Thank a Family Caregiver this November!

 

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members. 

-Pearl Buck

Each year, November is designated as National Family Caregivers Month, a fitting time to remember with gratitude those who give their lives to care for others. In this season of reflection on our many blessings, most of us can think of someone whose sacrificial work has enriched our lives and the lives of those we love.

Family caregivers are a national treasure, easing the caregiver crisis while ensuring the well-being and health of a beloved family member. Their job is a hard and often thankless one. They are the unseen backbone of society: parents, grandparents, in-laws, children, siblings, and other family members who set aside their own dreams to care for the defenseless and vulnerable.

Caring for those who can't care for themselves are the hands and feet of the Savior Himself, reaching out to the broken. The price is high; the joys immeasurable. We serve the best and highest in humanity when we stand beside those who cannot fight for themselves.

This month, as we thank God for His mercy and blessings, take a moment and thank God for the caregivers. I'm sure they'd appreciate a prayer, too.

https://atkinsbookshelf.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/famous-misquotations-a-civilization-is-measured-by-how-it-treats-its-weakest-members/

The Gift

 

It may have been my birthday. 

Or Christmas morning. I can't recall the occasion, but the moment is forever etched in the six-year-old recesses of my mind. For a family of modest means, receiving a brand-new anything was momentous. Receiving a new bike, earthshaking.

This particular day, as it turns out, was especially momentous in retrospect, for I received three life-changing gifts in one fell swoop:

• My very own first bicycle. 
• The ability to ride it by myself.  
• A life lesson from my dad that would forever steer the course of my life.

My first failure

The bike was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen besides my mother. I didn't know how to ride a bike but was determined to try. My step-grandfather, whom I barely knew, was visiting at the time with my blessed little Irish grandmother and offered to teach me. 

Having inherited the stature of Grandma Jean, I could barely even hold the bike. It felt like a tank. Granddad helped me board the beast and supported me while I got my feet situated. Breathlessly, I steeled myself for lift-off. 

The bike slowly rolled forward with Granddad walking beside me, firmly keeping me and the metal upright. Up and down the road we crawled. For the life of me, I couldn't keep the bike balanced on my own. Defeat reared its ugly head as Granddad began to tire.

Then Dad sauntered out the door.

My cool, disc-jockey father with the tight jeans, and wavy black hair strode confidently across the driveway. I adored him and believed he and Mom were invincible...especially together. 

Dad casually took over the reins. Relief washed over me. Granddad had tried, but Dad would know what to do. He always knew what to do.

I resolutely set my feet back on the pedals as Dad balanced the bike for relaunch. As before, we began rolling down the road, Dad holding me upright. 

He began to jog alongside the bike. We picked up speed until he was running with me. That was fun and a bit frightening. 

Then he gave me a push and let go.

He let go. Terror filled me. The act shocked me. 

Why did he do that? 

Panicked, I did the only thing that seemed reasonable at the moment. I pumped the pedals as fast as my my skinny legs would go. A few yards further, I realized I was actually upright and going forward under my own power. 

The fear left, blown away by elation.

My father accomplished what I couldn't do alone.

My dad was one of the most gentle men I've ever known. I would have trusted him with my life. His actions that day, though, seemed to contradict his nature and made me doubt him. His method appeared frightening, even reckless. He didn't explain himself. 

But he didn't have to. He saw what needed to be done and expected me to follow his lead. That sweet victory made it easier to trust in a greater Father and in His methods for the greater victories to come.

My beloved papa wasn't perfect, but he never made that claim. He just loved Jesus with his whole heart and loved his family unconditionally all the way to the end. He taught my brother and I to love God. He let us make mistakes growing up, learn how to accept the falls in life, and he never once let us go when crisis hit. He gave us everything he had, the greatest of which was his legacy of grace.

Today's dads have a hard row to hoe.

My precious husband of over fifty years, the father of our five children, is cast from the same mold. I watch with awe at how much he loves his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. He cares for them; weeps for them; prays for them; gives toward their welfare without hesitation. As my mother would have said, he has a hard row to hoe. But he is always in his garden. 

Today's concept of fatherhood is tarnished by the shifting of cultural norms, family breakdowns, and the never-ending attacks from the enemy of our souls. Families are crumbling under the strain. Parents are broken. Children are hopeless.

Our Father in heaven sees it all, and He is hurting. He loves us desperately and longs for relationship with us. He watches the road for the prodigal's return and runs out to meet him. His methods of teaching us how to navigate life may be misunderstood, but He is worth trusting for the victory He relentlessly pushes us toward. Our earthly fathers, shadows of the Everlasting Reality, may not get it all right. 

But they deserve respect and love for the trying. Thank them for that. Lavish grace upon them...the same grace you want for yourself. 

 Happy Father's Day, Dads. You're the best. God bless you.

Where is Your Safe Place in a World Falling Apart?

 

In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth,

the gospel of your salvation – having also believed,

you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.

- Ephesians 1:13

When the Thief Comes to Steal

In his book The Holy Spirit, Billy Graham tells the story of an English missionary who died in India during the early 1900’s.  Immediately his former neighbors broke into his home and pillaged it, stealing the man’s possessions.  The English Consul was notified, and the official went to the missionary’s home.

Since there was no knock on the door, the official simply pasted a piece of paper across it and affixed the seal of England on it.  No one dared to break the seal, because at that time, that seal represented the world’s most powerful nation.  The power of England stood behind a piece of paper on the door.

In the same way, when we are saved, the Holy Spirit takes up official residence within us – effectively “sealing” us for Himself by His power and authority.

The Greek word for “seal” means “to confirm” or “to impress,” and it is used three times in the New Testament in connection with believers.  This sealing represents two important concepts:  security and ownership.

An Irrevocable Decree

Sealing in the sense of security is illustrated in the sealing of Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6:17), and in the irrevocable seal of the king in spoken of in Esther 3:12 and 8:8. The Greek word is used in Matthew 27:65-66 to describe the Roman seal on Jesus’ tomb and is the same word used in other New Testament scriptures to speak of the seal of the Holy Spirit.  It meant that whatever was under that seal was not to be opened except by order of the king.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered 

This seal also signifies ownership.  In Jeremiah 32:10 we read that the prophet bought a piece of property, paid for it in front of witnesses, and sealed the purchase in accordance with the law and custom, making him the legal owner.

History tells us ancient Ephesus was a port city, carrying on an extensive trade in lumber.  A merchant looking for lumber would walk through the timber, select what he wanted, and stamp it with his own signet, or sign of ownership.  When he was ready for the lumber, he would send an agent with the signet to locate all the timber carrying his seal.  His agent would then claim and take all the lumber with the master’s mark on it back to the man who bought it.

In the East, a seal on a document was more important than the signature.  The signet used to imprint a seal usually sat in a ring and was inscribed with words or symbols. It often reflected an office of importance.  It was commonly pressed into clay, because of its resulting permanence, although wax was used, too.  Wax was not as desirable because it was prone to melt in the hot sun.  Clay hardened over time, so that the clay itself would actually have to break in order to break the seal.

We are the clay.  God is the master, and Jesus has bought us.

The imprint of God has been impressed into our hearts, sealing us by the authority of the Lord on High.  We are now His, under His protection.  The power of all heaven stands behind His mark.  He is sealed in us.  He can’t leave without breaking the clay and His promise to never leave or forsake us.  He is with us every step of the way as we walk through this world.

With this understanding, we can better appreciate the words of the Apostle Paul:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

- Romans 8:38-39

Not forsaken. Never alone. Under His guard.

Living as we are in a world falling apart moment by moment, God's power and love are the vault guarding us. In Him, and in Him alone, we can live in peace, secure in the safest place on Earth.

Do not fear, Beloved.

When God Split History in Two: Pioneer Files

 

And He was saying to them all, 
“If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, 

take up his cross daily, and follow Me."

- Luke 9:23

Most of us know the story of Easter.

Though its name is derived from a pagan ritual not remotely associated with Christianity, Easter is the yearly celebration of Christ's resurrection, swooping in each spring with a bonanza of chocolate bunnies, daffodils, dyed eggs, and budget-crushing baskets. The week is crowned by the traditional Sunday morning church service and Easter egg hunt. It's generally tinged with guilt over which family group to join for The Big Dinner and follows weeks of cantata practice after work. 

Slathered in the usual rounds of the holiday flu, it's still one big, happy celebration, more or less.

Oh, yes, don't forget the empty tomb. Jesus rose from the dead. Can we eat our chocolate bunnies now?

Have we heard the story too many times?

Though the plot tends to get lost in the hype, I really LOVE Easter.

When winter's cold yields to the call of the light, from the barren soil springs the miracle of new life. Each year the resurrection is shouted in glorious defiance of death's seeming finality:

Spring always comes.

Spring always comes.

Perhaps we've seen the Jesus movies, bathed in Hollywood God rays and special effects, one too many times. Perhaps we've heard the Biblical account in isolation from the rest of God's Word to the point it has become just that... a story. 

The ministry, sacrifice, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is no fable, though. The bloody and supernatural reality of His first coming sent shockwaves throughout the world and split history itself into Before and After. 

Jesus is a man like no other, because He is one hundred percent human and one hundred percent God. The second person of the Trinity, He is described like this in the book of John: 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

- John 1:1-3;14

The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.

- Matthew 10:24 KJV

Perfect man. Holy God. Did He really need to die?

He didn't have to come to save fallen humanity. He could have left mankind to its own devices after the fall in Eden. He is, after all, God. Father, Word, and Holy Spirit would have been totally justified to have walked away from this wayward planet and the creation that rejected Him. 

The perfect Creator loved his debased creation too much to abandon it. He knew the only way to destroy the works of the devil and redeem us from an eternity of separation from Him was by taking on the form of a man and offering the sacrifice for our sins.  

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death: death on a cross.

- Philippians 2:5-8

He paid a hellish cost, the one we earned, for the redemption He planned from the foundation of the world. 

...knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

- 1 Peter 1:18-20

The empty tomb is our story, too!

The moment Christ rose from the dead, He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Scriptures. All who believe in Him must follow the same path He trod. We are not meant to stand at the foot of the cross and mourn over His sacrifice. We are called to be "crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20). 

We are commanded to die to our own desires and be made new in Him.

Parents, grandparents, caregivers, and other believers in positions of trust especially hold a sacred duty to follow in the Master's footsteps. When the lives of the vulnerable and afflicted depend upon us, the precious and fearful mantle of the Savior falls upon our shoulders to die to self. 

All who desire to serve God must follow this path. The Apostle Paul declared:

...I die daily.

- 1 Corinthians 15:31

It was only his old, soulish man who died, though. The new and regenerate man was already reborn into eternal life. With Paul we, too, dwell in bodies that are decaying.

But that won't last.

One day, Jesus will return for His church, the Bride. The dead in Christ shall arise from their graves. The living believers will be translated to join Christ. Tombs around the world will be empty.

As we await His return, we rejoice in Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day. Every day of the year, though, we can shout the victory as we live out both the cross and the resurrection in our bodies.

Jesus is alive! He lives forever more! He will come back for us very soon.

He is risen. He is risen, indeed.

Can I hear an amen?

Break out the chocolate bunnies.

"Free Range" Living Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be: Pioneer Files

 

Chickens are awesome. 

They're practically the perfect creatures. In exchange for food and water, they produce eggs for breakfast and great fertilizer for the garden. If they're "free range" chickens, they also provide bug control. Though they will peck each other to death, they're generally mild-mannered around humans.

Just don't fence them in. 

Poultry have a big problem accepting boundaries. They were hatched to be free and will exploit every weakness in your defenses for an opportunity to run amok through your flowers. They can dig under and fly over every fence known to man if given half a chance. If allowed to roam, they will ravage the herb garden, uproot up the new mums, rearrange the ground cover, transfer the new mulch from the flower bed to the driveway, and taste just a bit of each tomato on the vine - unless it a ripe one. 

That one they will devour.

They favor freshly-painted decks and door mats upon which to do their business, though they're not above depositing a little surprise in the grass for you to find when you go out at sunset to close them in. 

An enemy is always watching...

Our particular little flock of barred Plymouth rock hens love to dig under the fence separating their pen from the canyon behind us. They have hefty claws that make short work of a piece of property. If they break through, they will spend a lovely day harvesting the bugs and weed seeds in our neighbor's pasture until time to slip back under the fence at twilight. 

One sunny morning I heard a commotion at the hen pen. I ran out in my pajamas and robe to find they had once again escaped into the field. All except one were frantically scooting back under the fence into the pen, squawking in a cacophony of alarm. Another strange, louder shriek overrode their protests.

Then I saw it.

In the field, a red-tailed "chicken" hawk had one hen trapped against the fence separating our properties. 

I grabbed a nearby shovel we use for such emergencies and confronted him, yelling as I approached. 

He held his ground, wings outstretched to their limit as he met my challenge.

For a moment, I wavered. What if he turned on me?

It seemed there was no other way to save her. I advanced toward him, waving the shovel like a sword and shouting like a wild woman in my robe and slippers. As I got closer, I realized he didn't actually have the hen in his claws. He had her trapped between his legs as he gripped the wire on either side of her. 

Thankfully, he didn't call my bluff, finally relenting in a stir of wings as he flew off.

The hen lost no time finding her way back under the fence to safety.

Later, I examined her and found no sign of injury. 

 

 Boundaries protect us.

It's simply not safe for the chickens out of their pen in our neck of the woods. We've lost chickens to owls, hawks, and coyotes over the years. One year I discovered a coyote dashing across our deck with a hen in its mouth.  Chickens might not like being penned in, but we can't explain to them that we're keeping them safe. They don't understand our language.

Thankfully, we know the language of God.

One of the most sorrowful verses in the Bible is found in Jesus' moving words to the people in Matthew 23:27: 

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

How God longs to care for His people! He is neither harsh taskmaster nor uncaring judge. 

Chicks are fragile. They need just the right amount of warmth and nurturing to survive. If you've ever seen how a mother hen hovers over her chicks, you can understand the self-sacrifice and constant care it takes. 

God yearns to care for us in this same way. This care includes boundaries to keep us out of danger. Oh, how we chafe at the cage separating us from unbridled freedom! How we pull at the leash on our lives.

Is God unkind? Oblivious to our needs? A cruel slave master? 

If you've spent many decades in the yoke, thank heaven for that. If you never had the chance to sow your wild oats or run free, praise your Father in heaven. He has saved you many times over from your Self, and Self is the worst master of all. Self gratification is never satisfied and will keep you chained forever to the carrot dangling just out of your reach.  

 

Thank the Lord that He never abandoned you to the free range, where the landscape is filled with vipers and vultures. 

You are just where you belong. Learn to love and appreciate the wires barring you from destruction. Let God lavish His dreams and hope for you upon your tired heart. Rest under His wings. Find the rest in real freedom.

Create Your Own Book of Treasures

 

Like apples of gold in settings of silver,
Is a word spoken at the proper time.

- Proverbs 25:11  

Because I lost my mother at an early age, reaching the ripe old age of seventy last year was a bit of a triumph. Now that my father is gone, the realization has hit - as my brother recently told me - our generation is "queued up" to be next at the finish line. A rough patch of health issues and family trials has me understanding a lot more about my dad's penchant for nostalgia and his wistful recounting of the old days. I know now why my mother wept for her daddy years after he was gone. 

The love never dies. 

Many times I've longed to revisit the familiar and gentler days in my own life, vignettes dipped in gold, rough edges mercifully softened by time. God is the faithful editor of our life story. He covers the sins, redeems the failures, and restores the brokenhearted. 

I yearn for those I've lost along the way, some of whom are still alive. Others, like my parents, are gone but left a rich heritage behind. My father gave me Mother's study notebooks after her death in 1994, simple spiral-bound notebooks you can find in most discount stores. Along with the careful Bible notes she kept in her beautiful handwriting I found random notes on stray pages: a long-lost phone number, a prayer request from a fellow church member, a grocery list. Orphan Scripture references. 

Notes from daily life recorded in the moment.

Some were quotes or memorable statements of others that had touched her enough to write down, ones like this: 

God accepts you the way you are, but He loves you too much to let you stay that way.

Those books are among my treasures. They are living testaments to the essence of the woman, touching her soul, remembering her spirit, teaching me from beyond the grave. Now that I'm officially an old person, I realize the importance of sharing our hearts with the people we love. 

Give the gift of your soul for those you leave behind.

Last Christmas, my thoughtful eldest daughter gave me a lovely journal. It is a vintage red leather. The color is dark and distressed to appear aged. The blank pages inside have a appearance of being very old, like in the kind of book you might find in a Hobbit library. It's almost too special to write in. I've decided to make it my Book of Treasures. In it I plan to write moments and Scriptures and where my soul is on any given day. Things I want to remember and yearn for my children to know.

This kind of treasure can be just as easily immortalized in a dollar store notebook. Like humans, the gold is not always evident by the outside appearance. It doesn't matter what it looks like on the surface. 

Keeping a journal doesn't have to be lengthy or hard. 

Just write. Small moments. Stray Scriptures that speak to you. Memorable quotes. Events like the baby's first tooth, burying a beloved pet, or saying hello to a new one. Write your spouse's tears or your child's smile and what you cherish about them. One sentence will do. You don't have to be eloquent or wordy.

Share your soul, your spirit, your joys with those who will follow and will need to hear your voice, even if it is from beyond the veil. You never know when your words can give life and hope to someone who desperately needs it.

As hard as it may be for you to imagine now, one day it will become their book of treasures.

Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.

- Matthew 13:52 ESV

Pioneer Files: Sometimes the Glow Is from the Heat

 

While my care was employed in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another.

- Ben Franklin

 

Only now let us remember once more that God is to be our portion, and that knowingly and willingly we trust our lives and those of our children to Him; if He fails, we are done for; but how can He fail?

- C.T. Studd to his wife 

One morning she awakened with a sore throat. She and her husband had a disagreement before he left for work. The children were hard to awaken for school and grumpy at breakfast. As she gathered them together around the kitchen table and went through the motions of a prayer time before the day's lessons, a dull headache began to throb behind her eyes. An hour later, she was muddling her way through a page of Algebra I with her irritable teenager when her toddler ran into the room and tripped, dumping an entire glass of milk onto the floor.

It was all too much, and she erupted. She berated both children as she sopped up the mess from the carpet, knowing neither of them deserved it. The little one began to cry. Her teen looked away, reproach written upon his tense face. Stunned by the fierceness of her outburst, she dissolved into tears and retreated to the bathroom, completely undone by the realization she had Failed Again.

This was not what she had imagined it would be like to homeschool. She wondered if her parents were right. Maybe she didn't have the patience to work with her own children. Everyone had warned her that she would ruin them. Was her pride keeping her from doing what was best for the family?

She sank to her knees on the cold bathroom floor and sobbed. Just two words beat against her brain: What now?

 Nobody's perfect here.

Though the story above is fictional, it comes much too close to describing how many days went down during our twenty-four years of homeschooling, not because we didn't care, but because we wanted so much to do it right. Parents who choose to educate their children at home are typically conscientious people who demand much of themselves. They feel intense pressure to "produce," occasionally fueled by the criticism and watchful eyes of family and friends. Having made plain either their spoken or unspoken disapproval of the public school system, they now feel intense pressure to do better.

It's easy to criticize a system, but when that system has been challenged, suddenly it becomes a formidable giant against which to compare one's own efforts.

The usual chores and stresses of life won't automatically recede to make time and energy for the extra effort required for homeschool. No matter how we strive for a flexible and fun schedule, there are going to be days of mental stress, interruptions, and disagreements.

Each child, being fearfully and wonderfully made and all, has been gifted with his own unique personality. Being together for most of the day every day will inevitably reveal personality conflicts of some degree. Problems seething under the surface for some time will suddenly rise to the forefront and blast a hole in a parent's heart. Like a kettle of precious metals over the refiner's fire, the pot often threatens to boil over and those ugly impurities begin to surface.

Is this bad? Not at all! Those impurities were already there, whether we knew it or not. Probably the most surprising thing about homeschooling is what we learn about ourselves. We are also being schooled in the prism of grace. 

The answer to What now is not to run from failure, but to learn from it.

In his letter to the Roman church, Paul explained that within each believer rages two natures at war: the sinless, inner man who has been redeemed by Jesus Christ, and the old man, who operates through the desires of the flesh. The new man does not sin 1. and is tormented by the selfish old man. Our real, redeemed inner souls are released from this corruptible nature either by physical death or the coming resurrection, when we receive a new, incorruptible body. 2.

Until the day of our release, are we doomed to everlasting failure and bondage to the filthy old nature? Of course not! By the daily crucifying ("I die daily") of the old nature, we let the new man reign through Christ.

Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is therefore now no condemnation for those wo are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

Romans 7:25; 8:1-2

Is this freedom a license to sin? No, but it releases us from the guilt and self-condemnation that rushes in after repentance, when we have disappointed ourselves, our loved ones, and our God. We always have the hope of a fresh beginning, a new day. We can always start again.

The heat is a necessity.

J.C. Brumfield, in his wonderful little booklet Comfort for Troubled Christians, explains how trial is the fire the Holy Silversmith builds under our earthly kettle. This kettle contains two substances, the precious silver, and the worthless dross. As the fires of trouble burn hotter, our Master, like the silversmith, stands near the kettle, watching to ensure the fire never gets too hot. 

In the heat, the dross of our sinful natures separates from the silver and rises to the surface. The Holy Spirit shows us these sins, not to condemn us, but to convict us for righteousness' sake. Each time we repent and turn away from a sin, some dross is skimmed off. Thus we, like the precious metal, are purified.

How did the silversmith of old know when the silver was ready? When he could see his reflection in the surface of the silver. Through the heat of each trial, we are being refined until our very lives shine with the reflection of God's image.3.

For Thou hast tried us, O God; 
Thou hast refined us as silver is refined.

- Psalm 66:10

The refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold,
But the LORD tests hearts.

- Proverbs 17:3

Take away dross from the silver,
And there comes out a vessel for the smith....

- Proverbs 25:4

Therefore, if a man cleanses himself from these things,
he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.

- 2 Timothy 2:21

So, what happens now? 

When we mess up, we own up to it, ask for forgiveness, and start again. The lessons learned will far outweigh whatever we could have gained from Algebra I. 

  

1. Romans 7:17, 20

2. 1 Corinthians 15: Romans 8:23

3. J.C. Brumfield, Comfort for Troubled Christians (Chicago, Illinois: Moody Press, 1961), pp. 4-14.

 

Pioneer Files: The Hill We Die On

 

We take captive the rebel mind
Let the fire refine, if we compromise
We jeopardize
Daughters and sons, who they become
Show them the hill that we die on
The fight for the soul, is here and now
While every heart beats like a war drum pounds

"Trenches" by Jeff Lehman

Behold the Beloved

Hope Will Arise

https://beholdthebelovedmusic.com/                                                                                                                     

Rebel Mind

We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, 

and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ....

- 2 Corinthians 10:5

They chant in the streets, wave the flags of racist organizations, and assault people of a different ethnicity. Reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan marches of the South in 1866 and the Nazi rallies in America in the 1930s, this new wave of hate dirties our cities as society devolves into chaos. Many of these rebels were groomed in the arena of public thought and education while ill-conceived government policies assaulted the family on every front.

Incensed parents have called out errant school boards, principals, and teachers who violated their sacred trust. Many have taken their children out of public school to be tutored privately or homeschooled. 

It's one thing to rail against a broken public education system, though. It's an entirely different challenge to take on the molding of a new generation ourselves. As the public education sector has flamboyantly demonstrated, children do learn what they live...and live what they learn. Home education is an awesome tool for both literacy and character development. 

Then the question remains. What will they learn?

Set the books down for a moment.

One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, 
And one who rules his spirit, than one who captures a city.

- Proverbs 16:32

Kids are sponges. Almost from the womb they are absorbing their environment. Soon they are mimicking a parent's every move. In the teen years, their individuality asserts itself and they see their parents in a different light. They often become hypercritical of every move a poor parent makes and use our real or imagined flaws to justify their newfound desire to rebel. But they're still watching. 

Since we are all flawed, parents have no chance to get everything right. You can't be the perfect parent. The key here is consistency and choosing your battles. How do you know what battles are the important ones? 

In any war, you can tell the importance of the ground you are on by the amount of resistance you encounter from the enemy. 

Who's your enemy? Not your children, of course. Your enemy is Satan. He really hates relationships and will do everything possible to destroy your relationship with your family. Your dedication to your family is a declaration of war on hell. The devil will fiercely resist you. Expect a lot of bewildering distractions and messy days as God reveals your own weaknesses and the holes in your parenting skills. Expect it, and learn from it. Navigate the stormy waters with humility. Let your children see you work through issues and choose the path of integrity, even if it means a loss for you. They don't need to know every detail of everything happening around you. They just need to see authenticity and tenderness.

What do you want to give your children for eternity? Is it just teaching them to read and write? Is it just creating a safe place for them to grow up? Or is there more?

Choose your hill.

Since your children are watching your every move, give them what counts. Conquer your own rebel mind. Choose righteousness; listen to God; press into your faith. Decide what hill you will die on. Let your family see you making the hard choices. If you cave to pressures to compromise at home or at work, they will only learn there is nothing worth fighting for.

 

You can't create perfect children or give them a perfect life. You can, with God's help, show them how to live; how to bask in the sunshine, dance in the rain, and reach toward heaven through it all.

Pioneer Files: The Greatest Lesson

 

There's one thing our children really need to learn.

Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 

-Romans 6:16 (NIV)

Through the wonders of DNA, I've learned a lot about my ancestors. I've discovered that many of them came early to this country. Some were bond-servants. Some were slaveowners. Others became share-croppers. Members of my family fought on both sides of the Civil War.

From this mixed and messy lineage I have learned the horrific price our nation paid for the sin of slavery.

One of the most basic human desires is the yearning to live free from oppression. But bondage takes many forms, and it is a terrible thing to be enslaved to our own appetites. Sin creates chains only God can break.

No one has to live this way.

When Jesus Christ was born, the world lay chained to sin. To rescue us, the Creator did the unthinkable. He left the glory of heaven, stepped into His creation, entered time and space, and inhabited a human body. He emptied Himself and purposely became a servant for us, in order to purchase our redemption.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

- Philippians 2:5-7 (NKJV)

Imagine creating two clay pots, leaving your nice living room to live in one of the pots, and allowing the other pot to break you. 

For Christ, there was much more. As His creation crucified Him, He suffered the deeper agony of God's fury poured upon Him in our place. He didn't have to do it. He cared that much. "For God so loved" is not a trite cliché. It is written in the blood of a God who allowed Himself to be crushed to buy our freedom.

What a great love! What an unthinkable sacrifice! What a gift!

God asks just one thing from us.

He wants our lives.

Because He bought us at such a great price, we rightfully belong to Him. Our surrender must be complete: heart, mind, body, and soul.

This part of the gospel sticks in our collective craws. We like to have our own way without the hassle of accountability. Submission to Christ means giving Him control over everything. There is a personal cost in ridding our lives of the things that dishonor Him in order to wear His name with dignity and live in victory. But how beautiful it is to live in the freedom that comes with serving righteousness instead of our own appetites!

When we make Him Lord of our hearts, we commit our futures to One who is wise and faithful. In the light of His servanthood to His Father during His time on Earth, the sacrifices He asks of us are small. There is joy in giving God our bank account, our home, our time, and our dreams.  

Servanthood to a sovereign like the great I AM is the ultimate freedom.

and He died for all, so that they who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. 

          - 2 Corinthians 5:15 (NASB)

Our natures rebel at the notion of giving up our rights.

Everyone serves something. We're all slaves to either sin or righteousness. Which we serve determines the course of our lives.  

A slave is bound to serve his master. It doesn't matter how tired he is, or if he has his own needs. As long as his rights lie in the hands of another, he has no say in what happens to him.

Even in this, our God is unique. This sovereign we serve grants us unlimited access to Him. He's available at any hour to hear our petitions or to just talk. He is always listening. Our God is not a cruel taskmaster, though our old nature tells us that when life gets hard. Returning to captivity is never the green pasture it appears, though, and slavery to ourselves is the worst bondage. The Psalmist said it best: 

For a day in Your courtyards is better than a thousand elsewhere.                  I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God                  Than live in the tents of wickedness.

- Psalm 84:10 (NASB)

All of us will serve one master or another. Christ offers us freedom from the destruction and guilt of serving ourselves. Serving Him brings joy out of this world.

Where does your allegiance lie? Who do you serve?

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.

- Romans 6:17 (NIV)

Like most families, ours has endured our share of trials and tragedies. Many times we thought we weren't going to make it through the storms of life. I've watched my grown children reach for God in their deepest pain, and I'm convinced we wouldn't have survived had we not clung to the Lord Jesus.

Our lives are perfect, but by His grace we stand today, and by His grace we will serve Him.

There is no better way to live and nothing better you can teach your children. 

Pioneer Files: The Majestic Challenge to Every Parent

 

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

- Joshua 24:15

When I first began homeschooling, my major fear was that I was going to ruin my children through my lack of teaching credentials. As a child, I had learned to read with Dick and Jane in a little rural Washington school by memorizing words in the reader. There was no rhyme or reason to why a word looked or sounded like it did. I believed the randomness of my education left me unprepared to teach others.

Our books and curricula arrived in the fall of 1982. My husband had insisted I only teach our son at home and put our eldest daughter in a Christian school for the year, expecting, as he admitted later, that I would only survive one year. 

With trepidation I unpacked the materials, plopped them on the table, sat down, and began to read. 

Then I cried. 

Phonics might as well have been a different language. 

There were actual rules on how to break a word into syllables? 

How had I managed to graduate from high school as an honor student and make it through my first year of college prerequisites for nursing? I couldn't even decipher the directions for the lessons. At that moment, I stood at the bank trembling at the new land before me. God told me this was the promised land, but all I could see were the giants.

Looking back now, I'm so thankful I crossed the river.

Free to Choose

It soon became clear that the challenge of homeschooling isn't teaching our children to read and write. It isn't finding the perfect system or books. The battle is living our own lives with integrity and teaching that to our children, in passing on the torch of faith to a new generation. 

The great statesman, reformer, and former slave Frederick Douglass is credited with this poignant reminder of the power of being able to read and write:

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. 

Literacy puts great power into our hands. No longer chained by the locks of ignorance, we are freed to make our own choices. As Hamlet famously lamented, Ay, there's the rub.

What do we want to be? What will we feed our minds and souls? What are our children learning?

The man who lives without honor will not gain by education.

Three Options 

The nation of Israel wandered forty years in their long journey out of bondage in Egypt before finally crossing the Jordan. With great trepidation they entered this new land of promise. 

One of the two leaders who entered with joy was the warrior Joshua, who also led them to victory in this land from many of their enemies. When he became old, Joshua called the people together and presented them with this challenge:

Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.

And if it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: Whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

- Joshua 24:14-15

Would they serve the living God, or the gods of this world? These were their choices:

1. The gods of their fathers.
2. The gods of the land in which they now lived.
3. The living God who claimed their souls.

The gods of their fathers were the gods of Egypt, where they lived as slaves and the gods of their forty years in the wilderness. They represented the bondage of a life without the one true Lord. To serve these gods means to live in slavery.

The gods of the land in which they now lived were the idols of the inhabitants of the new land. These represented the pull of the world on us that keeps us distracted from hearing God's voice.

One Decision

Like literacy itself, homeschooling is a great tool through which we gain the freedom to teach our values to our children. But what values are they learning? 

The Israelites were given a bold choice: to serve the idols of this world or the God of the universe. 

This is our choice, as well. If we are serious about living in the land of promise and destroying the schemes of the Destroyer in our homes, we must turn our faces toward heaven. For this choice, we will pay a price.

We may be "counseled," mocked, and misunderstood. We may stand to lose our reputations and the admiration of others. We may lose friends and incur the wrath of our relatives.

Our time will not be ours any longer, and some pet projects will fall by the wayside. We may suffer a loss of income for our choice to stay home and care for our children. There may no longer be the money for the best tennis shoes, jeans or video games. We may lose our health.

Of course, none of this may happen. But what would we do if it did? We should be willing to count the cost of pressing into our faith and making the commitment to home education... and be willing to pay the price, should it come due.

After all, any of these things could happen, anyway. Compromise doesn't guarantee comfort. God intends for us to grow in grace and toward all He has for us. Either way, Joshua's majestic challenge stands before us today. Will we choose the old paths, new idols, or the Lord?

May God be with you in your journey!

 

Pioneer Files: Skeptics and Critics, Part 2

 

When we can ignore the skeptics

After years of moving around the country while my father pursued a career in broadcasting, my folks finally settled on an old homestead overlooking a sprawling river valley in the spring of 1963. My brother and I spent many happy summers at the nearby beaches and quickly learned to respect the river's swift currents.

Swimming against the flow makes a good statement on a t-shirt. Facing a real undertow in the societal tide of public opinion is intimidating.    

Exodus 14:14 (NASB)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.

In the early years of homeschooling, I felt much intimidated by the critics. I eventually realized it’s useless to argue with them or worry about their opinions. The best response is to listen to the criticism, smile, and move on. We don't answer to them. 

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

Luke 23:34 (NASB)

The devil would like nothing better than to use a good thing to force a wedge into our relationships and tear them apart. We just have to let go of the urge to defend ourselves and let our actions speak for themselves.

Criticism is a great purifier. It’s one way God gives us a gut check on our motives and goals. Sometimes the questions homeschoolers get asked are valid. Why ARE we teaching our children at home? Are our convictions solid enough to live out on the stage of public scrutiny? 

Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.

Matthew 11:19b (NASB)

The best recommendation we can receive is when others see the Lord Jesus doing a good thing in our lives. A life lived quietly before God can banish criticism better than any argument we can muster. When people see us walk out our faith, they will know our God is real. Then we can rejoice before the Lord when He takes our meager efforts and blesses them.

When we need to listen

Sometimes criticism is rooted in truth, the reaction of others to an unhealthy attitude they see in us. If we act smug or self-righteous, or if we carry around an air of martyrdom because we stay at home and care for our own kids, others may feel resentful and probably for good reason.

Perhaps in the past we have been prone to flit from one “ministry” or "cause" to another without real direction or commitment. In this case, we are going to have to prove we are serious by stepping up to the new challenge in steadfastness and discipline. 

God taught me more through homeschooling than I ever taught my own children.

It’s also important to validate the efforts and love of the many educators that serve in public and private schools. They have a really hard job. We are, after all, co-laborers toward a common goal.

Then there's Noah

Our work with our children, even under the best of conditions, will probably aggravate somebody at some point. Those who aren’t in sympathy with the homeschool movement may feel intimidated by the homeschooler’s role as teacher. Others may feel convicted by a parent’s commitment to his children. Others are just opinionated and need to share that opinion with us.

By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Hebrews 11:7

What we’re doing with our children flows from the same heart response that moved Noah to lead his family to salvation. The ark he built represented his faith and obedience to God’s word. He set his sights on completing the job entrusted to him and ignored the criticism and mockery he undoubtedly experienced. He committed himself to the long haul and kept his eyes on the goal.

In the end, his obedience and toil were rewarded. May God take our small, stumbling steps of faith and empower us to walk in that same obedience.