Silence is Golden

There are those rare moments when the Bewley home is invaded with all the grandchildren, seven to be exact.  This seems to happen after they have had days of stored up nervous energy that must be released. I’m not sure if their parents plan it that way or we just get lucky every time we keep them. It’s not unusual to hear little feet running throughout the house amidst hair curling screams, laughter, momentary crying, and occasionally a fight or two.  The energy they expend is comparable to a dozen Energizer Bunnies. Needless to say Phyllis and I love it all but relish the moment when nighttime comes. With bathes given, teeth brushed, and pajamas on their little batteries finally run down.  We tuck them in bed, and suddenly start to relax to the most beautiful sound—silence. While we would not take anything for the noise of their presence, yet we appreciate the often repeated slogan--silence is golden. The reason being, the quiet time is what prepares us for all the activity we will experience the next day. The same is true of our spiritual lives.  The silence is what makes the noise productive.  It is no wonder our Father said, “Be still and know that I am God.” However, this is an exercise most fall short of. Matt Redmond in his book “Facedown” says, “There’s a time for every kind of sound when we worship….yet there is also a time when the most appropriate response is simply to be still—and in that stillness know that He is God.” A.W. Tozer commented “that in some instances absolute silence might well become our greatest act of worship.” Most often when we visit God we tend to focus on the noise more than the silence.  By doing so we overlook much of what He attempts to say to us and do for us.  Getting back to those grandbabies, when the noise ceases and they are laying in their beds still and composed, I take advantage of the moment. It is during this stillness that I begin to cover their little faces with kisses and with words of unconditional love.  It’s in that small caption of time that I tell them I will always be there and will never forsake them. Although, I may have said it a dozen times during the day, the noise keeps them from hearing it.  Now with eyes and hearts connected, the message begins to resonate and they fall asleep knowing that all will okay when they awake because they are loved beyond their greatest expectation. How much more does God communicate the same to us? When we worship in the stillness the noise will not overtake us. That’s why Silence truly is Golden.

The Familiar Friend

One of the worst things to happen to an individual is to become too familiar with the familiar. The end result--we take advantage of and take for granted that precious commodity that gives life.  This can happen with a mother, father, sister, brother, a husband or wife. We get so accustomed to their being at our disposal that we fail to appreciate all they do for us. Such familiarity has caused untold hearts to ache and has drawn tears from many an eye. While it is certainly bad to treat our family with such disregard, it becomes even worse when the Holy Spirit is involved.  In a time of reflection this week I have given serious thought to that possibility.  I never want to appear unappreciative to those who pray for me, hold my hand, and offer encouraging words during the good times as well as the bad. I especially do not want to treat the Spirit this way. He is my comforter and helper and offers assistance far beyond what others do. So the prayer of my heart is not to become too familiar with the familiar.  The passion within me is to wake up every day feeling as if I had met the Holy Spirit for the first time, yet yield to Him as if we had been friends forever.  The thought of hearing His voice is wonderful but to know that voice is even more wonderful. Individual familiarity is not a bad thing unless you forget how special the person is.   For all of us the Holy Spirit is beyond special, and forever remains available as our familiar Friend.        

New Beginnings

We are just two weeks into 2013. Most people start the year off by making a list of resolutions. It is a time when we normally come face to face with our failures and broken promises with the hope of doing better. We often say, “I realize I wasn’t all I could have been in 2012 but this year is going to be different. I’m more determined than ever.” Yes we experience failure, however failure is never final.  Rick Warren says, “We usually think of failure as being a negative experience, but wise people learn from failure and use it to their advantage. They learn from it and grow from it. They use it as a stepping stone.” This means we choose to look beyond the past and to be different.  Surely it must have been under similar circumstances that Paul wrote Ephesians 4.  Here he talks about stopping and starting.  He speaks of the old versus the new.  He encourages us to be “renewed in the Spirit,” and to “put on or become a new man.”  By doing this he reveals a great truth. Changing who we are is directly related to our choosing who we want to be.  Simply stated, we are who we are because of the choices we made yesterday and the person we are tomorrow will be based upon the choices we make today. So during this New Year we can choose success over failure. If this be true should we not incorporate God into our lives resolving to study seriously the things we choose to do, the places we choose to go, and the words we choose to say? Our future depends on it! This can be our year of new beginning.  

A Gift of Grace

Over the holidays our oldest granddaughter was overcome with the losing spirit. She wore her mother’s expensive one of a kind antique necklace out to the mall and lost it while trying on clothes. She and her mother retraced their steps and asked store managers if anyone had turned it in but they never found it. Not only did she lose the necklace, but my wife and I had given her $50 for Christmas and she lost it.  We searched the vehicles, the house, looked in her shoes and clothes but could not find it.  We were assured that she had lost it at the mall. She had a great attitude about it though. She said “well someone got blessed whoever found it may have needed it more than me.” We felt for her so before the week was out I pulled her aside slipped another $50 dollar bill in her hand and said, “Now don’t lose this one.”  She reluctantly took it and said “Thanks Papaw.”  However, I made one mistake, I said, “if you find the other one you can     keep both.”  What was I thinking? Sure enough on the last day as she was packing to go home, she looked underneath the mattress and there it was. I told my daughter, “Now we know who got the blessing.”   The reason I gave the second time was because I loved her and had more to give. My resources were much greater than hers. When you think about it God’s grace is like that. He replaces our stuff because he loves us and has more resources than we do. He has more forgiveness than we have sin, more peace than we have problems, and more care than our carelessness. Because of this He is always slipping into our hand another gift—a gift of grace.  

It's Time to Start Over

It’s time to start over--it’s a brand New Year

It’s time to start over--a time to dry every tear

It’s time to start over--a time to forget the past

It’s time to start over--a time to focus on that which will last

It’s time to start over--a time when there is much to do

It’s a time to start over--a time when God wants to use you

It’s time to start over--a time to utilize your potential

It’s time to start over--a time to major on the essential

It’s time to start over--a time to stop looking over your shoulder

It’s time to start over--a time to be a destiny holder

It’s time to start over--a time of great persuasion

It’s time to start over--a time to rise to the occasion

It’s a time to start over--a time to relinquish all fear

It’s time to start over—this is the New Year

 

A Second Birth for our Brokenness

We are in the height of the Christmas season the time when we celebrate the greatest birth known to man; a birth brought about for a broken world. God looked upon us knowing we were hopeless and unable to fix ourselves.   

In Subversive Kingdom, Ed Stetzer so adequately describes our condition.
“Look around. Our world is broken. I'm not talking about the "world" in terms of nature (although creation, too, bears the marks of sin's blemish and decay). I'm talking about the "world" comprised of the people, structures and systems that make up society—the moral patterns, beliefs and behaviors that result in things like unfair business practices, racism, extreme poverty, dishonest government, dirty politics, family breakdown, cheating, stealing, oppression of the weak and so many other distressors and defilers...

It stinks.
It's bad.
It's not right.
It's broken.

And in homes and hospitals every day of the week, at courthouses and gravesides everywhere in the world, people of all spiritual makes and models suffer from it—from a world that toils along in hopeless disrepair.”

Stetzer continues by saying the brokenness of the world on display before us is earth’s rebellion against its rightful King, “and only God has the ultimate fix.”  In essence what it needs is another birth—not the baby in the manger but heaven’s triumphant resurrected Lord. We need Jesus to return and set this world right. We need heaven to experience labor pains and with the blast of the trumpet deliver for the second time the savior—not the meek and mild mannered Jesus but the “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” As we patiently wait let us never dismiss the evil around us or allow it to take away our joy, but may we constantly utter the prayer that will usher from the womb the next great birth, “Maranatha, Come quickly Lord Jesus.”    

 

A Prayer for Help

This is the time of year when we expect to hear the sounds of joy, but this past Friday in Connecticut those were replaced with the blast of gunshots.   Amidst the screams, Satan once again revealed his hideous character taking the lives of innocent children and adults. Since hearing the news my heart like millions of others has been grieved. I cannot help but ask how and why did this happen? However, no words of explanation seem adequate. Since I find myself humanly unable to provide a proper response, a prayer written by Max Lucado in the wake of the shootings seems most appropriate.  Please join me and ask that God hastens its answer.   

Dear Jesus,

It’s a good thing you were born at night. This world sure seems dark. I have a good eye for silver linings. But they seem dimmer lately. These killings, Lord. These children, Lord. Innocence violated. Raw evil demonstrated. The whole world seems on edge. Trigger-happy. Ticked off. We hear threats of chemical weapons and nuclear bombs. Are we one button-push away from annihilation?

Your world seems a bit darker this Christmas. But you were born in the dark, right? You came at night. The shepherds were nightshift workers. The Wise Men followed a star. Your first cries were heard in the shadows. To see your face, Mary and Joseph needed a candle flame. It was dark. Dark with Herod’s jealousy. Dark with Roman oppression. Dark with poverty. Dark with violence.
Herod went on a rampage, killing babies. Joseph took you and your mom into Egypt. You were an immigrant before you were a Nazarene

Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won’t you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger.

This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us.

Hopefully,

Your Children