Does He Not Care?

“On that day, when evening had come, He said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took Him with them in the boat, just as He was. And other boats were with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke Him and said to Him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”
Mark 4:35-41

“Lord! Do You not care?”

This passage struck me so deeply the other day. Without saying it aloud, I have whimpered: “Lord, do You not care? Do You not see this – do You not see me?”

We need this reminder – Jesus looked at His disciples, who were full of fear and forgetfulness, and He reminded them Who He is.

“Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” He asked them.

We often look for Him to change our circumstances, and it would be tempting to read this passage as proof that He will change things if only we have faith enough. Yet as He rebukes the wind and waves, He takes the emphasis off of the circumstance and turns their attention to Himself.

“Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey Him?” they marvel.

Can you hear their reverent awe? Who is this God, who commands obedience from even nature? How mighty, how powerful, how above-all must He be? Who is this God, who can sleep through storms with complete peace? Who is He, that He knows the future and spends His days without worry – for Himself or for us?

Like the disciples, we forget that He is all we need. He alone is wholly sufficient.

“Then Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘“The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’” and they ask me, ‘“What is His name?’“ what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ And He said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: ‘“I am has sent me to you.’”’ God also said to Moses, ‘Say this to the people of Israel: ‘“The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’” This is My name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.’”
Exodus 3:13-15

He is I AM. He is too lofty for us to understand, too wonderful to comprehend. He is great. He knows the beginning and the end of every circumstance and He is present as we walk through them all. There is no day that He has not already seen, nothing He does not already know. Do the winds and the waves still seem so troublesome?

Take heart, dear Christian.

“Do You not care?” – Oh, but He does! Let your cares be cast upon Him, “because He cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).

The mighty God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God who is the same yesterday, today and forever; He is sufficient. These storms that try us - they come by His allowance and do not leave us stripped bare. We may have only Him left – but friend! We have Him!

“I have heard of some good old woman in a cottage, who had nothing but a piece of bread and a little water, and lifting up her hands, she said, as a blessing, What! all this, and Christ too?”
C.H. Spurgeon

Let us remember who He is! We have Him, and He is all we need.

“The Name of the Lord is a strong tower;
the righteous man runs into it and is safe.”
Proverbs 18:10

A Blessed Interruption

“We’ve got no sound,” my husband said as I made my way over to his spot in the sound booth.

Our pastor was doing his best to string sentences together into the mic so the tech team could troubleshoot.

“It was good and then it made a pop,” Josh continued. “Now the mid-range isn’t working…ha, we’ve got ten minutes to fix it.”

Well, there was no fixing it and I sat down feeling pretty giddy. The thought of unplugged voices and instruments, followed by our pastor having to project for the crowd… I tried to find some sympathy for everyone’s to-be-stretched vocal chords but instead found myself praying they’d be stretched and strengthened.

“Good morning everyone,” our pastor’s wife hollered (in a beautiful way, in case you’re reading this ;)). “Our sound is out, so we are going to do this old-school which fits because this building is just as old. Would you all please move forward and get close and comfortable?”

I moved up a few rows with the kids, and everyone else did their own shuffling. A blessing in disguise, to get a bunch of New Englanders squished together to worship. We tend to like our space.

With a piano and a box drum, we began singing praises to our King. What joy, and what gusto! We all were there for Him, unified together in our desire for Him. We shared communion and continued worshiping.

Our pastor came to the front, opened in prayer, and got right into Philippians. He preached a fantastic sermon on sinners and saints, our standing before the Lord, and how this applies in our daily life. If only I could transcribe all that he said - it was so, so good. Convicting, encouraging, truth.

I looked around the room and noticed eyes glued to the front, faces of people deep in thought. My heart swelled with gratitude. To be in a room of people who desperately want Jesus, and want to live according to His Word… to be with other parents who want to raise their children according to His Word… to see strangers-turned-friends sitting nearby… All of us, there because we want to take our faith seriously and see God glorified. What a wonderful little interruption, to have to manage without the normal equipment. Worshiping the way many of our brothers and sisters do across the world. Oh, what a gift!

The sermon ended and we finished* with this song, which fit so well.

“Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom pow’r and love
Our God is an awesome God!”
- Michael W. Smith

Praise the Lord for the work He is doing in His Church! I know our local church is not the only one He is knitting together tighter. Praise Him for the stripping and re-prioritizing He has worked in us over the last year. He is strengthening His Church and drawing us closer to Himself. Hallelujah, we are here for His glory!

If you are local to Southern NH/ME, come join us!

*Edit: It was brought to my attention that we sung the above-mentioned song earlier in worship, and ended with All I Have is Christ. Both songs are excellent, and fit perfectly with our time together Sunday morning.

Legalism, Obedience & Zeal

Legalism. We cringe at the mention of it, envisioning strict rules and regulations and hidden sins. Webster’s Dictionary describes legalism as “strict, literal, or excessive conformity to the law or to a religious or moral code.” We likely all have seen legalism in action. It can dampen our desire to pursue Christ; many unbelievers even use it as an excuse to not put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It seems that there has been much emphasis on shunning legalism and fleeing from it over the last handful of years.

And perhaps in all of the shunning, we have gone too far in a different direction. Perhaps we have swung too far in trying to avoid legalism that we’ve forsaken actual obedience altogether.

Legalism and obedience are often confused and thought to be the same thing, though they’re very different. We can see legalism with the Pharisees, as they prioritized rules and works over true repentance and desire to serve God. This happens today - maybe we even do this in our own lives. We can go to Bible studies and host people in our homes and tell others what they need to do, all without any personal repentance of sins and humility before God. We can look at people who actually do live legalistically, and think, there is no way I want to be like that! and thus run away from anything that could be taken as legalism.

In contrast to legalism, obedience to God is faithfully doing what the He asks of us even if we don’t fully understand. It comes from a heart desire to follow Him in all aspects of life.

We have run too far in our move away from legalism. An general view of Christian culture today, at least in America, shows that true obedience is frowned upon.

“I just want to be a wife and mom,” says a school-aged girl.

What’s the response? Oh honey, don’t settle for that. You can have a career, too!

The woman who stays home to teach her children and manage her household? Laughed at.

The woman who refuses to gossip? She’s holier-than-thou.

The parents who bring their children to church instead of Sunday soccer games? Scoffed at.

Instead of obeying the Lord, we can cave to pressure and decide that a better use of our time in life is to adopt some of the world’s ways and mock those who take Scripture seriously.

“But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine: that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience; the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things — that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.”
Titus 2:1-5

This is an excerpt of what Scripture says for us as women.

This tells us that an obsession with wine is not obedience to the Lord. Talking down to or about our husbands is not obedience. Complaining about our children, allowing the house to be in constant chaos - this is not obedience.

The other day, my husband and I were talking about zeal and legalism. According to Webster’s, zeal is “eagerness and ardent interest in pursuit of something: fervor.” One significant difference between zeal and legalism is the fruit that each yields. Zeal comes from a deep desire for obedience, a longing to please our Savior. It yields the fruit that come from the Spirit of God: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Legalism can produce poster board cutouts of these fruits without having any substance or aroma to them. In reality, they rot and stink.

J.C. Ryle outlines zeal wonderfully:

“Zeal in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every possible way. It is a desire which no man feels by nature - which the Spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted - but which some believers feel so much more strongly than others that they alone deserve to be called ‘zealous’ men…. A zealous man in religion is pre-eminently a man of one thing. It is not enough to say that he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, fervent in spirit. He only sees one thing, he cares for one thing, he lives for one thing, he is swallowed by one thing; and that one thing is to please God. Whether he lives, or whether he dies - whether he has health, or whether he has sickness - whether whether he is rich, or whether he is poor - whether he pleases man, or whether he gives offense - whether he is thought wise, or whether he is thought foolish - whether he gets blame, or whether he gets praise - whether he gets honor, or whether he gets shame - for all this the zealous man cares nothing at all. He burns for one thing; and that one thing is to please God, and to advance God’s glory. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it - he is content. He feels that, like a lamp, he is made to burn; and if consumed in burning, he has but done the work for which God appointed him. Such a one will always find a sphere for his zeal. If he cannot preach, work, and give money, he will cry, and sigh, and pray…. If he cannot fight in the valley with Joshua, he will do the work of Moses, Aaron, and Hur, on the hill (Exodus 17:9-13). If he is cut off from working himself, he will give the Lord no rest till help is raised up from another quarter, and the work is done. This is what I mean when I speak of ‘zeal’ in religion.”
Practical Religion, 1959 ed., p. 130; Bishop J.C. Ryle

May this be an encouragement to you today. I especially hope this quoted section inspires you to be zealous for the Lord and His will; it certainly stirred me when my husband shared it. May we strive for a life of obedience, it is a joyous way to live!

Soli Deo gloria!
(Glory to God alone!)

Cheerful Givers

“But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”
2 Corinthians 9:6-8

God loves a cheerful giver, and He has given us mothers ample opportunities to practice and get good at it! When little Susie walks into the kitchen and asks for a cup of water, we have the choice - pour her a glass (or plastic ;)) and hand it to her with a smile, or begrudgingly get up while making a fuss over having to get her something again.

We can give of our time with a cheerful heart. We can use our words to cheerfully give encouragement. We can offer smiles, something that seems so rare but that can be multiplied into great reward. We can share produce from our gardens, cut flowers from our flower beds, jars of homemade tomato sauce or salsa.

Certainly throughout history, cheerful givers have been valuable to society. And I would argue that right now, they are of much importance. The need for cheerful givers is great! As I’m sure you’ve noticed, most people are looking out only for his/her own interests. It throws people off when someone offers help, or gives something with no strings attached. What a light this can be in a dark place!

What’s more, when we have a habit of giving cheerfully, our children notice and begin to do the same things. This is surely a great gift from the Lord, to see our children walking in His ways!

We are often tempted to think, There is no way I can give; I have no means. But we must re-read the passage above. “God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” God has given freely to us, and He will be sure to provide us the means to give freely to others. May we get to it!