“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”  James 4:10

 

The Bad Example

Author Unknown

 

He whipped his boy for lying,

And his cheeks were flaming red,

And of course there’s no denying

There was truth in what he said –

That a liar’s always hated.

But the little fellow knew

That his father often stated

Many things that were untrue.

 

He caught the youngster cheating

And he sent him up to bed,

And it’s useless now repeating

All the bitter things he said;

He talked of honor loudly,

As a lesson to be learned,

And forgot he’d boasted proudly

Of the cunning tricks he’d turned.

 

He heard the youngster swearing

And he punished him again -0-

He’d have no boy as daring

As to utter words profane.

Yet the youngster could have told him

Poor misguided little elf,

That it seemed unfair to scold him

When he often cursed, himself.

 

All in vain is splendid preaching,

And the noble things we say,

All our talk is wasted teaching

If we do not lead the way.

We can never, by reviewing

All the sermons on the shelves,

Keep the younger hands from doing

What we often do ourselves.

-Poems for Sunshine and Shadow (Good News Broadcasting Assoc. Vol.1, c1962) p.39

 

            Have you ever wondered why a little boy becomes a bully and then grow up to be a mean, horrible adult?  Or why a sweet little girl will grow up to be a cruel, unhappy woman?  When you look at your baby for the first time, what do you see?  You see pure innocence – precious new life! 

            Sometimes when I see a mean looking adult, God helps me see the wounded child behind the face shown to me.  I wonder whatever happened to him or her.  We all have had pain and betrayal in our lives to one extent or another.  We have sinned.  We have made poor choices.  We have wounded others and, thereby, wounded ourselves.

            The beauty of our God is that He looks beyond the ugliness of our life to see the pain inside.  Then He holds His arms out wide, ready to receive us, to heal and restore our crippled life!  He is ready to pour out His love upon our wounded life!

            Have you ever considered the above verse?  “Humble yourself before God and He will lift you up?”  What actually does that mean?  To me it means coming to the end of my ability to ‘fix’ things.  Then we go to Jesus with our failures and pain and we lay our problems at His feet, and He ‘lifts us up,’ gives us joy and peace such as we’ve never before experienced.  As long as we think we can ‘fix’ things, He will allow us to try.  When we get to the end of ourselves, then He can work (if we let Him).

I LOOK NOT BACK

By Annie Johnson Flint

I look not back; God knows the fruitless efforts,

The wasted hours, the sinning, the regrets

I leave them all with Him who blots the record,

And graciously forgives, and then forgets.

 

I look not forward; God sees all the future,

The road that short or long, will lead me home.

And He will face with me its every trial,

And bear for me the burdens that may come.

 

I look not round me; then would fears assail me,

So wild the tumult of earth’s restless seas,

So dark the world, so filled with woe and evil,

So vain the hope of comfort and of ease.

 

I look not inward; that would make me wretched;

For I have naught on which to stay my trust.

Nothing I see save failures and shortcomings,

And weak endeavors, crumbling into dust.

 

But I look up – into the face of Jesus,

For there my heart can rest, my fears are stilled;

And there is joy, and love, and light for darkness,

And perfect peace, and every hope fulfilled.

           

“There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love.”  (1Jn 4:18) CJB 

 

            Part of humbling ourselves before God and being lifted up out of the depths of hurting fear is to receive God’s love.  If we are consumed by fear, we have not yet experienced God’s liberating love filling our lives and setting us free.

            Billy Graham said,

“God loves you.  You’re rebellious, you cheat, you commit immorality; you’re selfish, you sin, but God loves you with an intensity beyond anything that I could describe to you.  He loves you, and He loves you so much that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ to die on that cross; and the thing that kept Christ on that cross was love, not the nail.”

-God’s Treasury of Virtues, (Honor Books, OK, c.1995) p.28

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

                “A Sunday School teacher decided to have her young class memorize one of the most quoted passages in the Bible – Psalm 23.   She gave the youngsters a month to learn the chapter.   Little Rick was excited about the task – but he just couldn’t remember the Psalm.   After much practice, he could barely
get past the first line.    
                “On the day that the kids were scheduled to recite Psalm 23 in front of the congregation, Ricky was so nervous.  When it was his turn, he stepped up to the microphone and said proudly, ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, and that’s all I need to know.’”

-email

            When we know Jesus is our Shepherd, that’s all we need.  Let’s humble ourselves before Almighty God and let Him lift us up, cast out fear and give us joy!

“…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”  Psalms 30:5 KJV

            This wonderful story was sent to me in 2002.  Sometimes God has a beautiful method of bringing laughter and joy to us through the most difficult of trials.  Perhaps this is because our God loves us SO much and is the author of true joy.

MOM’S LAST LAUGH…

-author unknown

 

            “Consumed by my loss, I didn’t notice the hardness of the pew where I sat. I was at the funeral of my dearest friend – my mother.  She finally had lost her long battle with cancer.  The hurt was so intense; I found it hard to breathe at times.  Always supportive, Mother clapped loudest at my school plays, held a box of tissues while listening to my first heartbreak; comforted me at my father’s death, encouraged me in college, and prayed for me my entire life.

            “When Mother’s illness was diagnosed, my sister had a new baby and my brother had recently married his childhood sweetheart, so it fell on me, the 27-year-old middle child without entanglements, to take care of her.  I counted it an honor.

 “’What now, Lord?’ I asked sitting in church. My life stretched out before me as an empty abyss. My brother sat stoically with his face toward the cross while clutching his wife’s hand.  My sister sat slumped against her husband’s shoulder, his arms around her as she cradled their child.  All so deeply grieving, no one noticed I sat alone.       

            “My place had been with our mother, preparing her meals, helping her walk, taking her to the doctor, seeing to her medication, reading the Bible together.  Now she was with the Lord.  My work was finished, and I was alone.  I heard a door open and slam shut at the back of the church.  Quick footsteps hurried along the carpeted floor.  An exasperated young man looked around briefly and then sat next to me.  He folded his hands and placed them on his lap.  His eyes were brimming with tears.  He began to sniffle. ‘I’m late,’ he explained, though no explanation was necessary. 

            “After several eulogies, he leaned over and commented, ‘Why do they keep calling Mary by the name of Margaret?’

 “0h, because that was her name, Margaret. Never Mary. No one called her ‘Mary,’ I whispered. I wondered why this person couldn’t have sat on the other side of the church.  

            “He interrupted my grieving with his tears and fidgeting.  Who was this stranger anyway?  “No, that isn’t correct,” he insisted, as several people glanced over at us whispering, “Her name is Mary, Mary Peters.”

            “That isn’t who this is,” I replied.

“Isn’t this the Lutheran church?”

            “No, the Lutheran church is across the street.”

            “Oh.”

            “I believe you’re at the wrong funeral, Sir.”

            “The solemnness of the occasion mixed with the realization of the man’s mistake bubbled up inside me and came out as laughter.  I cupped my hands over my face, hoping it would be interpreted as sobs. The creaking pew gave me away.  Sharp looks from other mourners only made the situation seem more hilarious.  I peeked at the bewildered, misguided man seated beside me.  He was laughing, too, as he glanced around, deciding it was too late for an uneventful exit.  I imagined Mother laughing.  At the final “Amen,” we darted out a door and into the parking lot.

            “I do believe we’ll be the talk of the town,” he smiled. He said his name was Rick and since he had missed his aunt’s funeral, asked me out for a cup of coffee. That afternoon began a lifelong journey for me with this man who attended the wrong funeral, but was in the right place.

            “A year after our meeting, we were married at a country church where he was the assistant pastor. This time we both arrived at the same church, right on time.

            “In my time of sorrow, God gave me laughter.  In place of loneliness, God gave me love.  This past June we celebrated our twenty-second wedding anniversary.  Whenever anyone asks us how we met, Rick tells them, “Her mother and my Aunt Mary introduced us, and it’s truly a match made in heaven.”

-end quote

            Sometimes our sorrow and grief can grip us so hard that we cannot believe that we will ever feel joy again.  But God promises to be with us through our hardship and heal us of our pain.  Then He promises to give us joy no matter how impossible it might seem during the trial.

            Our Lord experienced unbelievable sorrow!  Isaiah said He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  The bible says that there is no trial or hardship that He cannot understand.  We have a God who truly enters into our feelings and helps us through them if we will let Him!  I think the most incredible thing is the joy He brings us as we place our hand in His and allow Him to lead us through our trials.

            I may have told you how that one time as a young mother I was overcome with sorrow and weeping as I did dishes. I apologized to the Lord for my tears because I couldn’t help them but I told Him I was choosing to praise Him.  I praised Him with tears running down my cheeks and sorrow in my heart.  About five minutes later I discovered that I was singing praise songs with joy in my heart.  The circumstances hadn’t changes but the burden was lifted.  God is awesome and His joy is ours if we will accept it!

“Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that

 we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”  Psalm 90:14

“…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”  Psalms 30:5 KJV

            This wonderful story was sent to me in 2002.  Sometimes God has a beautiful method of bringing laughter and joy to us through the most difficult of trials.  Perhaps this is because our God loves us SO much and is the author of true joy.

MOM’S LAST LAUGH…

-author unknown

 

            “Consumed by my loss, I didn’t notice the hardness of the pew where I sat. I was at the funeral of my dearest friend – my mother.  She finally had lost her long battle with cancer.  The hurt was so intense; I found it hard to breathe at times.  Always supportive, Mother clapped loudest at my school plays, held a box of tissues while listening to my first heartbreak; comforted me at my father’s death, encouraged me in college, and prayed for me my entire life.

            “When Mother’s illness was diagnosed, my sister had a new baby and my brother had recently married his childhood sweetheart, so it fell on me, the 27-year-old middle child without entanglements, to take care of her.  I counted it an honor.

 “’What now, Lord?’ I asked sitting in church. My life stretched out before me as an empty abyss. My brother sat stoically with his face toward the cross while clutching his wife’s hand.  My sister sat slumped against her husband’s shoulder, his arms around her as she cradled their child.  All so deeply grieving, no one noticed I sat alone.       

            “My place had been with our mother, preparing her meals, helping her walk, taking her to the doctor, seeing to her medication, reading the Bible together.  Now she was with the Lord.  My work was finished, and I was alone.  I heard a door open and slam shut at the back of the church.  Quick footsteps hurried along the carpeted floor.  An exasperated young man looked around briefly and then sat next to me.  He folded his hands and placed them on his lap.  His eyes were brimming with tears.  He began to sniffle. ‘I’m late,’ he explained, though no explanation was necessary. 

            “After several eulogies, he leaned over and commented, ‘Why do they keep calling Mary by the name of Margaret?’

 “0h, because that was her name, Margaret. Never Mary. No one called her ‘Mary,’ I whispered. I wondered why this person couldn’t have sat on the other side of the church.  

            “He interrupted my grieving with his tears and fidgeting.  Who was this stranger anyway?  “No, that isn’t correct,” he insisted, as several people glanced over at us whispering, “Her name is Mary, Mary Peters.”

            “That isn’t who this is,” I replied.

“Isn’t this the Lutheran church?”

            “No, the Lutheran church is across the street.”

            “Oh.”

            “I believe you’re at the wrong funeral, Sir.”

            “The solemnness of the occasion mixed with the realization of the man’s mistake bubbled up inside me and came out as laughter.  I cupped my hands over my face, hoping it would be interpreted as sobs. The creaking pew gave me away.  Sharp looks from other mourners only made the situation seem more hilarious.  I peeked at the bewildered, misguided man seated beside me.  He was laughing, too, as he glanced around, deciding it was too late for an uneventful exit.  I imagined Mother laughing.  At the final “Amen,” we darted out a door and into the parking lot.

            “I do believe we’ll be the talk of the town,” he smiled. He said his name was Rick and since he had missed his aunt’s funeral, asked me out for a cup of coffee. That afternoon began a lifelong journey for me with this man who attended the wrong funeral, but was in the right place.

            “A year after our meeting, we were married at a country church where he was the assistant pastor. This time we both arrived at the same church, right on time.

            “In my time of sorrow, God gave me laughter.  In place of loneliness, God gave me love.  This past June we celebrated our twenty-second wedding anniversary.  Whenever anyone asks us how we met, Rick tells them, “Her mother and my Aunt Mary introduced us, and it’s truly a match made in heaven.”

-end quote

            Sometimes our sorrow and grief can grip us so hard that we cannot believe that we will ever feel joy again.  But God promises to be with us through our hardship and heal us of our pain.  Then He promises to give us joy no matter how impossible it might seem during the trial.

            Our Lord experienced unbelievable sorrow!  Isaiah said He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  The bible says that there is no trial or hardship that He cannot understand.  We have a God who truly enters into our feelings and helps us through them if we will let Him!  I think the most incredible thing is the joy He brings us as we place our hand in His and allow Him to lead us through our trials.

            I may have told you how that one time as a young mother I was overcome with sorrow and weeping as I did dishes. I apologized to the Lord for my tears because I couldn’t help them but I told Him I was choosing to praise Him.  I praised Him with tears running down my cheeks and sorrow in my heart.  About five minutes later I discovered that I was singing praise songs with joy in my heart.  The circumstances hadn’t changes but the burden was lifted.  God is awesome and His joy is ours if we will accept it!

“Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that

 we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”  Psalm 90:14

            Since Charlie Grier was such a favorite of so many people, I thought it would be appropriate to have one of his articles.  Here are some precious thoughts for all of us this special holiday! 

 

VALENTINE’S DAY CAN BE WHOLESOME AND MEANINGFUL

By Charlie Grier

 

            Valentine’s Day is said to have been instituted in memory of two separate men with the name Valentine. They lived in two different countries and were not related, or even acquainted. Both were martyred by the Romans because of their Christian faith, and both men were remembered by the love that characterized their lives. 

            When the final history books are written, my friends, will you and I be remembered for our words and deeds of love?  Will people demonstrate love in memory of US?

 

Our Family Heirloom

            One of our family’s choicest heirlooms is the picture of little children, dressed as children were dressed a century ago, hanging May Baskets on their neighbor’s door. That quaint old picture was painted by my Uncle, shortly before I was born. It has been loved by all members of our family and is now in California in the hands of my grandson Mark Manley, who is a professional Artist. 

True Love Comes From God

            I have not been privileged to attend a recent Valentine Party, such as we were accustomed to when, I went to school, so I asked Marvine how she remembered the day when she was growing up. She told me they always had a fun party in school, where they all exchanged Valentines and had an enjoyable time.

She also remembered that I tried to find the most sentimental Card I could find for Dora, but she failed to mention the Cards Dora bought for me!  They were meaningful and personal (I still have them tucked away where I can find them— one of my most valuable treasures). I hunt them up from time to time, because they bring back precious memories. Neither of us could afford expensive gifts, but those Cards expressed more to me, than any gift possibly could.   

 

          True Love Will Ever Be Remembered

 

            “Two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: ‘TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE.’

            “They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who got slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved his life.

            “After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: ‘TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE.’

            “The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, ‘after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone, why?’

            “The other friend replied: ‘When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it.’”  End quote

            Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your benefits in stone. They say:

It takes a minute to find a special friend,

An hour to appreciate him,

A day to love him,

And an entire lifetime to forget him.

 

“Be My Valentine”

            To say those word means “I love you, and I want you to love me too,” may not need to be romantic words.  They can be exchanged between friends of all ages.  They can be the start of a romance or the fruitful result of a long wedded life.

            One of the Love-songs of my boyhood days contains this stanza:      

School days! School days!

Good old Golden Rule days!

Reading, and writing, and ‘rithmatic,

Taught by the tune of a hickory stick.

You were my queen in calico.

I was your bashful, barefoot beau.

You wrote on my slate:

“I love you Joe!”

When we were a couple of kids!

 

            Some teen-age infatuation is short-lived, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Lasting love has to be genuine.  Marital love should grow with the years.  Dora and I were married 54 years and our love for each other was greater at the end of that time than it was on our Wedding Day. I couldn’t begin to appreciate Dora the day I married her. I loved her but I did not know what a jewel God had given me!  For instance, I did not marry her for her beauty. She wore old fashioned clothes and used no cosmetics. After she “Fixed herself up,” I considered her the most beautiful girl in the world. Before we were married she sang gospel songs on the street, and I admired her courage. Later she got a big accordion, and then people drove miles to hear her sing. She never wanted to preach, but when I experienced a massive heart attack, Dora took over and during those three months did a better than I could have done.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

            I especially hope every little boy and girl has a happy Valentine’s Day.  I would further suggest that every married man and woman surprise your mate with a Valentine and tell them how much you love them.  Love expressed and demonstrated does wonders!

-by Charlie Grier Western Itasca Review, February 10, 2005.

 

            I have been more blessed than most people in that I have grown up in a family of great faith.  My father, Charlie Grier, set a beautiful example my entire of life in simply believing that God is certainly able to do what He promises.  In spite of this, there are many times that my faith has wavered.  I knew what the bible said but had trouble believing always that a miracle would occur when all circumstances screamed ‘impossible!’  This year I have been challenged to simply ‘believe God.’  I was impressed with the following article from The Bible Friend.

HE CAN

“He…hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Job 26:7

            “In looking to God for deliverance of any kind, we are prone to try to discover what material He has on hand to work on in coming to our relief.  If we are praying for financial help, we are apt to look over the community to see if we can think of any one whom the Lord might influence to lend us some money.  If there are no apparent probabilities in that direction, we find it difficult to believe for hard cash.

            “If it is employment we need in order to insure the continuance of our bread and butter, we make diligent inquiries in the industrial centers, and if we find that the shops, stores and factories are more than full handed, it is pretty hard work to be hopeful that we are going to get work.

            “If we are ill and our physician is at a loss to know what next to try in order to alleviate us, it is not at all easy to convince ourselves that we are going speedily to recover.

            “It is so human to look and crave for something in sight that will help the Lord out.  In time of need, if we can only find a little something for God to begin on, we seem so much better satisfied.  To need a sum of money and not be able to think of a friend a man or a monied institution from which it might be obtained, gives a dark background to the scene.

            “To need work, and to find that throngs of others as needy as yourself are also idle, makes the human outlook very dark.  To be in bed day after day, feeling no better, but rather worse, doctor’s bill increasing, business suffering and patience giving out, make a situation in which relief does not seem very probable.  The trouble is, there does not appear to be a single human prospect to begin on.  The outlook is all liabilities with no resources to help out.

            “Now, to God’s child, what is the real situation?  Is there nothing but liabilities?  Much every way.  Are there no resources?  Yea, thousands, millions, billions, trillions!  Where are they?  Above you, below you, around you.  Earth and air are full of wealth untold.  You can’t see it, eh?  You don’t need to see it.  Keep your eye on him.

            “Just think a moment.  It is not at all necessary for you to see any help in sight, nor is it really necessary for God to have any relief on hand.  He does not need anything to begin on.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  What did He make them out of?  Nothing, absolutely nothing.  When the earth was made what did He hang it on?  Nothing.  Pretty satisfactory earth to be made of nothing, eh?  Remember, not a scrap of anything was used to make it.  “He…hangeth the earth upon nothing.”

            “It hangs all right, doesn’t it?  Very well, then.  A God who can make an earth, a sun, a moon and stars out of nothing, can supply all your needs, whether He has anything to work with or not.  Wonderful, isn’t it?

            “Trust Him and He will see you though.”

-Gospel Tract Society, Inc.  The Bible Friend, Jan-Feb 2010, p.1

 

            When we feel circumstances crowding us, we need to look at people like Fanny Crosby.  What a beautiful lady!  This little blind girl wrote the following poem at 8 years of age!

BLIND BUT HAPPY

By Fanny Crosby

 

O what a happy soul I am!

Although I cannot see.

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

 

How many blessings I enjoy

That other people don’t!

To weep and sigh because I’m blind

I cannot, and I won’t.

 

Ibid p.4

            How do we go from doubts to joy?   Stella Adams suggests a beautiful method in the following poem.

 

THE ART OF PRAISE

By Stella Adams

 

Too often we are weary

With all our trials and strife

But, praising our dear Savior

Will bless and gladden our life.

 

Like sunshine drives out darkness

So praise can scatter doubt

Just keep on praising Jesus

Rejoice, sing out and shout.

 

Praise is the cure of grumbling

God dwells in the courts of praise

Praise is the tune of angels

Let it brighten all your days.

 

Yes, praise will bring you blessings

Will make your heart revive

Will lift your heavy burden

And cause your soul to thrive.

 

A praising man is easy

To live with every day

Then, let us practice praising

To drive the clouds away.

 

This world is fully of sorrow

And happy men are few

So learn the art of praising

In everything you do.

 

When your days are trying

And when your spirit is glum

Just keep on praising Jesus

And Satan will succumb.

 

The devil can’t stand praises

He hates a thankful heart

Praise will bring deliverance

Let’s master this great art.

Ibid p. 4