ENTERED HIS REST...yet?

Greetings, all. It's Blog time so here come's the latest from Jackie updates to our pursuit of becoming more and more like Christ. We'll begin with our challenge to be changed into His likeness...

THE ORIGINAL 4 ROBINSONS ABOVE

Are you tired? Are you harassed by the pace of life? Do you find yourself wondering what it might be like if you could only ____________. You have to fill in the blank. In Hebrews 4:10 it tells us that when we enter into God's rest, we cease from our own labors. If you are like me you've read that a number of times, thanked God for such a wonderful promise and then jumped right back into the race where you had done everything but cease from your own labors. Why is that? How can we change?

I don't believe in luck, but if you want an answer, this is your lucky day because I'm going to give you one. It might not be the correct answer, but it's an answer that has worked for me and I'm grateful to God. I'm quite old, possibly bordering on the land of Ancient. If I were as wise as I am old, I'd be unstoppable, but I'm not. But one thing I learned a few months ago came from a prayer our Orthodox church has used for centuries and it's part of my everyday prayer time:

O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my dealings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all. In all my deeds and words, guide my thoughts and feelings. In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all are sent by You.

The last section that is in italics has changed my life because somehow God has answered that prayer in some wonderful ways. Like the sun breaking through the cloud cover, God broke through years of ingrained habitual responses I used to make to challenges and problems and turned my heart and head around so that I can respond differently. When we come to the knowledge that God governs all, we come to a place called serenityville--a place where we can just relax.

I'm not talking about a fatalistic thing here like our Islamic pals. Surely there are times when God expects us to stand our ground and fight the good fight, as the Bible says. But even in that fight we can fight with the assurance that God is on our side (if you are living for Him, that is!). "If God is for us, who can be against us?"

Our ancient Church fathers had some definite ideas about how big God was, how powerful He was and how much He actually cared and loved mankind (oops, I meant "humankind"). I'm not sure who penned the words up there that say, "let me not forget that all are sent by You," but those words have meant much to me. Those words take my mind off the "whys" and put it on the One who controls the causes. We've all read that "all things are working for our good...," but how many of us believe it? It's easy to believe when someone gives you a suitcase full of money, but how about when you open up your suitcase and find that it has been gone through and you've been robbed? That's when our minds start wondering why this happened or ways to find the culprits and do 'em in.

Stop. Take a deep breath. God has reasons for the way things go in our lives because He loves us. He gave His life for me even though I didn't deserve it. He suffered so I could enjoy good health. He died so I could live. He rose from the dead so I could die and be raised up with Him. He came to earth and took on our nature so that we could take on His nature and go to heaven. He became just like us so that we can be like Him and that's why "all things are working for our good." He knows what we need to change so like a loving Father, he spares nothing to get us those supplies that bring about our change. One of our problems is we think we know what we need when we don't even know where we are going or how we are going to get there even though we already know we should have been there hours ago. Is that clear? Not hardly. But I think you are getting my point.

When I first look at the photo below, I see all those little bumps in the sand. Then, I see the sun and all the colors that are associated with it. If we let the little distractions steal our vision of the big picture, we go to pieces--we lose sight of the color and glory that lie on the other side. Let me tell you a short story. Our house is a nice house. It has a dog. It has a mom. It has a dad. It has our daughter and 3 grandsons. It was built near the beach. I love the beach. Only a few of our windows in the house actually open up and some of them have been screwed shut by the landlord. We don't like that. We like our windows open so the cool wind can blow through.

So I went outside the other day to try and fix some of the windows. I was home alone and I had a piece of glass in one hand that had fallen out of its frame, a bunch of screws laying around me and of course a screwdriver in my other hand. I needed the drill from off the ground (I was on a ladder of course). Rewind a few years back. Put me in that same place and I would have been angry. I would have been possibly throwing tools on the ground and breaking the glass in anger. But I didn't. I remembered the words to this prayer and I softly said them again and thanked God for such a crazy situation. I got the glass back in, eventually, and we can now at least prop the window open so air gets in (and out). I didn't get mad--I relaxed and ceased from my own labor.

Sure, I did the work, but I did it with gratitude and I knew that the Lord Christ was there with me enjoying the fellowship we were having in conversation.

When Daniel's 3 friends were thrown into the hottest furnace ever, they knew how to respond. They knew that God's will governs all things. The fire that was intended by the king to kill them was a blessing and brought them into contact with God as He joined them in the fire. That same fire burned up the king's guards. "Our God is a consuming fire," so the fire can be a blessing or really deadly. It can change your life for the good or it can cause you intense pain. What the fire does to you depends on how you relate to God, who is Love. That's not just a definition--that's what He is. But wait, don't stop reading now--there's more. I had to go to an interview later on in the day for a new job. I sat before 2 guys and 2 ladies and they asked me all kinds of questions. One asked me if I could meet challenges.

I said "Of course I can" and told them about the windows and my prayer. Not what you normally tell people at a job interview, but they hired me. If I'd gotten upset and thrown the tools on the ground and smashed the glass against the wall, I probably wouldn't be quite so confident about meeting challenges. But because God has answered my prayer and continues to answer it, I have something to share.

God's will governs man's feeble attempts at running the world. Just ask those guys at the tower of Babel. Of course they wouldn't understand you. Feel free to use the prayer. For you who like to be spontaneous and wouldn't think of using a written out prayer, think about this: While you are trying to be spontaneous and thinking up words and ideas and scenarios and then getting distracted by your thoughts that are running like a wild mountain goat up a cliff, I've prayed what I needed to pray and am on my way to meet some challenges and to be changed. It's OK to be spontaneous, but I have found another tool to put in my tool chest to do the work God has given me. Try it out--and enter into God's rest.

BACK TO JACK(ie)
Last Oct. 29th, Jackie went to see Dr. Northrop and he said, "Oops, I hit something." She quit walking the next day, and over the months since spent 14 days in the hospital, has had 2 surgeries (one to replace the knee joint), spent 28 days on intravenous antibiotics to fight the infection Dr. Oops introduced into her body and has been on strong pain pills ever since. We spent 1000s of our money to pay for his mistake and the insurance company has spent no telling how much. Yet, here we are, alive and well and NOT in debt. We had to borrow $3000 along the way but it's been taken care of. She has gone from the photo in the hospital bed to the one at the beach and, yes, we are thrilled. Her pain pills have been cut down to just a few a day rather than 2 every 4 hours around the clock and she WALKED down to the beach with me last Monday (19th of May) without crutches or a cane. She did hold on to me getting down the slope, though. Are we happy? You know we are.















Thank you so much for all your prayers and for the money some of you sent to help us pull through this bit of a challenge. It's nothing we want to do again or encourage you to do. But Jackie told a friend the other day how grateful she is because of the months she had to pray and read. God has been so faithful to her and to me. So, yes, we are glad.