Archive for July, 2024
Patience is Creative
John Chrysostom, the golden tongued orator of yesteryear, defined longsuffering as the grace that belongs to a man who has the power to avenge himself but who does not.
John and Susannah Wesley had 21 children. He said to Susannah of one: “How do you have the patience to tell that blockhead the same thing 20 times over?”
Susannah who regularly manifested a Christlike temperament said, “If I had told him but nineteen times, I should have lost all my labor.”
Longsuffering produces a better product. When the masterful artist Leonardo da Vinci was painting his famous “Last Supper” he was chided for standing for long periods staring at the canvas without making a stroke. Someone queried, “Why do you do this?” He answered, “When I pause the longest, I make the most telling strokes with my brush.”
Patience restricts pride. Paul had a “thorn in the flesh” which he described as a messenger of Satan. He said it was given to him “lest he should be exalted above measure,” that is, to prevent him from having an ego trip (II Cor. 2: 7). He had to be longsuffering to endure his thorn in the flesh and it was to his benefit.
Patience renews trust. We are told the Lord won’t allow us to be tempted above that which we are able. He won’t give us a test we can’t pass. Years of experience proves this. There are brief intervals when it does not seem reasonable, but over a period of time it proves to be so.
In nature we see examples of this. A diamond is simply a lump of coal that didn’t quit working.
When an irritating object, like a grain of sand, gets under the mantle of an oyster it simply covers the irritant with the most precious part of its being. The result, a beautiful pearl. The irritation caused by the foreign object is stopped by it being encrusted with the pearly formation. A true pearl is a simple example of longsuffering’s victory over irritation.
Patience revives others. We are told to “bear one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6: 2). When we exercise long suffering in supporting others we revive them.
God has been long suffering with you. Why? What is it He desires to achieve through you?
“… if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently” (Romans 8: 25)
Mother’s Path of Life
In honor of Mother’s Day.
In giving loving consideration to the strategic role of mothers, evaluate this parody. It gives all the greater reason to honor mothers.
“Is the way long?” she asked. Her guide answered, “Yes, and the way is hard. You will be old before you reach the end of it, but the end will be better than the beginning.”
The young mother was happy and she could not believe that anything could be better than these years. So, she played with her children and gathered flowers for them along the way. She played with them in the clear streams as the sun shone on them and life was good.
The young mother said, “Nothing will ever be lovelier than this.”
Then night came, and a storm, and the path was dark and the children shook with fear in the cold. The mother drew them near and reassured them with her love. The children said, “Oh, mother, we are not afraid, for you are near and no harm can come to us.”
Then the mother said, “This is better than the brightest of days for I have taught my children courage.”
Then came the morning. There was a hill ahead and as the children climbed they grew weary and so did their mother, but she said to her children, “A little patience and we are there.” So the children climbed. When they reached the top they said, “We could not have done it without you, mother.”
And the mother said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of difficulty. Yesterday I gave them courage, today I have given them strength.”
The next day came strange clouds that darkened the earth – clouds of hate, bitterness, and evil – and as the children groped and stumbled the mother said, “Look up. Lift your eyes to the light.” The children looked and saw above the clouds The Everlasting Glory of God. He guided them and brought them beyond the darkness.
That night the mother said, “This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.”
The days went on, and the weeks and the months and the years, and the mother grew old, and she was a little bent. The children were now tall and strong and straight and walked with courage. When the way was rough, they lifted her, for she was light as a feather; and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung open wide.
The mother said, “I have reached the end of my journey. Now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.”
The children said, “You will always walk with us, mother, even when you have gone through the gates.”
The children stood and watched her as she went on alone and the gates closed after her. They said, “We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living Presence.”
“…do not despise your mother when she is old” (Proverbs 23: 22).
Thanks to all worthy moms and Happy Mother’s Day.
I want to pay tribute to two moms, the one who gave me birth and the one who gave our children birth.
Don’t Give up on America
There has never been a nation that hasn’t suffered a decline and eventual death and America is not going to be an exception. BUT it doesn’t have to be now. It is true we have never had more major crises internally and abroad at once, but don’t give up on America. Our greatest threat is in America giving up on God.
Abraham Lincoln, in a Proclamation appointing a National Prayer Day, got it right when he noted: “Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins, and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope, that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”
Lamentably there is no such mood prevailing in our nation. Prayer is perceived to be so void in America that a delegation of South Korea Christians recently came to America to conduct prayer vigils across the nation.
Three times before America has been in a position as desperate as an elephant hanging over a cliff by its trunk to a bush. In each of three instances America was as devoid of a spiritual base as we are now. Three times a moral malaise has engulfed the land. In each instance God responded to concerted prayer and renewal followed.
1714 – 1770 a religious and social awakening resulted.
1790 – 1820 a great frontier revival swept the land.
1890 – 1920 a social gospel dispelled despair.
This type of national revival is not true just in America. There was such a spiritual movement in Wales some cities dismissed their police force feeling there was such a moral response they were not needed. That is a lesson on how to do it in America for those wanting to dismiss the police.
I believe God is waiting to see our response and determine His role.
One of the bloodiest Civil War Generals, William Tecumseh Sherman, had a spiritually maturing experience with the Lord in his latter years. Soon thereafter his beloved wife died. He wrote one of the most popular ministers of the day, DeWitt Talmadge, the following.
“I am sure that you know that the God who create the minnow, and who has molded the rose and the carnation giving each its sweet fragrance, will provide for those mortal men who strive to do right in this world which He Himself has stocked with birds, animals, and men. At all events I will trust Him with absolute confidence.”
Regardless of the result of our national spiritual conduct, may we follow the example of the Old Testament leader Joshua who charged his people to serve the Lord and said “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” May our response be that of his people, “So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods…” (Joshua 24: 15, 16).
Don’t give up on God lest God give up on us.