Prayer Warrior

“Children‘s children are the crown of old men…” (Proverbs 17:6)

Lozanne and I have eight grandchildren. The youngest is two and the eldest is eleven. To state that we are proud of each and every one of them is indeed an understatement. When you are freed from the responsibility of raising children’s children, there is a special bond that grows. In a way, grandparents and their grandchildren understand each other in a way that transcends the generation gap.

This morning I am thrilled to introduce a guest writer. Jacob is our oldest grandson who sent me a very special short essay the other day. The following is some of what he had to say and is published with his permission.

I have learned that most people use Philippians 4:13 (I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.) as an excuse to just pray about the problem and not do anything about it. They just say “God will handle it. I mean, I did what I could.” But the reality is that’s not real prayer. There are a few easy steps to become a prayer warrior.

1. Praise God for everything he has done for you. He has blessed you with an awful lot, and we take him for granted, assuming He will give us what we want but don’t have. The reality is He can’t help you if you only pray about it once or twice. He wants to hear about your life and your problems.

2. Thank God for the problem you’re facing. It might sound crazy, but thank Him for it anyways. Tell Him how it hurt, thank Him for it and thank Him for giving you that problem. That problem will make you a stronger person in reality. It might hurt a lot, but it will make you stronger and you will feel good about yourself.

3. Ask for God’s will about what to do next. Instead of just asking for support and help, ask Him what to do. He knows what’s best for you and me. He wants to help you, and it is all a part of God’s big plan.

4. Pray for the strength to do God’s will. The truth is we can’t do anything on our own. God’s will might be for you to go to China, or to tell your close friend to stop picking on the younger grades. It’s not easy, but He will help you along the way, if you pray about it.

5. Thank Him for winning the war on the cross. He has won the war already, and it’s because of that that you can talk to Him.

6. Don’t let Satan make you feel guilty for doing God’s will. That’s his tool that works. If you’ve prayed about your problem and have done God’s will, Satan (the devil) will be really mad because you’ve done good. Just ignore it and know you’ve done something really huge. It might have felt really small, but it is actually huge.

These are lessons that took me a while to learn. Just know this, God loves you more than your mom or dad. He created you. And before he was creating the world he was thinking, “Wow. David Delonski is going to do something really big.” He was thinking how much he loves you, even though you haven’t even been created yet. He chose to think about you. God loves you a lot, and He wants to be with you in heaven for the rest of eternity. It’s a free gift. No charge whatsoever. Just ask Him to come into your life. It’s free, and He wants you in heaven. You can’t get into heaven without asking Him into your heart. When He died on the cross, He put all of man’s sins on that cross. He made it possible for us sinners to get to heaven. It doesn’t matter if you told your mom you didn’t take the last slice of pie, when you did or if you killed a man and terrorized a town. He doesn’t care. A sin is a sin. Even if that town doesn’t forgive you when you tortured it, if you ask God for forgiveness, He can forgive you. There isn’t a limit of chances. It’s not like baseball, 3 strikes you’re out. No, he wants you in heaven. He forgives you.

All in all, you can’t do anything without God. He loves you and wants to spend forever with you in heaven.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

Unto Us A Child Is Born

The annual Chapel Christmas Concert is scheduled for tomorrow evening. I have been involved in Christmas concerts since I was five years old. Our church Sunday school held one yearly as did the elementary school that I attended. I have no idea how many times I played a shepherd or a wise man in the required and much welcomed nativity play. Mother was usually responsible for putting the costumes together. Belted bath robes and the creative use of kerchiefs were commonly used to take the audience back to the first century. Most years Santa Claus also showed up at the end of the evening to hand out bags of very specialized Christmas candy.

When I became a teacher, I learned how much work went into the yearly production. Hours and hours of preparation and rehearsal were rewarded by the sound of applause on the appointed evening. As a principal, my function became that of master of ceremonies. Each segment of the concert required introduction and positive comments after their performance. The younger performers always drew the most applause. Even when they broke ranks and forgot weeks of practice, their performance was considered flawless by all, including their exhausted teacher. From my position on the stage, I was able to observe parents and grandparents scrambling for an improved vantage point to better see their personal favourite performer. Photographers choked the front aisle to get the perfect picture. I have even witnessed a mother going through the motions required of the song for her child to mimic on stage. Of course the teacher’s back was turned and she never saw the mother’s help. Maintaining the attention of a concert audience is a very substantial public speaking challenge. Their attention is fully on the reason or reasons they came to the concert in the first place. As a school board administrator, I attended an untold number of Christmas concerts. As an objective observer on the floor and in the audience, I really came to understand that a concert audience is almost a distinctive living organism. There was continual movement in and out of the room and constant chatter about the children on the stage. They are focussed totally on the children in the performance and their excitement is palpable.

Throughout my career every school concert included Christian content. Of course there were secular songs and drama, but somewhere in the program there was a segment celebrating the arrival of the Baby Jesus. One of the more well known lines spoken in nativity plays is “For unto us a Child is born”. Countless narrators have mouthed those words probably not realizing that they were actually written seven hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born. We read two astounding prophetic verses in Isaiah 9: 6-7

6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given…” is the only part of these two verses that relates to the celebration of the birth of Christ. The remaining words refer to what is yet to come when Jesus returns to this world. I love the powerful words used to describe Him. I also find it so reassuring that that part one of the prophecy has already happened. We are now in a period of Grace awaiting part two which is our Saviour’s return.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

Whiter Than Snow

This morning I am consumed by thoughts of snow. There is little mystery to my obsession. Snow has been falling since yesterday morning. It is quite simply beautiful. At the same time, I am well aware that it will cause some heavy labour later today, as it did yesterday as well. Despite its inherent beauty and usefulness for winter sports and activities, snow must be moved so that we can function. The snow blower will get a work out today as will the snow blower operator. Before that reality is faced, I am taken with the breathtaking whiteness of the landscape. It is indeed difficult to think of anything on this earth that is whiter than snow. There is a brightly lit Christmas tree just outside the window of the kitchen and the accumulated snow makes it all the more beautiful in the predawn darkness.

I have been contemplating how snow is mentioned in the Bible. It is of course considered a power of God in bringing much needed moisture to the earth. The Book of Job speaks of a “treasury of snow” which is controlled by God. (Job 38:22) It is used in multiple descriptions of those suffering from leprosy. Miriam’s instant transformation to a leper is a classic example of describing someone with leprosy as “white as snow”. (Numbers 12:10) Snow is often used to describe the whiteness of the garments or hair of God or of Jesus. When describing the transfiguration of Jesus, Mark tells us that “His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow…”. (Mark 9: 3) My favourite use of the imagery of snow is actually a promise of God. It is a promise that I marvel at every day. The first seven verses of Psalm 51 are always a great comfort for me and in verse seven I am assured that I will be “whiter than snow”.

1 ¶ To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight––That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.
7 ¶ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

As David cries out to the LORD in this Psalm, we are reminded that God is always willing, when we acknowledge our sin, to wash us and cleanse us so that we become “whiter than snow”. To Him our sins are just gone. They are put far away from Him forever. They simply don’t exist. We are free of them. I marvel at how this could possibly happen and then remind myself that Jesus came to earth to take all of my sins upon Himself so that I could be redeemed as someone who God sees as “whiter than snow”. Snow is indeed a beautiful thing this morning.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

Endurance

The last two days I have had difficult mornings with my health improving as the day wears on. I have to admit to substantial discouragement after six weeks of feeling very well. This morning while I was half-heartedly browsing through Chapter 21 of the Book of Luke, I literally stumbled on six words that made me stop and really think.

19 "By your patience possess your souls. (Luke 21:19, New King James Version)

In The Message the words are paraphrased as “Staying with it—that’s what is required. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry; you’ll be saved.” The Revised Standard Version renders this very brief verse as “By your endurance you will gain your lives”.

The obvious dawned on me as I contemplated these words spoken by my saviour two thousand years ago. Whatever happens, I simply have to endure in order to graduate to heaven at the time appointed by my God. It won’t be a minute before; nor will it be a minute after the time as recorded from the beginning of time. How I feel each and every day is part of the pre-destined plan to enter into eternity. All I have to do is endure.

It did not escape me that all of us have to endure. My endurance is based on a very simple premise. I endure physical disability and a mild one at that, compared to most. Others have to endure as well. Often we have no idea what path of endurance our brothers and sisters are on. The death or loss, for varied reasons, of loved ones is cause for endurance. Depression and anxiety plague many. Job loss and financial difficulties may cause the need to endure. Family dysfunction and separation and divorce lead to endurance. Dealing with handicapped or problem children and teenagers is something to be endured. Looking after aging parents may lead to a path of endurance. The invisible endurance of others may involve temptation to sin or addiction.

It also has not escaped me that as I sit here at my keyboard in my safe rural house, my exposure to persecution for my Christian views is limited to emails or comments that I can delete with a click of the mouse. Indeed the closest I come to being persecuted is the lack of email that I receive from old friends. Many young people in the workplace and even in our schools suffer a great deal for shining their light. They too must endure and by doing so gain my admiration and respect for their daily walk.

Obviously, gaining my respect pales in comparison to the assurance spoken by Jesus so long ago. “By your endurance you will gain your lives”. Enduring it all gets you to heaven!

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

Bethlehem It Is

From the age of six, until I was about nine or ten years of age, I had the privilege of spending a week or two every year in the farm house of my great aunt and uncle. They lived on a beautiful acreage and worked a successful business that included maple syrup production, a lumber mill and general farming which encompassed the sale of eggs, meat and vegetables. One of my most vivid memories of a visit there in late winter is one of my independent explorations of the farm buildings. I entered the barn that housed the pigs, cows and horses. I cannot describe to you the foul smells and strange noises that emitted from that stable. Despite daily cleaning of the stalls, the stench quite simply took my breath away. The breathing of the animals created visible vapours in the air. The visual sensation and noise of constant movement added to the din and confusion caused by the natural noises made by the animals. The rustling of the mice and feral barn cats was decidedly distracting. The air was dank and cold. In short, it was an uncomfortable and some might say, scary place.

It was in just such a place that the Lord Jesus Christ was born. God actually chose such a place to have His Son make an entry into this world. Given my personal experience as a child, I marvel at that. It is hard to imagine a more humble entry into this world. I marvel even more how our Saviour, who is God come to Earth, came to be born in a foul, smelly and decidedly unsanitary stable in the small town of Bethlehem. The prophet Micah tells us hundreds of years before the birth of Christ that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem, the city of David. We read this prophecy in Micah 5:2

2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting."

I am greatly entertained by the fact recorded in Matthew 2: 1-4 that God chose to use the great and powerful, but clueless, Caesar Augustus to call a census of all the inhabitants of the Roman world. By doing so, he unwittingly caused Joseph and Mary to travel to the betrothed male’s ancestral home in order to be recorded in the count. Because so many had travelled there for the same reason, there was no room at the inn and a manger surrounded by domestic animals became the only crib for the baby whose parents had to seek protection from the elements in a dank and smelly stable.

Caesar Augustus, the most powerful man in the world at the right time and the right place, was simply a puppet set in motion by God for his divine purposes. The Bible actually tells us that the census was thought to be world-wide by the Romans. We can be assured that Jesus, in retrospect, the most famous and remembered person in history, was probably of the least importance in Rome’s attempt at calculating its power and wealth. Jesus and his parents can only find shelter in a stable in the small town of Bethlehem. This of course is a preview of how the world was and still does accept its Saviour. God came personally to offer us eternal salvation. He chose to come as a helpless infant in the most humble of situations. His acceptance by the world on that night continues to be replicated with the exception of those of us, who over the last two centuries have realized who he was, still is and will always be, and have professed Him to be the Son of God and have worshiped Him as such.

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

Worry Not

This morning I spent several good hours outside. The weather was seasonal and pleasant. I was able to start and use our snow blower in order to clear away the first real snow of the year. Last year, I could not clear the snow on my own and was forced to hire a neighbour with a tractor for most of the winter. I then serviced my antique 1994 Skidoo that I purchased three years ago for a mere $500.00. I was able to start the engine and get it into position for the coming winter season. Last year I did not have the strength to pull the starter cord. The machine sat unused for months. It was not once, in the entirety of the winter, found on the lake beside ice fishing holes. This year I can’t wait until the lake is frozen and the ice fishing can begin.

The irony is, that although I had what I have already admitted was a good morning, I spent most of the time anxious and worried. You name it and I worry about it. I am such a worrier that I have made it a fine art. Unfortunately, at times, it is a sinful art and a very negative influence in my life of faith. I worried about my children for decades, indeed sometimes I still do. Now I worry mostly about my grandchildren and other things that are not germane to this message. My readers don’t need to know the silly details. If you are anxiety ridden and a worrier like me, and I know some of you are, please read with me the words of Jesus. We both need the reminder.

25 ¶ "Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life... (Matthew 6:25)

In the next seven verses, Jesus assures us that, if we are faithful, our material needs will be more than met. There is simply no need to worry about it. Worrying will get us absolutely nowhere. The Lord will provide and indeed He has. Jesus then gives some more very sage instruction.

33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6: 33-34)

If we seek first the kingdom of God, we will receive all that we need in both the material and the spiritual realm. In other words, if we can rely upon our faith, we no longer have to spend time in worry about tomorrow. Sufficient is the day for its own trouble.

Admittedly, I have difficulty obeying this sage instruction. When I am weak and in worry there is but one answer. I must pray for renewed faith in order to overcome the anxiety and the worry. Through prayer He provides the faith and the relief from unreasonable worry. Please try it. It works!

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)

Wake Up!

On a recent week day morning, I was alone in the house and enjoying a cup of coffee and reading the local newspaper. Marley, our English Springer Spaniel, was blissfully sleeping beside me on the couch. We have long since given up any pretence of keeping her off the leather furniture. Her nose, as is her habit, was close to my leg, just in case I may decide to scratch her ears. Her breathing was deep and very regular.

I was startled by a distinct rapping sound coming from what seemed to be from above the ceiling. My first thought, like everyone who owns a home in the country, was that I had a new tenant in the attic that was due for a troublesome and perhaps protracted eviction. I was relieved when I saw tail feathers dip below the top of the window and realized that we had a very large, and admittedly not too bright woodpecker, working on the wood facia of the eaves.

I was very surprised at Marley’s reaction, or lack thereof, to the annoying noise. Normally the tap, tap, tap of a woodpecker in the wild or even on the television sound track will send her into a frenzy of running and barking. What I witnessed entertained me over the next few minutes. First one of her large brown eyes opened up, then the other, ever so slowly. Next to move on our very sleepy dog was her right ear. It lifted ever so carefully and slowly as did the left ear as the bothersome noise continued. Finally, and with great reluctance, she lifted her head up high enough to try to get a glimpse of this new threat. Her tail next moved from its normally relaxed state to a downward position tucked next to her body. Slowly she began to growl as her body tensed up to spring on the enemy. All of a sudden, she was fully awake and jumped to the floor in a frenzy of barking and attempting to lead me to the door so that she could do her job and rid the world of this pesky woodpecker. Marley did her job admirably well. We haven’t seen the woodpecker near the house since that day.

Her uncharacteristic long and protracted reluctance to fully wake up and do what God intended her to do reminded me of a verse I recently read in the Book of Romans.

11 ¶ And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. (Romans 13:11)

We are currently enjoying a period of grace; a time granted by the Lord so that many more will have the opportunity to hear the gospel, become believers and get saved. We have no idea when this grace period will be ended with the return of Jesus Christ. This verse tells us it is high time we woke up and understood the shortness of time. We must become spiritually alert, foster our own salvation and indeed speak the gospel truths as often as possible so that others may realize their own salvation.

Are you awake, alert and ready for the return of the Lord?

(Comments, corrections, suggestions or rebuttals are welcome. My email link is contained in “About me: view my complete profile” to the right of this page or use the comment section below which requires that you have a Google account.)