The Lord My Keeper: My Litany of Praise

My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth…

The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. -Psalm 121:2, 5 (ESV).

What an incomprehensible thought:

God who made heaven and earth,

Wo lifted the mountains above the valleys,

Who bounded the waves of the seas,

Who strung the stars in galaxies unnumbered,

Who made the dry land and peopled the forests with animals,

Who created mankind and gave him dominion and power over the Creation,

Even He, the Maker of all, even He is my keeper,

My shade upon my right hand,

My Companion, my Savior, my Friend.

He, Creator, Lord, is never too busy to hear me when I call,

Never too remote to be concerned for my welfare,

Never too busy to radiate care and concern

In infinite ways beyond numbering.

How can my heart respond on this another day

He has given me in which to rejoice and be glad?

With gratitude:

Thanksgiving wells up like an overflowing fountain.

His provision eradicates all thirst and want.

With gladness:

Joy unspeakable and full of glory fills my cup

And praise wells up in a soul overflowing.

With awe:

He is Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

He neither slumbers nor sleeps and is near to observe

My going out and my coming in, from henceforth, forevermore!

The Maker of heaven and earth is my helper.

He is my keeper and guides me with His mighty hand. Selah!

-Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.31.2016

Trusting God to Work Things Together for Good

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” -Romans 8:28 (KJV).

Romans 8:28 has long been one of my “life verses,” one I memorized long ago and return to again and again to seek to live by. We often misunderstand the verse, thinking that it somehow shows that God puts immunity around believers to protect them from the perplexities, troubles and disappointments of life. That is not the promise of the verse. The promise is God’s ability to work things out for good for those of us who love and trust Him. God doesn’t promise to divert troubles but to lead the believer through them, not to have us avoid sorrow or pain, but to give grace to bear whatever comes.

What is my part in God’s plan? I accept and trust the daily grace God gives me for life’s journey. Has the Lord ever failed? No. But I, in my failure to seek and acknowledge God, fail to lay claim to His promises and live by them. My part in God’s plan for “all things to work together for good” is for my soul to get in touch with God’s greatness and mercy, to claim His promises and to believe, know and act upon the truth that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”

On July 23, 2016, I participated in a thrilling event, the 70^th “Founders’ Day” program of Truett McConnell College, now Truett McConnell University. Those gathered recalled the history of the college in the mountains established on Christian principles and for the purpose of educating young men and young women in a Christian environment. The logo of a hand holding a flame with the Latin phrase, “veritas liberat,” (truth liberates) has been the college’s motto since the beginning from that Founder’s Day program July 23, 1946. Currently, the inspiring challenge added by the current president, Dr. Emir Caner is “From the first verse to the last tribe,” calling to mind the emphasis that we as Christians are all missionaries as we share the love of God in the context of daily living and reach out to even the “last tribe” who has not yet heard of God’s plan to bring all peoples everywhere to His abundant grace, mercy and forgiveness. God does, indeed (as this sonnet I wrote affirms) work all things together for good:

In God’s Master Plan

We often question, Lord, the ways of life,

The pains we bear, our toils and strife.

When troubles come we wonder why.

We’re not immune. We sometimes cry.

But then like a shining ray of hope

Above our questions Your Spirit spoke

Assuring us that in Your great plan

The best will come to believing man.

Here we see dimly as through a dark glass;

We cannot know what will come to pass.

What we do not know we accept by grace,

For answers come when we seek Your face.

For now, we hold to Your steadfast hand

To lead us on the journey You have planned.

Prayer: Lord, I know You are working things together for good. Therein lies “the peace that passes all understanding” Paul wrote about in Philippians 4:7. Thank You, Lord. -Ethelene Dyer Jones. 07.24.2016.

Some Guards Against Overextending Oneself

“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of His calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. -2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 (ESV).

For persons with ambition to work well and to accomplish as much as possible, overextending oftentimes has to be dealt with, and planning and prioritizing must occur. Paul prayed for the Christians at Thessalonica that “God may make you worthy of His calling” and to “fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by His power.”

The Rev. Phillips Brooks, noted American minister and writer, stated, “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”

In my work, I often had to be what we term a multi-tasked person. I learned how to meet the demands of a busy high school media center. The job required dealing with immediate and unexpected challenges as well as the planned, long-range management of a resource center, teaching and leading, organization and keeping a schedule. And permeating the whole process was assisting students to find answers as they pursued knowledge and learned to be independent researchers to find their own answers to learning challenges.

When faced with multiple tasks, the Christine should not pray for easier or fewer tasks but pray instead for the knowledge and strength to do what needs to be done. Paul also prayed that the work might be done to the glory of the Lord Jesus. If attitude and priorities are right, and the Christian has accepted the challenge—not of a smaller work but for a larger strength and ability with which to accomplishan it—then work can proceed willingly and with determination.

I leaned this motto in Vacation Bible School when I was a pre-teenager: “I will do the best I can with what I have, where I am, for Jesus’ sake today.” The sound advice of this motto, and my strong faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, have served me well at times of overextension when I need to pause, take stock, release the less-necessary, and work hard to finish priorities. I know assuredly that if I pray for guidance and strength and seek to glorify the Lord (not myself) in my work, then “my heart found (and can find) pleasure in all my toil” (Ecclesiastes 2:10).

Prayer: Today, Lord, I have much work to do. Show me priorities and possibilities. Strengthen and equip me for the tasks. May I not feel guilty when brief pauses and a little “time out” are necessary for rest. May You be glorified as I work “as unto the Lord.” Amen. - Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.17.2016

Walk Worthily of Your Calling

“I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility, and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all and in all.” -Ephesians 4:1-6 (ESV)

Paul the Apostle wrote to the Christians at Ephesus (Ephesians 4:1-6), to those at Colosse (see Colossians 1:10), and to those at Thessalonica (see 2 Thessalonians 2:12) to walk worthily of the calling of a Christian. Earlier, as John the Baptist preached in the wilderness prior to his introduction of the Lord Jesus Christ, he admonished that persons should “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance” (see John 3:8-9). And have we not aspired to live by the Bible’s instruction to show a decided difference in our lives by the way we live following our acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? There’s a gospel hymn that reminds us of this difference in a Christian’s walk (or manner of life):

“And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love;

Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

We often refer to manner of life as a person’s “walk.” In 1 John 2:6 we are admonished to walk as Jesus walked: “Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way as He walked.” Indeed, that is a worthy goal—one nigh impossible to achieve in this life but one to which we should constantly strive, with the help of the Holy Spirit, our guide and stay. We have a perfect example—the life and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. “I am the way, the truth and the life,” He said (John 14:6). Our daily aim should be to walk in a manner that emulates Christ. There is a reminder bracelet that Christian youth sometimes wear with the initials “WWJD” inscribed on it. The bracelet is a reminder to ask, “What Would Jesus Do”? In teaching Christians to walk worthy of their calling, Paul lists some of the characteristics in our focal passage for today we know as the fruit of the Spirit: humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, love. And within the fellowship of believers we will seek to maintain unity. Where discord enters, confusion abounds. Neither of these is a characteristic of a spirit of unity.

Paul ends this teaching from Ephesians of walking worthily of our calling by giving some strong doctrine: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” The Christian comes into the walk with Christ through grace, the unmerited favor of God. Once that relationship is established, we then have a responsibility to “walk worthy” of our calling.

Today is a good day to examine my walk with the Lord.

Is Jesus beside me as I go?

Within me as I make decisions?

Is He my constant companion in the every-dayness of my life?

Do I talk to Him as an available friend and counselor?

Do I study the Bible consistently and apply its truths to my life?

Does my relationship with the Lord permeate all I do?

Do I ask, “What would Jesus do?” -Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.10.2016

Revive Us Again!

“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. -Psalm 85:6-7 (ESV). “You who seek God, let your hearts revive.” -Psalm 69:32b (ESV). “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” -Isaiah 57:15 (ESV).

Probably many of you who read this can remember the times, especially in the summertime, when your church had a week (or more) of revival. In the mountains of north Georgia where I grew up, we sometimes called it not only “revival meeting” but “protracted” meeting. The latter term meant that the meeting was set for a certain week. Ours at Choestoe Baptist Church was beginning with the second Sunday in July and running through that week. If this week, which our native poet, Byron Herbert Reece in his poem “Choestoe” called “protracted meeting,” (“God’s high festival), was going well at the end of one week, with the Spirit of the Lord moving upon the hearts of the people, the meeting would be “protracted,” or continuing on for more days as the preaching and singing continued and the results were many people “getting right with the Lord,” confessing sins, and coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

I became a Christian in just such a week of revival meeting, on a Tuesday night, in the second week of July, 1939. I remember the occasion well, and how happy I was to confess the Lord as my Savior. A month later, on the second Sunday in August, after the converts had been taught by our pastor the responsibilities and doctrines of church membership, and were considered to be truly converted, the baptismal service was held on the second Sunday afternoon of August, 1939. Twenty-three new converts lined up to go into the cold waters of Nottely River to be baptized. “Upon your profession of faith,” our pastor said, “I baptize you my brother/sister (as he came to each individually), in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. You are buried with Christ in baptism; raised to walk in newness of life with Him.”

Now revivals are not held as regularly and as often as they were in those good days in the country. We put major emphasis upon going to church, morning and night, all week. We “had the preachers” (or pastor and the visiting evangelist) in our home for a bountiful meal. The front porch after the meal at noon were places where we heard the preachers expound upon passages of Scripture and teach us in a more casual setting than at church. Indeed, I could go with our local poet’s evaluation of such a high and holy week: It was “God’s high festival—protracted meeting.” Crops were laid by. It was time to get hearts and lives aligned with God’s purposes. It was revival meeting time! Reread our focal scriptures for today. These were fulfilled in our midst in those precious weeks in summer. God did, indeed, “revive us again,” his people did “rejoice in Him,” and we sought God and our hearts were filled with joy.

Here are some famous quotations about revival from two renowned evangelists of the past. Charles H. Spurgeon (1832-1892) wrote: “A genuine revival without joy in the Lord is as impossible as spring without flowers or dawn without light.” He also wrote: “If we want revival, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God.” And again he wrote: “Revival begins by Christians getting right first and then it spills over into the world.” Dwight L. Moody, American evangelist, wrote: “Before we pray that God would fill us, I believe we ought to pray that He would empty us.” 

 

Prayer: “O Lord, will you not revive us again that your people might rejoice in You?” Amen! Now, can we not sing “Revive Us Again” with new and vigorous desire and prayer to have this spiritual renewal among us? - Ethelene Dyer Jones 07.03.2016