HOW LONG?

Life today is full of bad news.  Headlines shout of evil.  Atrocities are committed throughout the world.  Young people are targeted by wickedness and their lives are forever changed or destroyed.  

We look around and see a man like Putin who orders the murder of those who oppose him and attacks neighbors to destroy.  A man who believes he is above God.  

We see terrorist organizations attacking innocent civilians, often in the name of their misguided religion.  

When will it end?

As Christians we long and look for the return of our Lord when we will be taken home with him where no more evil will ever come.  What a joy to think of.  But in the meantime we are left in this world wondering how long this will go on.

A look at history might help us.  I am sure that Christians during the time of Nero were certain that Jesus would return soon since things were in such a wicked state.  Yet, Nero is long gone and barely remembered.  

During the time of Hitler many were sure the end of the world was near and the Lord would return.  Yet, Hitler is dead and the world goes on.

I am sure you can look back in history and point to many other examples of evil rulers who committed unspeakable things.  But you get the idea.  What we are living through is nothing new, even though to us it is.

A look at Psalm 37 will help us.  The psalm begins by saying, "Do not fret over evildoers."  Oh, how tempting it is to spend time fretting over the evildoers and worrying about their victims.  Yet, we must not fret.  Later in the psalm it says, "Do not fret, it tends only to evil."  We must be careful not to tend toward evil in our lives.  

The psalm tells us that the evildoers will fade like grass.  It says, "In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there."  Like Nero, Hitler and so many more the wicked will disappear and not be found.  

Verse 13 tells us that the Lord laughs at the wicked because he sees what will become of them.  In verse 9 we are told that those who wait on the Lord will inherit the land.  

We do live in an ever-increasingly evil world.  Satan is at work in the lives of so many.  But we must not give up.  We must remember to trust in the Lord.  He is in control.  He will work justice.  

 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;

be not envious of wrongdoers!

2For they will soon fade like the grass

and wither like the green herb.

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;

dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.

4 Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

5 Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;

fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,

over the man who carries out evil devices!

8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!

Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.

9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,

but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.

10In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;

though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.

11But the meek shall inherit the land

and delight themselves in abundant peace.

12The wicked plots against the righteous

and gnashes his teeth at him,

13but the Lord laughs at the wicked,

for he sees that his day is coming.

Psalm 37:1-13

We must never give up watching and waiting for the Lord's return yet at the same time we must not fret and we must delight ourselves in the Lord.  He will come at the right time and he will work justice.  

Maranatha!  Come, Lord Jesus!

 IT'S ALL IN YOUR POINT OF VIEW

It has been raining a lot lately.  It is that season around here.  We are thankful for the rain which helps the crops to grow, fills the rivers and streams and turns the earth green again.  God is blessing us!

Along with the rain we have had clouds of some kind of flying insects.  Just tiny things which live and die in a day.  But there are millions of them!  They swarm all around us when we step out the door.  We have been finding them annoying!   I don't remember having this many of them in previous years.

Yesterday my husband called to me to come look out the kitchen window.  What a sight!  There was a large flock of swallows swooping and darting all over the yard.  I watched their amazing dance as they swooped down across the roof and back up again as they came to the fence.  They were excited about those clouds of insects we find so annoying.  They thought they had found the best smorgasbord in town!  

That made me think.  How often do we find something unpleasant, troublesome or annoying while the next person rejoices?  I was looking at the insects as a bother while the birds were looking at them as delicious food.  Then I realized that if it hadn't been for the insects I would not have had the amazing aerial display to enjoy.  

Maybe there are some other things about which I should think about my point of view.  Hmmm.

 A CLAY JAR

Back when I was in school we had art classes throughout elementary (primary) school and even on into high school (secondary).  If you are like me and had to take those classes, you had the experience of making a clay pot.  I well remember one I made.  It was supposed to be a cabbage (who knows why...).  I never did feel satisfied with my art projects but my mother liked it and kept it for years!  She finally gave it back to me when she had to downsize for moving into a small home.  For Mom's sake, I kept it around (not on display!).  

How many of you decided to keep your most precious treasures in the clay pot you made?  You can purchase a clay pot in the garden center.  Would you put your valuables in that clay pot?  

I venture to say that we are all aware of the fragility of a clay pot.  Probably we have all managed to break one sometime over the years.  We wouldn't consider keeping a treasure in such a pot.  

Now, consider 2 Corinthians 4:5-7: For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

What!?  This great treasure is in jars of clay!!  God's people are the jars of clay!  I am a clay jar!  So are you!  We are fragile, breakable, and pretty much ordinary.  Yet, God chose to give us the great treasure of the gospel.

We are weak so that God's power can be seen clearly.  Everyone of us is nothing more than clay.  But we have a great treasure.  Praise God!  

This scripture came to mind during our Sunday morning Bible class.  We were talking about the story of Moses needing help to hold up the staff of God while the Israelites were in battle with the Amalekites.  Every time Moses' arms got tired and the staff of God was lowered, the battle turned in favor of the Amalekites.  When Moses' held up the staff of God the Israelites prevailed.  I certainly don't know the reasons why it happened that way but one reason may be so that the Israelites would clearly see that they were weak without God working through them.  They were clay.

When we are weak the power of God can be more clearly seen.  Rejoice in being a clay jar for God!

 HOME WORSHIP

My last post on worship set my mind to thinking about family or home worship.  I believe this is something that is extremely neglected by many who call themselves Christians.  There may be those who just don't think it matters (can they really be called Christians?).  I think more often there are many Christians who have become overcommitted and allowed their children to become overcommitted.  They just don't have enough time.

I have heard it said that every one of us has 24 hours every day.  We manage to make time for the things we really want to do.  Maybe the biggest problem is a lack of desire to worship.

We each have to evaluate our lives.  Do we make time to worship with our family every day?  Do we love God so much that worship is our natural response?  Do we need to make changes in our use of time?  

I have no idea where you stand.  I urge you to think and pray about this.  I have decided to use this post to help those who would really like to have home worship but just don't have any idea how to begin.

Let me tell you about our journey in this regard.  

I remember when we were first married we purchased an NIV New Testament (at that time the Old Testament had not yet been completed).  We read together from that most evenings before going to sleep.  As I recall after all these years, we were not very consistent in that.  

When we had two little children we had a Bible story book with short readings.  Each evening as we were putting the boys to bed we would sit with them and read one of those stories.  We always sang the song "All Things Bright and Beautiful" with them and then had a short prayer.  This was a special time for us but as we moved and our lives changed we had a difficult time keeping consistent with this as well.

Move ahead to when the boys were a little older and another little one joined the family.  We resumed those special times of worship.  We tried to keep things as simple as possible so the children could understand.  As the boys grew older we continued this practice and moved to reading directly from the Bible as they were more able to understand.  

When the boys learned to read we bought several copies of the Bible and several song books to keep in our living room.  Every evening we brought out the Bibles and song books.  After the reading each child was allowed to choose a song for us to sing.  We would end with prayer and then it was bedtime.  

This time was indeed a great blessing to our family.  When we had visitors they joined us in our worship.  As the children grew into adults and left home, we continued the practice and when the children and grandchildren visited they joined in.  

Now that we are back to just the two of us at home, we do things a little differently.  We are able to read scripture, sing and pray after our breakfast since we work from home.  That morning worship is a great blessing often leading to discussion of some aspect of the passage read or the meaning of a hymn.  

We still continue our evening worship.  We sometimes choose a basic commentary on a book of the Bible or some other helpful book to read through together.  Sometimes we read from the Psalms.  We still praise God in song and finish with prayer.

I share this with you to help you see that it doesn't have to be complicated.  We are commanded to teach our children.  Fathers are to bring up children in the Lord.  We have a responsibility and worship with our children and discussion of basic teachings is a large part of that.

However, family worship doesn't have to end when the children leave home.  It doesn't have to end when one spouse goes on ahead to the Savior.  Don't give up in discouragement when it doesn't immediately become a habit.  How can we not worship the One who has done everything for us?