The child is ill. Still picking at his food, although whatever goes down stays down, which is improvement. He has moments of normal temp and then moments of a bit of fever.
However.
Had he not been at home with an adult to supervise him, we would not have discovered a big discovery:
Today the air conditioner decided to drip onto the kitchen floor, through the kitchen ceiling.
It was timely.
Yes.
I’ve told him he saved the day, just by being sick.
He is feeling better about missing out on all the excitement.
And it all works together when Someone big enough has the reins.
In January of 2008, the Jugendamt (Germany’s youth welfare office) and police officials surrounded the Gorber family’s Uberlingen home in a surprise raid. Mr. Gorber was away from home at the time of the raid, visiting his wife at a local hospital where she had been admitted, due to complications from her pregnancy with their ninth child. Despite the children’s repeated protests, all but the oldest son, age 21, and a daughter, age 20, were taken into custody by the authorities.
The siblings reported that the 7-year-old was gripped around the waist by a youth home music teacher, dragged kicking and screaming across the courtyard, and thrown into a van. The terrified 3-year-old clung to his 20-year-old sister so tightly that even the police and Jugendamt official could not separate them. Both had to be taken to the youth home, where at last the little fellow’s strength gave out and he was taken into custody. [ . . . ]
[ . . . ] This is especially out of the ordinary when nearly all other western European democracies allow for homeschooling by either constitution, law, or practice. Even formerly communist eastern European countries are loosening up their laws and regulations to allow homeschoolers freedom. Far from escaping the rigidly uniformitarian ideas about society that prevailed in Hitler’s Germany, today’s authorities seem to be perpetuating it through their treatment of German homeschoolers. [ . . . ]
“But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’” Mark 16:7
Galilee – Israël (Photo credit: Emmanuel Dyan)
Gone to Galilee? But He just died Friday! We saw Him die on the cross. We watched them bury Him.
Gone to Galilee?
Why Galilee, an out-of-the way sort of place, about 60 miles (over a day’s walk) north of the gravesite?
It’s where Jesus grew up and ministered, but that’s about it. He had always been preparing to leave Galilee, to go Jerusalem, the Capital, where all the powerful and influential world-changers were.
Since they just crucified Him, if He truly was risen from the dead, seems He’d march straight to the palace or the temple and SHOW them He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Messiah of God Almighty!
Galilee? Nobody there but His followers.
Us.
He Came back to show Himself to us.
To the very same ragtag group of people who denied Him, misunderstood Him, forsook Him, and fled, He returned; to deserters.
Especially mentioned by name, to Peter, who had denied even knowing Him, He returned.
He came back for us as well. He has a message, is calling us, to travel to our “Galilee” to go back to the place where we fellowshiped with Jesus and to begin again. To follow Him all over again.
He will meet us there. In fact, He has gone on ahead and is already there.
The Disciples did not witness Him rising from the dead. They were gone. Out of it.
It is incredible enough to think that He could just decide to rise again, and to return to anyone. But he came back for us, to those who did believe and needed to know that He is alive, needed to believe again, and more.
The proof of the Resurrection is not the absence of Jesus’ body from the tomb. No, it is the presence of Jesus with His followers. The greatest promise of the Resurrection is not that we shall live forever, although that is great, indeed. No, the greatest message is that though we are still sinners, weak, and faithless like the Disciples, Jesus returned to US.
The Bible is not a book telling mostly how men kept seeking God. It is a record of how God keeps seeking US, despite our lack of faith.
And why?
The risen Christ has come back to change us from doubters to ambassadors. Jesus came back to us because He loves us.
I look back over my life at all the mistakes I’ve made, all the times I’ve failed, gone my own way, strayed, and each time, He came for me. He found a way to get to me even when I tried not to be found.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. I Corinthians 15:3-8
Here, Paul is writing to the poor struggling Corinthians, who were failing badly at being the Church. To those backsliding, sinful, divisive, faithless Christians, Paul preaches the Resurrection. He reminds them, and us, that the risen Christ chooses to return, to strengthen Christians.
How will we respond?
Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. John 14:1-4
I know people might read the title of this post and think I’ve decided to take a break from my usual hope-centered posts, but I haven’t; this post is also about hope.
A few years ago I was watching a show about ancient Rome on the History Channel. One of the most fascinating segments was on the incredible highway system the Romans had built throughout their empire. These Roman Roads were built to exact specifications to handle cart and foot traffic. This intricate network of roads facilitated trade and commerce as well as making it much easier for people to travel.
We saw early Christians respond with courage to severe persecution.
We saw miracles were normal for the early church.
We might say such strong faith is something we long to see in our church.
But do we really?
We sing, “Revive us again,” and “Mercy drops round us are falling, but for the showers we plead.”
But do we really desire and plead for the presence and power of God to revive us?
I wonder if we are content with the “mercy drops”.
Maybe really we are satisfied to have the Lord simply break through, every now and then, to do a mighty thing or two among us, but we really aren’t serious when it comes to wanting to see the full power and presence of His Holy Spirit.
Now some say we are living in a different dispensation and that the age of miracles is over — that was for a specific time and place to authenticate the message of the apostles, but we no longer need that today.
English: Sunrise on Mt. Sinai in Egypt (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Really!!
The church doesn’t need the power and presence of Holy Spirit today?
Miracles are happening in mission fields where people have never heard of Jesus, why not here?
Is not “Jesus Christ […] the same yesterday and today and forever” as it states in Hebrews 13:8?
I’m afraid we have become comfortable and accustomed to the absence of God’s Presence in our meetings.
In reality, maybe the Presence of God scares us, just as it scared the Israelites at Mt. Sinai, and as a result, we don’t experience the miracles of God.
And our faith is dying.
When God sends forth the Holy Spirit, amazing things happen:
I suffered from going into the past to worry about a future that never came about.
However, I did stop worrying about the past-future-what-ifs and I’d like to share with you how to do it, in case you find yourself needing to know.
1. Stop imagining.
My kids tell a joke, disguised as a riddle, which begins: Imagine you are in a car rolling backward down a hill toward a lake. The troubles and frustrations described in the joke continue to the point of desperation. There is seemingly no way to survive being drowned in that lake when the question comes: What should you do? Once the victim of this joke tries every possible solution to this seeming riddle and then gives up, the joker gives the answer: STOP IMAGINING! At that point it is very funny.
If you tell it right, the relief in the air is almost palpable at that moment, because the listener latches on to the story because we all have imaginings like this from time to time.
You may have imagined worries, but you can have that palpable relief, too.
In real life.
Imagination is a wonderful tool, in its place—but stop imagining.
2. Take every thought captive and make it obey the truth.
Realize there is something or someone trying to take away your sanity and you need to fight to get it back. Tell yourself the truth, aloud, if needed.
Ah, but what is truth? How can anyone ever possibly know what might have happened?
Don’t go there!
Take that thought captive!
Here is the truth: You are not in control. You do your best with what you are in control of, and then other forces are in control of all the rest. You try hard to be in the right place, doing the right thing, at the right time, and then, you let go.
The truth is that God is in control and you are not God. He rules the world. He determines. Not you. Not me. Not any malfunctioning gearbox, not any tornado, not any burglar, not any hormone, not any doctor, not any police.
God.
We read the stories all the time of those who escaped harm while doing the wrong thing. People hide from tornados in flimsy shelters and the whole building blows away except for the flimsy shelter. We read, also, of a tornado that swoops out of nowhere to pick up only one person and passes on to do no more damage. Burglars flee when someone rolls over in bed; other burglars take everything. Careless women have healthy babies; careful women deliver stillborn babies. And on it goes.
The truth is partly in the timing. When God determines it is time, then it is time. We all want to escape all danger, harm, shame, etc., but after doing all we can do, then the ball is in God’s court, and when it comes to THAT ballgame, God wins.
Of course, the fatalist will say, “Then why try?”
We must try hard to stay alive and to keep others alive, if at all possible, because life is a precious gift from God and we are to use it to His glory. We are not to become fatalistic or desponding, but to trust Him to make the best possible outcome from our entire life. We are to cooperate with Him, but not to worry about if He knows what on earth He is doing.
True freedom from worry over past-future-what-ifs came for me — and I hope, for you — with these thoughts:
My baby did not die that day. (It took me a while to get that part.)
Therefore, it was not God’s will for my baby to die that day.
Therefore, it was impossible that he could have died that day.
There could have been NO what-ifs that could have changed that. Since then I have even met a family whose son was run over, with no lasting harm coming to him. It’s all about Who is in control.
And it’s not about you or me.
The glorious liberty that comes from the truth, can set us free from all fear of death and all guilt.
We should do our best and trust God. He can and will take care of the what-ifs.
Home's Cool! 