view and experience the fullness of the entirety of the love of God! It will be like nothing we have ever imagined we could experience in our natural state. What a journey of discovery that will be!”

“We should write this down and share it with others, “ Gram said.

I love to share the wisdom of Gram’s 97 years! She accepts the love and promises of God, fully trusting, as a child would, yet on the opposite end of the spectrum, she has so many years of “tried and true” service to the Lord. Gram says that He has always been faithful. Gram has had her share of trials, such as the death of her firstborn child as she held him in her arms an infant, after a careless accident in the hospital. Also, when I was a teenager, I asked Gram if there was ever a time she thought she was going to die. Gram told me that, after she had the twins, she had such a severe care of anemia, she believed she was going to die, “But, I didn’t worry,” she said, “I knew that the Lord was with me, and my times were in his hands.”

Life isn’t about the easiest or most comfortable path we can tread. Life is about trusting in the love of God toward us. Some of the most contented people are not the ones who have had a life of smooth sailing, but rather a life of childlike faith and trust in a personal relationship with their Heavenly Father.

In Zephaniah 3:17, God’s joy with His children is expressed – “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing”.

Imagine the mighty God rejoicing over you, singing! What a beautiful, perfect, sound that would be! That’s the powerful and personal love that Gram wants everyone to know about as we view the love of God as the surface of the ocean at sunrise.
I can’t wait to hear the Lord singing and rejoicing as I someday cross over to heaven and am plunged into the fullness of His vast love!

*Paraphrased*

Truth Part II - Truth and Love

What exactly does truth mean to you or me? I think it’s pretty much cut and dry for most people, and it is a choice from there how to act with their idea of truth. Some of us try to tell the truth, some of us try to live the truth, some ignore or change the truth and still others run from the truth that was planted in their hearts years ago. I have been in all of those positions through the course of my life.

I’ve been mulling all of this over since writing about the truth yesterday, after Gram quoted the verse, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me”. (John 14:6). How is Jesus the truth, and again, what does that mean to me?

In looking up truth in an exhaustive concordance, I also read that God is a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. (Deut 32:4) The Holy Spirit is also truth …and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth…(John 14:16, 17). And (John 16:13) when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth…Even the word of God is truth (John 17:17) Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth.

So each member of the Trinity is truth, and so is every word of God truth. Again, what does that mean to us? Ephesians 1:13 says that Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were seal with that Holy Spirit of promise. There’s the truth/trust relationship again. Truth creates trust, which leads to the next step, belief, because of God’s promise.

God has called Himself both truth and love. Truth and love exist equally in the nature of God. I have always heard Gram talk about God’s love, but I have to honestly say that I haven’t been able to grasp the concept that God loves ME. If a human loves me, I know it and I feel it. It gives me pleasure and joy to know that someone, like my Gram truly loves me. Why, then, have I not been able to grasp that about God? I know it, but I’ve only known the idea of it, not the deep down trusting satisfaction that I am loved. I read something not too long ago that said something like, “If we don’t really trust God to love us as He says, then we can’t trust Him to always do what’s best for us. We also can’t truly love Him back, because we don’t trust Him”.

I have heard Gram praying, even tonight, thanking God for his loving kindness. She thanks Him all the time for His love, and then goes on to pray for people she loves. She receives and believes, or trusts in the truth of His love for her, and in the very next breath, she speaks of her love toward others as she prays for them.

I am still so far away from understanding the pure love of my Father toward me, and I really don’t think I’m alone in this. I have all these preconceived notions about who I am, and why I can’t possibly be loved completely by God. God doesn’t love us because we are worthy of that love. He loves us because of His grace and who He is. Also, when you know someone loves you, you understand that they are pleased with you and want to spend time with you. Sometimes I spend my time thinking of all the things I could have done better, and forget that God gives grace for today, and does find pleasure in a relationship with me (and you). Yesterday, Gram said it best when she reminded me that parents don’t love their kids any more or less based on the child’s behavior, and neither does God.

What do we, as parents do as our hearts are filled with love for our kids? We laugh at their “cuteness” when they are small, we get choked up when they tell us they love us, we tell our friends all the important things our kids do right, and can we ever share enough stories or pictures of our kids? Not a day goes by that we do not feel love for our kids. No matter what – and as they get older the “no matter what’s” get bigger - I love my children enough to die for any one of them.

Oprah has coined a phrase called the “Ah-ha” moment. I’ve heard and read it all before, that God loves us as His children, but yesterday, I had an “Ah-ha” moment when Gram spoke of my love toward my own kids. God is our father. God is truth. God loves us as his children. He would, and has, died for us. Don’t you think that He has all of the thoughts and feelings that we have for our own children, only on a perfect, supernatural level? If I stop thinking of myself as an unworthy adult, and more as God describes me – as His own child, then I can begin to have a small understanding of His delight in me because He is my father! Only then, can I return His love as He wants me to. He has even loved me through my struggles of not feeling His love!

It is my prayer that each time my heart swells with compassion and love for my kids, I will be reminded that God is also my parent, and has a more perfect compassion for me as his “kid”. As I trust in His love, I will be able to believe in His truth, and seek truth for my own life in ways I have never viewed it or practiced it. Once I trust Him to love me, I can also love him back, and show the truth to others. Just as truth and trust go hand in hand, so do truth and love.

Truth Part I

Gram often talks about her childhood. Through the years, she has brought a smile to my face as she fondly remembers different things that helped shape her into the woman she is today. It had seemed to me that Gram must have had an idyllic childhood from the way she talked, so I was surprised in my early twenties to learn that my Gram had come from a broken home. She had even been separated from the rest of the family for a while as a great-aunt offered to help by taking her in. Those were especially trying times, but, even as a child, Gram has spoken of a relationship with Jesus, which saw her through her loneliness. She matter-of-factly told me that He became her friend and confidant. She never felt that she was alone because He was always there. Even tonight, she quoted Matthew 28:20b Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. To have that certainty and knowledge deep down inside, especially as a young child, is something that is rare. In the past I have also heard Gram say, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. We could all learn from that simplistic, yet profound motto.

Gram often thought of her four sisters and one brother when she lived away from home, and waited for the day when she would be reunited with them. She also loved and missed her mother very much. She told me that her mother once sat all six of her children down and said, "Our relationships will be built on truth. Everything I say to you will be the truth, and if I ever learn that something I tell you was in error, I will come back to you and correct it. I will also apologize to you, so you know that you will always be able to trust me."

Truth and trust go hand in hand. Some of the least trusting people in the world today are the ones who have learned that they can not depend on receiving the truth from others. There is another motto - Fool me once, it's your fault. Fool me twice, it's my fault. We are programmed to be suspicious.

What a different world it would be if we could trust the "truth" of others. Truth is not relative, it is absolute. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me".

Even though we may come from broken homes, or have learned that people here on earth can disappoint us with broken promises, untruths, half-truths or white lies, we can trust the Only One who is truth. And by the way, if it isn't all truth, it isn't the truth at all, so a "white lie" is just a "lie of a different color".

I wonder what an amazing difference we would make to the next generation and the future in general if each one of us sat our children down to tell them the words that Gram's mother said to her as a child. I believe in my heart that we would not only be nurturing an honest future generation, but we would also be bringing up our children to be trusting individuals. How much easier would it be for our children to trust HIM when they know they can trust us?

Faith, Hope and Love

I remember a few years ago, Gram and I were discussing I Corinthians 13:13. And now abideth faith, hope, charity (love), these three, but the greatest of these is charity (love). I always wondered why love would be greater than hope or faith. To me, it seemed that each one had an equally important status. I understand that God is love, so maybe that’s why love topped the list of the things that “now abide”. Gram proceeded to explain what that verse meant to her, and I’ve never read it the same way again.

Gram took the verse word by word. The first word that “now abides” is faith. Gram explained that faith is necessary “now”, because we walk by faith, not by sight (I Cor 5:7). We are saved by faith - And He (Jesus) said unto the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace (Luke 7:50). Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). Faith is necessary, and even the tangible substance of things to come, as well as evidence of things we can’t just point out in our natural world. If you think of today’s justice system, many people can be convicted on “circumstantial evidence”. This evidence paints a picture of something that happened, and people can confidently come to a conclusion based on that evidence. The same concept is written about faith – it is evidence of things not (yet) seen.

Finally, Hebrews 12:2a speaks of Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith… Faith will have an ending. Jesus is the author of our faith, and he is also the finisher. The day we enter heaven, there will be no more need of faith because For now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known (I Cor 13:12) When our journey is over, faith will no longer be a necessary part of our relationship with God because we will behold Him in all His glory. We shall see Him just as He is! This is why faith “now” abides.

I excitedly saw where this was going. Gram explained that hope has such an important place in this life, along with faith and love. Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27b) shows us that hope has a place “now”, so we can be comforted and empowered as we anticipate glory. We also have in our spiritual warfare, a helmet, the hope of salvation (I Thes 5:8) Salvation is something that we have hope in, as something that will come to pass, although we are already saved if we are believers. Again, in Titus 1:2, Paul speaks of hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Now abides hope, but hope will reach it’s destination someday, along with faith. Faith and hope propel us along in our Christian walk as we believe the things we have not yet seen.

Like faith and hope, love also “now abides”, but that’s only part of love’s story. There will be no ending, so even though love is now, it always has been and always will be. One of Gram’s favorite verses, Jeremiah 31:3, states, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore, with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. God often speaks of love as everlasting, timeless and ageless. The powerful verses in Romans (8:38,39) say that nothing, not even death or time itself, can separate us from the love of God, through Christ – For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Love truly is everlasting.

Every time I read I Corinthians 13:13, I realize that faith has the power to save us, hope has the power to sustain us, but love is the greatest of all, because love transcends all time, past, present and future, and the love of God is the reason faith and hope exist! Faith and hope will accompany us in this life and see us safely to the other side, and once there, we will bask in the love of God for all eternity!

The Blame Game

In the course of conversation the other day, Gram told me about a time when she was speaking to an audience. The question she asked was, "Who was the first person to be 'blamed' in the Bible?"

I thought for a moment, and said, "I guess it would be Adam, Eve, or the serpant."

Gram said that most of her class also gave the same answer, but in reality, the first person ever accused was God, Himself. After Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they hid themselves when they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. They were suddenly aware of their nakedness. When God asked them why they were hiding, and whether they had eaten from the tree, Adam said, "The woman, whom THOU gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." (Genesis 3:11, 12)

Gram went on to say that all through the Bible, and in everyday life, we often blame God or others when things go wrong. God is perfect, yet He bears the brunt of our accusations, usually unspoken, when things are not right. Have you ever had a time when, after choosing a path that was not blessed by God, you secretly blame God when things begin to go downhill? I know I have.

James 1:12-15 says: Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

In these verses, we receive a promise from God, that if we endure through and in temptation, we will receive the crown of life. Sometimes, here on earth, people make empty promises, but we know that a promise from the perfect and true God, will be kept. I love God's promises!

We also learn that God cannot be tempted, and he does not tempt anyone to sin. The progression of lust to sin is developed in our own hearts, apart from the direction of the Lord. It seems like a "no-brainer" that we would not blame God for the consequences, yet when the dust settles, we cry out at Him asking why He has allowed so much pain or suffering! Sometimes the suffering is there to help us mature, but often, it is because we have allowed ourselves to create a scenario in our own lives that will ultimately bring pain, just as Adam did in the garden.

No matter what happens, we can be confident that the work Christ did on the cross is sufficient to restore us back to a right relationship with the Father. I thank God for his grace and forgiveness, even for the sin of blaming Him when I do wrong. He is always patient and forgiving!

That's Why We're Here!

I have recently had the distinct honor and pleasure to come back to my home to stay with my 97 year old foster mother, "Gram". Usually, after supper, we have had an opportunity to spend time together talking about various things that are on Gram's heart. As has been the topic of conversation in the last forty years of our conversations, Gram directs me, and all who will listen, to her love of the Lord, and what the scriptures and experiences have meant in her life.

A few days ago, Gram asked me if I would help her write a few words to share with others, to encourage those who need to be reminded of God's love. Gram emphatically said, "That's why we're here!" I was humbled that, at 97 years old, Gram still knows exactly why she's here on this earth - to be a source of encouragement and a blessing as a witness to others.

I agreed, and decided to start a blog so others could benefit from the great devotion and wisdom I witness every day from my own quiet conversations with my role model and the Mother of My Heart. Gram, who has quoted scripture in everyday conversation as long as I can remember, said that she wanted to share Jeremiah 31:3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Her relationship with Christ is one of love, first and foremost, and she has exhibited the love she has received from Him in the way she so freely shares her own love with others.

As I sat down to write this first post, I took out her old Bible that she has had for many, many years. It was given to her by her late husband, and my foster dad. These words were written on the inside cover by Gram years ago:

"It is essential that we always come to God's Word with a readiness to receive. Remember, it is God's Word, not man's - straight from the heart of God, to us, personally. It is a powerful Word, living and enlivening. The Bible is the Christian's chart, guidebook, soul food, textbook for spiritual education and ministry tool. It is even more, and great portions of scripture represent a love letter from a gracious Father to his precious children. Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship."

So, this begins the journey. I know some of you have already had the opportunity to have your lives touched, and even transformed by Gram's encouragement, love and words. It is my desire that others, who have never met Gram, will somehow catch a glimpse of what it means to be steadfast and ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you (1Peter 3:15), as has been evident in Gram's life through the years.

If any of you have any memories or comments for this blog, please feel free to share!