I am constantly amazed–and delighted–at the connections Christians find with each other. No matter our age, job, background, geography, or denomination, we have one Father, one Lord, one Spirit!

Our thoughts today are from a guest, Vi Brown.

****

Willing Heart
by Vi Brown

I was on the same on-line forum discussion about religion/spirituality with Elaine and other writers a few days ago. As a result, she asked me to be a guest contributor on this blog. I was delighted and accepted.

I have been a Christian for under a decade and spent several decades with my spirituality on the back burner. I was not praying nor relying on anyone but myself. I did believe in God, but he didn’t have much relevance in my life at that time. I didn’t know what to do about God since I had rejected the notion of formal religion many years ago.

Many of the people on that forum expressed similar sentiments. There were some Christian writers who responded to them in a gentle way and it could be that a few heard some truth. Mother Nature or Energy was the focus of some writers. Others, however, engaged in unpleasant dialogue and relied entirely on their own logic and proclaimed that there was no God. This group dismissed everything. I don’t think they wanted to understand anything else. They couldn’t see beyond themselves. It reminded me of the following scripture-

In them is fulfilled the prophesy of Isaiah:
“You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
You will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
They hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.”
Matthew 13:14-15

Even though God wasn’t a conscious part of my life, I feel he protected me all those years. I never turned to any cults or new age beliefs. In fact, I could never understand those who prayed to Mother Nature instead of God, the Creator. If you were served a lovely dinner, you wouldn’t praise the mashed potatoes and pork chops but the chef who created the dinner!

Over the years, I had become spiritually thirsty. One day someone who had a personal relationship with Jesus crossed my path. I was led to the Lord and my life began to change. It is an ongoing process. I am grateful that, by his grace, my heart remained open and that I was able to ‘see and hear’.

Even if we don’t keep track of God, he keeps track of us. If we have a willing heart, he will take care of the rest.

The Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.
1 Chronicles 28:9

****

About Vi Brown: Vi lives in British Columbia, Canada. You can view her writer’s profile here: http://www.suite101.com/profile.cfm/vibrown

I just came from an online forum, a discussion group on the Internet for writers. The discussions cover all the subjects that you would normally hear discussed in any workplace break room, everything from writing and marketing techniques to dating advice and finding homes for stray cats.

One lady talked about her spiritual journey and wondered where others stood, what they believed. Oh, my! What a range of belief, non-belief, doubters, seekers, deny-ers (what should that word be?) So many of them said, “I’m confused. I’m just not sure what to believe.”

It forced me to take a look at the basis of my own beliefs, and when I typed it out, I realized what I was typing was everything outlined in John 3:16.

This is one of those verses that many of you have known forever … you can’t remember a time when you did not know it. And so we are in danger, sometimes, of not hearing it.

But this is what I am standing on, what my life depends on: God loves the world. He offers us LIFE, life here and now, and another eternal life after this temporary one. And He does not leave us alone to grope through the darkness, trying to find the way to life; God came into human history as Jesus to provide and show us the way.

This is not what I planned to post today, but after visiting that writers’ forum and reading all the questioning, doubt, searching, scoffing, and uncertainty from others, then this one verse suddenly took on a magnificence and clarity that I had not experienced before when reading the words.

It is the answer. Yes, there is a God who loves us, and He came into our world to give us life now and life after now.

Think about that today, child of God. If you really believe John 3:16, doesn’t that change everything?

My friend called on Monday. Her niece, who lived 2000 miles away, had gone missing. Search crews were combing the area. No one knew where she was.

The word spread around the country. Texts and emails flew, Facebook posts went up. Phone lines were busy. God was besieged with prayers.

By the third day, we read on the Internet that the sheriff’s department had called off the search. There was no trace of her, no clues, no leads. Where was she?

Another of my friends wrote in an email: “God knows where she is.”  All week, I thought about the story Jesus told about the one lost sheep. The shepherd leaves all the others and searches until he finds it. And when he finds it, there is great rejoicing.

And when, on Thursday, the niece was found and returned home, even those of us who did not know her wept with thankfulness and relief.

The story Jesus told was about God seeking the lost soul. But, child of God, the Father knows exactly where you are, too. There is nowhere you wander that He does not know where you are, that His love does not surround you.

You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.

If I ride the wings of the morning,
   if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
   and your strength will support me.

One verse that always touches my heart: God knows how weak we are; He remembers we are only dust. He knows my weakness, wanderings, failures. He knows how far short of the goal I fall. And yet His love surrounds me. 

We children of God sometimes wander. Sometimes we feel far from home. But He knows where we are. And even in what we think is the darkness, even there His hand will guide us and His strength support us.

Scripture:  Taken from Psalm 139, NLT; Psalm 103:14, NIV  

You wake up with a cold; your brain feels stuffed into your skull so tightly that you can’t think, and you know the whole day will be fuzzy. Sometimes, the day is just too cold and gray. Sometimes, the bills are endless and the boss is unreasonable and the kids drive you crazy…and it all gets the best of you. Sometimes, it’s just too hard to be hopeful and bright and optimistic and confident.

(Aren’t these lovely thoughts for a Monday morning?)

Sometimes, like the Psalmist, we lie in the dust. And that’s pretty much it. We have no strength to get up or do anything else; we just lie there.

When we are tired, when the questions are too hard and there are no answers, when our eyes can’t see any rainbow through the rain, when we just can’t feel God in our day–then what? Where do we go? What lifesaver do we hang on to?

On those lying-in-the-dust days, what can revive us?

Do you know the second half of that verse? Revive me by your word. In his poetic songs, David found many ways to describe his tough times. He often talks about being in a pit or being surrounded by his enemies or being in the clutches of death and he cries out to God for help. Here, he says, I lie in the dust; revive me by your word.

I hope you share with us some of your lifelines, some of the things that get you through those days.

Here’s my lifeline: His word. Specifically, the words that tell me God is there, in the middle of those days, even when my spiritual senses feel too dull to see or hear or feel him. These are the words I grab and hold on to.

I started typing those out, but … it’s a long list! So I’ll just give you a few. These words promise that God’s presence doesn’t depend on my circumstances or my mood. He has said I am his, and his love always surrounds me. My days are in his hands.

On the gray days, that’s all I need to know.

The Lord is my shepherd… Ps 23:1

(Jesus said) “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14:23

It’s pretty amazing. God comes to us, claims us as his children, says, “You are mine. I will help you. I am with you. Always.”

Scripture: Ps 119:25

Our community was stunned recently by a brutal double murder. A 32-year-old man (allegedly) killed both his parents.

Because this is small-town America, many people knew or knew someone who knew the victims. But the person who has been on my mind is the “other” son, the brother who lived in another state and who first called the police department because he had not heard from his parents in days.

I know absolutely nothing about this family and their relationships. But I wonder what is in the “other” brother’s head and heart these days. How would you deal with the murder of both your parents … by a brother or sister? Stop for a moment and try to imagine this.

Now think about all of Jesus’ teachings about forgiving those who wrong you … that would apply here, too, right? How in the world does someone forgive such a wrong? And yet, that’s exactly what Jesus was asking of his followers.

What about hurts and wrongs and, yes, even murders within the family of God? Wrongs done by those who have been adopted by God, named as his children, and have one Father? If you wish, think about your own church; or, simply think about others who say they are Christians. I’m guessing all of us have sometimes been hurt or wronged by someone else who claims to be a child of God.

The truth is, the church of Christ is not made up of perfect people. We are children of God, followers of Christ, and the Spirit is working to mold us into Christ’s image. There’s you, the wronged party, and she(he), the person who has injured you–the Spirit is working in both of you. Is that difficult to believe?

Sometimes, to our shame, wrongs are inflicted intentionally. Sometimes, they are unfortunate consequences of good intentions. There are all kinds of hurts that happen between brothers and sisters–everything from minor misunderstandings and disagreements to, yes, “murder”. Tell me, have you seen someone’s reputation destroyed by gossip? Have you seen people driven away from a church? Have you seen an enthusiastic young Christian shrivel up before a withering, judgmental attitude of a “mature” Christian? Have you seen long-standing, hate-filled feuds in a church?

Just typing this list of hurtful things makes me cringe–but they happen. Such things happen, even between the children of God. Then what?

There is the well-known story in Matthew 18 where Peter comes to Jesus and says, “If my brother continually wrongs me, how often should I forgive him?” (Don’t you wonder what triggered this question? Did Peter have a lot of relationship troubles? Could be…I think he was a pretty impulsive and outspoken person.) Note that the word brother is used.

Jesus told Peter to forgive his brother 490 times. Some translations say 77 times. Regardless, I believe Jesus is saying, “Forget about keeping track, keeping score. I’m telling you, forgive him.”

To a church he had never visited, the apostle Paul wrote instructions on living as a new person in Christ. He said:

The paragraph in which this statement is found begins with Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves …

We have been chosen, people set apart, declared to be his heirs. I am so thankful that God isn’t keeping track of how many times he has forgiven me! And within each of us, his children, the Spirit of Christ is at work, molding us into what he wants us to become.

This post is already much longer than I’d planned. This is why it’s also a day late–how do you condense such a subject into a few short paragraphs? I can’t do it. I bit off a little more than I can chew…

I was talking with one friend about the murders and voicing my musings about the other brother. How would you ever forgive such a thing? “Only by the grace of God,” my friend said.

And that is the bottom line. Whether the wrong is small and unintentional, or devastating and deliberate, the only way forgiveness comes is by the Spirit of God, molding us, leading his children into giving the same forgiveness he has granted to us.

Scriptures: Matthew 18:21-22; Colossians 3:12-15