LEFT BEHIND

If trinkets could talk, they might tell quite a story. Maybe a dusty story of life before they were “left behind” when their owner downsized or passed away. I sometimes wonder about their “history” when I pass by these shelves at a local thrift store. I'm reminded of Paul's advice to Timothy: “We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it” (1 Timothy 6:7). Or as someone wagged, “You don't see a U-Haul following a hearse.”

I have some décor and heirloom items around our home, most of them gifts. But cleaning out my parents' home after their deaths put a check in my heart of having too much “precious stuff.” My mother collected dozens of salt and pepper shakers! They sold for a pittance to another “collector.” Ditto china cup and saucer sets that were rarely used but displayed behind a glass case. My child's “start” on collecting was felt triangular pennants from places we visited on vacation. (Remember those?) They once filled a wall in my childhood bedroom. Now they're probably in some landfill. Oh, yes, I had a “birth month” ceramic angel. (Remember those? They're still around, often advertised in the ad-filled “magazine” of many Sunday papers.)

Someday, somebody else will have to dispose of “stuff” I left behind. None of us know when death will come. My retired-teacher-husband is starting to see obituaries of his former students. One was recently killed in a traffic accident, but the obituary mentioned that she had recently accepted Christ as her Savior.

Sometimes it helps to read about how godly people of the past anticipated their deaths and eternal life. I found this quote about eternity by John Baillie (Scottish theologian and ecumenical churchman, 1886-1960) both encouraging and profound:

Not even the most learned philosopher or theologian knows what it is going to be like. But there is one thing which the simplest Christian knows—he knows it is going to be all right. Somewhere, some-when, somehow we who are worshiping God here will wake up to see Him as He is, and face to face; but where or when we know not, or even whether it will be in a “where” and a “when,” that is, in space and time at all.

No doubt it will be utterly different from anything we have ever imagined or thought about. No doubt God Himself will be unimaginably different from our present conception of Him. But He will be unimaginably different only because He will be unimaginably better. The only thing we do certainly know is that our highest hopes will be more than fulfilled, and our deepest longings more than gratified. (1)

It will not be a life enhanced by trinkets, but by the pure worship of our holy, awesome God.

(1) John Baillie, Christian Devotion (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1962), p. 44, cited in Elton Trueblood, The Lord's Prayer (New York: Harper and Row, 1965) p. 92.

PUSH-PRAISE

I can't recall when I saw my first foot-powered pump organ, like this one I recently spotted in a thrift store. Maybe it was a museum or the home of aging relatives. You know the type of décor: the “company room” with stiff furniture with doilies on the chair arms. In my childhood home in the 1960s, besides a goliath upright piano, we had a small electronic organ with two keyboards and an octave of foot pedals. About twenty “stops” to the side activated sounds, like “brass” or “woodwind.” It was all part of the “music education” my dad (who couldn't carry a tune in a bucket) provided generously for his daughters.

Along with the nostalgia of seeing this antique, I mused about the repairs it might need to work again. The pedals needed continuously pumped for sound. Think what that did for foot fitness! But if time had deteriorated critical parts to push air, there would be no music.

Aha! The air. Our English words that use the prefix “pneuma”--as in pneumonia or pneumatic tire--are offspring of the Greek pneuma, commonly defined as “air” or “spirit.” I won't get into all the theology about that. But here's the simple application: without the Holy Spirit 's power we're as spiritually mute as a broken-down pump organ.

In my scripture reading, I'm often drawn back to the “behaviors” described by the early church leaders. In writing the church at Thessalonica, for example, Paul commended their “work produced by faith....labor prompted by love, and... endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). And how did that look like in everyday life? We get a glimpse of it as he closes the letter, asking them to honor their leaders, live in peace, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone, refuse to pay back wrong for wrong, try to be kind to one another, be joyful, and pray continually (5:13b-17). Yes, simple expressions of being a Christ-follower empowered by the Holy Spirit, but just as applicable to today.

But....the list isn't exhaustive. Here's what can be the hardest note to play in the Christian walk: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this God's will for you in Christ Jesus” (v. 18). When things aren't going our way, that's a hard thing to do. But God wants us to look beyond our circumstances, even the negative ones, to what He can accomplish through them.

When I practiced as a youth on our little family organ, I sometimes played a piece in a minor key. If Dad was home and listening, he'd say, “Oh please, that's so sad. Play a happier song.” But life's songbook isn't all “happy,” major-key songs. The minor keys are part of human experience. Sometimes, the “instruments” on which we play (our human bodies) take a lot of effort to keep going. We're like antique pipe organs in need of repair. The answer? The phrase that Paul often used to close his letters:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (1 Thessalonians 5:28)

He's the Master Craftsman, the One who keeps us going, praising Him.

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Curious about how pump organ works? Check out this short You-Tube video. (Enjoy the affection this man has for his pet dogs who weren't camera-shy!)

How Pump Organ Works - with Ricky Tims - Bing video

THE OLD RUGGED CROSS

A monthly story on a hymn of the faith.

George Bennard, author of “The Old Rugged Cross,” had a rugged start in life. Born in 1873, his early years were spent in coal-mining towns in Ohio and Iowa where his father worked. He came to Christ as a youth through the ministry of the Salvation Army. But Bennard's father died when he was sixteen, and he had to return to the mines to support his mother and four sisters. Later, in his early twenties, he became a part of the Salvation Army. Carrying his Bible and guitar, he traveled the Midwest conducting revivals. He also married a fellow Salvationist, Arminta, orphaned when her mother died and her father committed suicide. The couple rented an apartment from a college professor in Albion. Michigan. In its little kitchen, he began working on a hymn about the cross. In these early years, too, he was ordained as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In early 1913 he went on a revival preaching tour some three hundred miles across Lake Michigan at Sturgeon Bay, leaving his pregnant wife behind for two weeks of services. Whenever he had a spare moment, Bennard kept working on that hymn. He struggled with lyrics, wanting them to truly reflect the seriousness of the cross. That concern reportedly came from a deeply trying time he'd experienced in his ministry. One possibility was when youths heckled him at an earlier revival where he preached. As Bennard focused on the apostle Paul's words of entering into the fellowship of Christ's sufferings (Galatians 6:14), he realized the cross went beyond being a symbol to being the very heart of the Gospel.

Before the revivals ended, Bennard showed the hymn to his hosts. They gathered around a small organ to sing it for the first time, then sang it again for the final meeting of the revival. When the service ended with an altar call, 140 people went forward to accept Christ as Savior. Soon after, he traveled to Pokagon, Mich., for another revival meeting. There, the hymn was again sung. Then it was sung at a large convention and its popularity grew. Even evangelist Billy Sunday used it in his ministry. In 1938, a national radio network declared it to be the nation's most favorite hymn.

For forty more years Bennard participated in evangelistic ministries. He would write about 300 more Gospel songs. Toward the end of his life, he relocated to southern California for his wife's health. After her death, he remarried and returned to Michigan to live out his final years. He died in 1958—exchanging his cross from a crown--at age eighty-five.

Several cities now have memorial markers for their connection to the hymn. At Albion, Mich., near the home site where he first started writing the song in 1912, there's a historical marker. Sturgeon Bay, Wisc., has a garden with a cross for the hymn's first singing at the Friends Community Church. Pokagon, Michigan, honors its connection to the completed hymn (sung in revival services) at the now-restored church, which had fallen into disrepair in years it was used for a livestock barn and drying hops. Besides being a museum, it's used for weddings and receptions, and houses a twice-monthly “hymn sing” that closes with Bennard's hymn.

A few miles outside of Reed City, Mich., where Bennard spent his final years, there's a twelve-foot cross with the words, “The Old Rugged Cross—Home of George Bennard, composer of this beloved hymn.” The town also has a museum about his life. Near the end of his life, Bennard was interviewed about his hymn. He said writing it wasn't his greatest fulfillment. “Saving souls was my greatest thrill,” he said. “That hymn's just runner-up.”

Many country Western singers perform this hymn. Here is one from YouTube:

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=%22George+Bennard%22&ru=%2fvideos%2fsearch%3fq%3d%2522George%2bBennard%2522%26%26FORM%3dVDVVXX&view=detail&mid=9F4E32B3367F4D621E789F4E32B3367F4D621E78&rvsmid=C5C6759A19DB30876693C5C6759A19DB30876693&FORM=VDRVRV

PURPOSEFULLY TRIMMED

Laid out--ready to pick up and sew

My creative life over the past decade-plus has been defined by a five-inch square. Forty-nine (arranged 7x7) have gone into each of the hundreds of patchwork baby blankets I've sewn and given away to charity. I tell that, not to brag, but to suggest that day by day, week by week, we're assembling a lifetime of character. The squares of life according to God's plan will fit together in glory to Him. The ones that don't follow God's best plan will pucker and distort.

Just as I follow a “plan” in my quilting (which is super-simple in comparison with the quilts with blue ribbons on them at quilt shows!), God has a plan for our lives. And His plan is good.

I was reminded of that truth—“God's plan is good”—as I read Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' book, Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cures (Eerdmans, 1965). He pointed out that while God's plan is good, it isn't necessarily the easy life we'd prefer. We're raw material—piles of random fabric—that need trimmed to fit God's plan. But that's not a fun process. “God disciplines us for our good,” says Hebrews 12:10, “that we may share in His holiness.”

Snip, snip—the attitudes and behaviors we cling to, have to be cut away for God's pattern. That includes bitterness over life's trials, troubles, and chastisement. No surprise: that negative character quality gets special attention in the same chapter:

See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (12:15)

Lloyd-Jones adds:

I know nothing that is so sad in life, certainly there is nothing sadder in my life and work and experience as a minister of God, than to watch the effect of trials and troubles on the lives of some people. I have known people who, before the misfortunes befell them, seemed to be very nice and friendly, but I have observed that when these things happen they become bitter, self-centered, difficult—difficult even with those who try to help them and who are anxious to help them. They turn in upon themselves and they feel that the whole world is against them. You cannot help them, the bitterness enters into their souls, it appears in their faces and their very appearance. (pp. 250-251)

No believer is immune from hardship or even spiritual chastisement from God. What matters, Lloyd-Jones wrote, is how we respond: with anger and bitterness or a trusting, humble heart.

God has the bigger picture of how we can serve and glorify Him. He has a good plan for all those random pieces of our lives. When I trim scraps into squares, then stand in front of the bed where I've opened my big cutting board and start laying out the “pattern,” I seek to create pleasing patterns of color and “motion” (plain v. busy fabrics). In short, I want them to be “fun” for babies to look at.

When I bring that analogy to my own life, and think back over how God has worked through my education and experience, celebrations and sorrows, I affirm that He makes no mistakes. And even though I don't understand why I had to go through certain difficult experiences, I know that someday it will be made clear. As Ephesians 2:10 says, I am His “workmanship,” created in Christ Jesus to do “good works.” Uniquely “patched together” in His master plan.

CLOTHES, CLOTHES, CLOTHES

Our community's largest thrift store has stacks of clothes that go on and on and on. Thrifty shoppers might anticipate a great selection here. But aside from being divided as men's/women's/children, the clothes are not organized. Everything is lumped together. Happy shopping. Store closes at 7 p.m. (Staff members say “organizing” them by “type” and exact size is on the long-range to-do list!)

I'm glad it's not that way with “spiritual clothes.” None of those included in the Bible's catalog of spiritual attire go out of date. In fact, unlike human trendy fashions (like recent those peekaboo shoulders in women's blouses, or way-too-low saggy, torn shorts), scripture's fashion sense is timeless.

I'm not talking unisex tunics of roughly woven fabric with sashes and wraps, aka ancient times. Instead, those described in letters sent to early churches. Today, a lot of folks (okay, women, and maybe men who care about their image) depend on a mirror to check their “public image.” But it's also important to check for tatters, stains, and other signs of wear in our spiritual mirrors.

First stop, Colossians Avenue (3:12-13), where garments include the softness of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness (because God has forgiven us!), and the one-size-all “love.”

Next, a similar unisex rack at First Peter's Place (3:8-11), which has similar fare, with no clashing patterns (instead, harmony, sympathy, brotherly love) and the softness of compassion and humility. Ripped clothes (repaying evil with evil, or insult with insult) have been tossed in the trash. Peter's spiritual clothes racks also include gracious speech (“keep...tongue from evil and lips from deceitful speech”).

Do our outward clothes matter? Yes, and no. We live in a land of excessive adornment. No wonder the thrift stores have so many secondhand clothes. And that's a good thing, too, if we're trying to stretch a budget.

But those “spiritual clothes” can't be bought at a local store. They already were paid for, at a cross just outside Jerusalem.