Living in Humility

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:6-7 (ESV) [Read 1 Peter 5:6-11]

     Peter the Apostle was bringing his first epistle to an end. Writing about 62-64 A. D. when Nero was the Emperor of the Roman Empire and persecution of Christians was rampant throughout all the lands to which believers had been dispersed, Peter wanted to give them encouragement, despite great difficulties. He urged them to continue living in humble submission to the precepts they had been taught of being a follower of Christ.

     Despite the civil conditions under which they live, they are to remember that they are under “the mighty hand of God,” the same hand that brought the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage and led them in the Exodus and to possess the Promised Land. The same God was active in leading and keeping believers in Peter’s time, and extends to our time on earth. Like the gospel song reminds us, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.” Although times be hard, then and now, and holding onto faith may bring difficulties to the believer, humility and faith are to be practiced consistently.

     Time had different meanings in Peter’s day, as it does in our own. The Greek word for chronological time, chronos, has to do with seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, decades, centuries. Kairos time referred to an occasion when something can be marked as occurring, or an appointed time. In the context of this verse, “at the proper time” is God’s appointed time when difficulties will be lifted and rewards for faithful service will come. Know assuredly, Peter writes, that God “cares for you” whether reckoned in chronos or in kairos time.

     God has promised to take care of all who suffer “at the proper time” and will reward those who are humble and faithful. Peter, in admonishing the faithful followers to be humble, submitting to God’s leadership, reminded them of the promise from Psalm 55:22: “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

     God is not distant and detached, but watches with providential care over those who trust in Him and humbly follow Him. But at the same time Peter warned that the devil, that adversary whom Christians fear and who seeks to turn them aside from following God purposefully, is “as a roaring lion, looking for whom he may devour.” This resistance to staying on the Way with Christ is common to all believers and we must keep vigilant watch lest we stray. Peter wanted followers to understand, assuredly, that “the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10b).

     The Christian is thus to know that his help is from the Lord, as the Psalmist so aptly stated, “who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1b). To recognize God in His sovereign majesty is to take on humility.

     This week I am in the mountains of North Georgia, a place where I was reared and where I return again and again for inspiration and because of love of place that nurtured me well when I was young and impressionable. With such beauty and majesty stretching about me, I cannot help but wonder: “Who am I, that God should regard me?” With such thoughts, and upon consideration of God’s majesty and care, I am greatly humbled, and grateful at the thought that God, even the God of the majestic universe, cares for me! Selah! - Ethelene Dyer Jones 10.30.2016

“Blessed Are the Peacemakers”

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” -Matthew 5:9 (KJV)

     “Shalom!” is a Hebrew greeting that has several meanings, the most important of which is to wish personal well-being, prosperity, bodily health and peace to the one greeted. In the mountains where I grew up, when we met our friends and neighbors, we were likely to say, “I hope things are well with you and yours!” That, in our vernacular, was saying and wishing “Shalom!” to them.

     Jesus taught us in this beatitude that peacemakers are blessed and are called the children of God, for God is the Master Peacemaker, He brings peace to believers, and wants us to be agents of peace in the world. Instead of hatred and strife, He taught us how to pursue a better way. A peacemaker is not static, hoping that peace will come. Instead, he is actively working to bring reconciliation where there is hatred and enmity.

     Those who work for peace are sharing in Christ’s ministry of bringing reconciliation out of trouble. In 2 Corinthians 5:18-19, we learn that a peacemaker is part of our Christian way of life. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” Paul also teaches in Ephesians 2:14 that the Christian is an agent of peace: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” Paul further admonishes Christians to be a peacemaker in Colossians 1:19-20: “For to Him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.”

     St. Francis of Assisi lived and worked in the 13th century A. D. He left behind an often-quoted prayer that has been set to lofty music. The words of His prayer formulate the idea in the seventh Beatitude.

“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

May we sincerely pray this prayer and have in our hearts the genuine commitment to be instruments of peace in our troubled world. Thus we can help to fulfill Jesus’ command and promise: “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God. -Ethelene Dyer Jones 10.23.2016

Considering the End Time and How to Live

“The end of all thins is at hand; therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles for God; whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” -1 Peter 4: 7-11 (ESV)

     The epistles of Peter were written at a time when persecution was severe against Christians. Many believers thought that Christ would return to earth soon, as He had told them. Peter writes that in anticipating the great hope of Christ’s second return, the Christians should live exemplary lives as He had taught Christians to live. Over two thousand years have passed since Peter wrote. We are still looking for the second appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is much nearer now than in the first century when Peter wrote. When we consider our present-day civilization, we who hold avidly to the belief of Christ’s second coming need to heed Peter’s admonitions about how we should live and conduct the affairs of our lives.

     Peter gave some very practical advice about how to live in anticipation of the Lord’s imminent return to earth. We ae to be self-controlled and sober-minded. The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates verse 7 thus: “Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer.” Serious means to be alert to what is going on around us. And we pray about matters, situations, people. “Watch and pray,” Jesus said in Matthew 25:13, “for you know neither the day nor the hour.”

     While we await His second coming, we are to love one another. We are to show hospitality (good will, kindness) to one another. In the first century, many shied away from Christians, fearing that if they were taken in and treated well, the host (or hostess) might also be persecuted. We are to remember that God bestows on us graciousness and good gifts. We are to share the gifts God gives us to serve others. We are to exercise spiritual gifts. If we have the gift of speaking to others, we speak as though we are delivering God’s message. If our spiritual gift is serving, in whatever manner we have the ability to do, we do so to glorify the Lord Christ and not ourselves.

     This passage from 1 Peter reminds me of the words from the hymn penned by Leila Naylor Morris (1862-1929) entitled “What If It Were Today?” The third stanza poses questions about our faithfulness and anticipation of His coming:

“Faithful and true would He find us here/If He should come today?

Watching in gladness and not in fear, If He should come today?

Signs of His coming multiply, Morning light breaks in eastern sky,

Watch, for the time is drawing nigh, What if it were today?”

     Prayer: Father, help us to be ready, watchful and in prayer, doing Your work and anticipating the time of the Lord’s sure return. Indeed, “What if it were today?” May readiness be our watchword. Amen. -Ethelene Dyer Jones 10.16.2016

Love, the Well-Spring of Life

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” – Proverbs 4:23.

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” -Psalm 16:11. “The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.” -Matthew 12:35. (ESV).

We know that the vital organ of our body, our heart, is the well-spring of life itself. Let something happen to the heart and its steady beating to take life-giving blood to every part of our body and to provide our very life sustenance is sorely affected.

But the heart is also considered the center of our spiritual and emotional life. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” we read in Proverbs 23:7. In context, the writer of this Proverb is using a stingy person who asks another to dine with him, but in his heart does not really want anyone to participate with him in what he has to offer. When we think about the heart and how open and sincere or, conversely, how calculating and ill toward others it can be, we can agree that “as one thinks in his heart, so is he.”

We are encouraged to keep our hearts vigilantly and faithfully. To seek the Lord God with all the heart, mind, soul and body is, foremost to loving the Lord God devotedly and following Him with total commitment. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself”  (Luke 10:27, quoting from Leviticus 19:18).

Our society has tended for some time to render love cheap, to take love up and make a commitment, or to decide that love is not enduring and to break the bonds of love. God’s intention was not thus to cheapen love and make it of little regard.  Instead from the heart comes the well-spring of life itself. True love is without dissimulation.  It is enduring. It brings fullness of joy. And love is a gift of God “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God…We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:7, 19. NKJV). - Ethelene Dyer Jones 10.09.2016

A Prayer for Faithful Believers

“For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.” -Philippians 1:8-11 (ESV).

This prayer of Paul (and Timothy) to the Christians at Philippi is given early in his letter, in the paragraph beginning with verse 3 where Paul states, “I thank God in all my remembrance of you,” and continues in verse 4 with “always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy.”

Having been a minister’s wife, and working in partnership with my husband to teach and lead in churches in which we had the blessed privilege to serve, I think I know something of the depth of Paul’s prayer for believers, maybe many of whom he personally had led to belief in the Lord. The Christian mentor does not forget the wonderful experiences with those whom he introduced to the Lord and led them to deeper commitment to His purposes.

In this age of modern communication, we have remarkable ability to keep in touch, to yield a positive influence for good on people we might otherwise not remember unless we see their names on screens. Furthermore, we can invite, through Facebook, to be “friend” to these whom we can now contact easily.

I thank God that even in my “old” age, I have the internet as a means of communication. Six years ago, God led me to study and write daily a devotional which I have shared through e-mail since with many people and more recently on Facebook where persons can read it and have opportunity to comment. To be sure, I take seriously the message I send out and pray that I will be true to the Bible’s teachings and that God will give insight and inspiration to those who take time to read what I write. Because it is by the Lord’s direction that I study, seek His insight and write.

Paul said in his love note to the believers in Philippi (and subsequently to many since as Paul’s letter has been lovingly read from our Bible), “I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” He follows this expression of love for them with a prayer that they be fruit-bearing Christians, filled with knowledge and discernment, and blameless before the Lord Christ. How very much he prayed for in this notification of his prayers for the faithful at Philippi. Likewise, we ought also to pray for each other. I take seriously the requests from those I know who say, “Pray for me.” Even this morning, I have written the names of those requesting prayer and have paused to seek the Lord’s blessings for those mentioned and their specific needs. Let us be faithful in praying. God hears and answers our prayers according to His gracious will.

Within the past week, it has been my happy privilege to talk with four delightful college students who strongly feel a call of God upon their lives. They are now in the period of preparation and study, but each of the four has expressed to me their willingness to study hard, to prepare and to be willing to go where God leads them. I was able to share my own testimony of God’s faithfulness and leadership in my life and assured them that patience is needed as well as the sincere desire to follow God. In retrospect, I can look back on my life and know assuredly that God opened doors and gave opportunities that I could not even anticipate. I encouraged these fine young people to seek God’s will, to pray for discernment, to be cognizant of opportunities offered, and to trust Him that He will open the way. Living within God’s purposes in the present and preparing by studying lays a foundation for future accomplishments. We often fret when we cannot see the full picture. But we trust God and wait. He will reveal His plan systematically. One opportunity faithfully assimilated leads to others with which He trusts us.

Prayer: Lord, give us fortitude “to be filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Amen. - Ethelene Dyer Jones 10.02.2016

An Earnest Plea for Our Country’s Spiritual Awakening

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heql their land” -2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV).

This verse was emphasized near the 4^th of July when we were considering the birthday of our country and the ideals upon which our nation was founded. Much emphasis is heard now from ministers from pulpits and on television and radio for a return to God-fearing, God-honoring ways in America. We stand in the need of a “Great Awakening” as we had in our nation’s earlier history. One is overdue for this disheartening time in which we live.

Three or four spiritual awakenings are identified as periods of evangelical fervor which brought conviction, confession of sin, and strengthening of congregations throughout the colonies. Early, it was a period of turning from “high” church practices to congregational practices and personal religion.

The First Great Awakening in America began in the 1730’s and extended through about 1743. Evangelical leaders during that period were the Rev. Solomon Stoddard who preached in frontier revivals. His grandson, the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, was famous for his sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This sermon has been preserved in written form and included in American literature textbooks. In 1838, the Rev. George Whitefield of England came to Georgia and preached convincingly and evangelistically of turning to God. He also preached through the middle colonies and in New York and Philadelphia. The First Great Awakening had a decided influence on religious liberty laws written into our country’s constitution.

The Second Great Awakening began in the 18^th century and was especially strong in the Northeast and Midwest. The preaching brought about awareness for social reforms such as abolition, temperance and women’s rights.

The Third Great Awakening from about 1850 to 1900 saw many new denominations formed, active missionary work, and the “social gospel” preached. The Young Men’s Christian Association was formed in 1844. Dwight L. Moody, a strong evangelical leader, began preaching in 1858. Religious work was strong in both Northern and Southern armies during the Civil War.

The Fourth Great Awakening was about the 1960’s and 1970’s. Evangelistic campaigns like those led by the Rev. Billy Graham occurred. Two denominations, in particular, were strong in preaching, teaching and leading people to repentance and right living. These were churches in the Southern Baptist Convention and in the Synod Lutheran denominations. My husband, the Rev. Grover Jones, was a young Southern Baptist minister beginning his ministry in 1952. I can recall some great local, state and national evangelistic results during those years and following.

During 2016, the Rev. Franklin Graham has sought to make America aware by his “Wake Up America” tours with a service on the grounds of each state capital in the nation. Good reports of attendance and participation have occurred. Prayer groups such as “Cry Out, America” and the emphasis to stop and pray for America at 9:00 p. m. each evening are part of the effort to awaken America to spiritual responsibility.

Awareness, awakening and repentance begin in the heart of each individual. May we pray that we will sincerely study 2 Chronicles 7:14 and earnestly meet what God demands—becoming humble, praying, seeking God’s face, and turning from evil. Then God promises blessings: God will hear, forgive and heal our land.   - Ethelene Dyer Jones 09.25.2016

The Christian as Salt

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” -Matthew 5:13 (ESV)

Jesus used salt to teach how important Christians are as they live out their lives in the world. Comparing disciples to the familiar commodity, salt, He reminded them to think of the value of salt. Salt (sodium chloride), a common commodity, is used for seasoning, for a preservative, as a cleansing agent and in many compounds for medicinal and other uses.

Growing up on a farm, I saw the uses of salt in more ways than for seasoning the food we ate. My father kept blocks of salt suspended on stable platforms for our farm animals to “lick,” thus assuring that they would become thirsty and go to pure water sources to drink. Salt was a part of keeping the farm animals healthy.

Salt was also valuable as a preservative. Near Thanksgiving time, in my home community, we had what we knew as “Hog Killing Time.” Neighbors would help each other as the cold snaps hit our community to butcher the hogs and begin the process of curing the meat for later use. I recall how my father took salt and carefully rubbed it into the cut hams, shoulders and “middlings” laid out on the curing table in the smokehouse. At the right time, he hung them up to further cure. My father had his own formula for a cure for hams, consisting of a mixture of salt, brown sugar and other ingredients. He was somewhat famous for the “Dyer-cured hams.” He had regular customers from Gainesville and Atlanta year by year who would come for their pork ham when the curing process was completed. Salt had been a vital ingredient in this curing, seasoning, preserving process.

Salt as seasoning adds a distinctive flavor to foods we eat. Many of us who have experienced heart difficulties are familiar with the limitation of salt to prevent further damage to diseased arteries. We learn to use less-potent forms of salt to add flavoring to food. We are familiar, too, with other uses of salt as a cleansing agent and as a medicine. We use salt water to gargle for a sore throat to minimize soreness and get at the germs that cause infections. All of the uses for salt—to add flavor, to preserve, to cleanse, to permeate and heal—are characteristic of a Christian’s influence in society. Jesus said, “you are like salt in the earth.” The Message Bible by Eugene H. Peterson gives this translation to Matthew 5:13: “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.” Actually, in Jesus’s day, we are told that “un-salty” salt was used as a paving agent on the streets and roads; hence the use to be “trampled under people’s feet.”

In my historical research and writing, I came across Civil War letters from citizens in Fannin County , Georgia, addressed to Governor Joseph Emerson Brown begging for shipments of salt so cattle would have their licks and so people could preserve food. It was an urgent appeal. Consider Jesus’ statement to His disciples to be urgent: “You art the salt of the earth!” What an appeal and what a command to us! Christians must know that they have a flavor given to them by the Lord Christ, different from the world, and making a definite difference in society. Praise be to God! - Ethelene Dyer Jones 09.18.2016