May 2010 Devotionals

Memorial Day, May 31, 2010

A Word of Remembrance from Elizbeth Rice Handford

Today we remember with reverence and gratefulness those who have died protecting our dear country. They died for you and me; they died for our children, and their children not yet born. Most of them died, perhaps, without being given a choice. They were drafted; they did what their superiors told them to do. And that meant millions paid the ultimate price of their lives.

It wasn't until our army son was sent to the Sinai peninsula on a peace-keeping mission between Israel and Egypt that we understood the magnitude of the sacrifice so many others had made in the past for our country's freedom-not just the servicemen and women themselves had made, but the sacrifice their mothers and fathers and spouses and children made. Our son came home. Some did not. We never again would be flag-waving, noisy and giddy fire-works watchers without also remembering the sadness and loss of those who made our freedom possible.

The civil war battle of Stones River began by a spring near the little town of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (Years later my father owned that land.) The bloody battle lasted but a day. The next morning the survivors worked to bury their dead. One of them said, "Somehow the glory of war fades away when you see all the dead bodies." But that has always been the cost of liberty.

Rudyard Kipling had an only son, who served in the British army during World War I. Jack was killed in his very first day of battle. Kipling recorded his sense of loss in these words:

"Have you any news of my boy Jack?"
Not this tide.
"When d'you think that he'll come back?"
Not with this wind blowing, and this tide . . .

"Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?"
None this tide,
Nor any tide,
Except he did not shame his kind-
Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide.

May God help us to be worthy of the sacrifice others have made.

May 24, 2010

Everything Is All Right

A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Handford

These last few weeks have been full of concern for Walt and me. Two sons-in-law have been hospitalized with serious health issues. My sisters are enduring on-going physical needs. We've felt uncertainty in almost every area of our lives.

And then we are reminded of the Bible story about the prophet Elisha and a noble woman who lived in Israel in the time of the kings. She had seen the needs of the traveling prophet, and she and her husband had provided a home "on the road" for him. In gratitude, Elisha told her God would give her the son she'd so longed for.
In time, the baby was born. But when he was a toddler, he suddenly died. Without telling others, the woman laid the child up in the prophet's chamber, called a servant to bring her riding donkey, and rode as fast as she could to the home of the prophet. (The story is told in Second Kings chapter four.) When Elisha's servant saw her coming in such haste, he met her, and asked, "Is anything wrong?"

She answered,

Everything is all right

Everything all right? With her beloved child lying dead? How could everything be all right? How? Because God is good, and everything He does is good. When life is full of catastrophe, God is still good, and therefore everything is all right.

In this case, we know the end of the story. The prophet Elisha prayed, and the child revived, and was delivered to his mother's arms again.

But sometimes we don't know the end of the story. We suffer pain and loss, and things simply don't seem "all right." And that's when we must trust the God who loves us, who has the power to accomplish His plan for us, and who has the wisdom to know what really is best for us.

So in faith we say, "Yes, everything is all right."

"Thank You" and "If You Please"!

A Conversation with Elizabeth Rice Handford

I was in the hospital after ear surgery. My mother had flown from Tennessee to be with me and to help with the children. My dear friend, a nurse, was taking care of me. She bent over my bed to make me comfortable, and I said, drowsily, "Thank you."

"Libby," she said, "you don't need to thank me every time I do something for you."

I heard my mother say, with some asperity, "Yes, she does!"

As uncomfortable as I was, I couldn't help but smile. Of course Mother would want me to say "Thank you." "Nice" people were always courteous, no matter the relationship or the circumstance! Even if someone was only doing his job, you still said "please" and "thank you."

When we were children she would say,
Hearts, like doors, will open with ease
To very, very, little keys.
And don't forget that two of these
Are "thank you, sir," and "if you please."

Proverbs 31:26 says about the godly woman,
"And in her tongue is the law of kindness."

My point? Even if we have a right to ask someone to do something for us, we ought to understand how much the effort might cost her, and respect their time. So we say, "Please." And when someone has served us well, even if what they have done is within their job description, we show our gratefulness for the good job by saying "Thank you."

Of course there is no magic in the words: the magic is in our attitude of respect and gratefulness toward others.

May 10, 2010

Same Kind of Different as Me

Elizabeth Handford suggests a book for your encouragement

The two men could have hardly been more unalike. Denver was a big, angry share-cropper, who had been virtually a slave, now living on the streets of Fort Worth. He'd had been so wronged by so many people that his body and his spirit bore wounds it seemed could never heal.

Ron was a sophisticated, wealthy art connoisseur and dealer, a rancher, a Christian who thoroughly enjoyed the good things of life.

It took a woman, Ron's wife, who had a passion for lost people, to bring them together, to help them see they were the "same different" underneath in their need to experience God's grace, and extend that grace to everyone else.

Ron Hall and Denver Moore tell this remarkable story in their book, "Same Kind of Different As Me," published by Thomas Nelson. I particularly enjoyed it because it made me realize anew that when I minister to the women God brings to me, they are all so different, just as Denver and Ron were so different, different in their backgrounds, different in their physical needs, but all created in the image of God, all needing God's grace. I need to honor God by treating them with compassion, with wisdom, and with the Gospel of God's Grace always magnified.

Ephesians 2:12-17 expresses this so beautifully:

That at that time ye were without Christ . . . having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. . . . so making peace, . . . And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

The governor of Texas says about Same Kind of Different as Me, "When one person sets aside their own needs and misconceptions, then steps purposefully and prayerfully into the life of another, miracles happy. Both lives are improved, and the world gets a glimpse of real life grace."

Interested in the rest of the story? Check your local library or Christian book store. (It was on the New York Times bestseller list for many months.) See if it won't enlighten your eyes, and burden your heart, for the spiritual needs of everyone with whom you come in contact!

May 3, 2010

A Sweet Sermon the Full Moon Preached

A Word of Encouragement from Walt Handford

Early Monday morning last week I was driving west down I-85 to St. Francis Hospital to be with a friend having surgery. The full moon filled my windshield, and I was dazzled with its brilliance. It was an occasion, as an Italian love song says, "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie."

But Italian love songs were not on my mind that morning. That gorgeous full moon was a powerful encouragement to me. It was a strong reminder that God is still in full control of the whole universe. In exactly four weeks, that full moon will appear again, exactly on cue. . . . and it will continue on schedule, until the end of time, when God will make everything new. Genesis 1:14 tells us specifically that God created the moon to be for a sign and for seasons. And one of its "signs," its reason for being, is that the moon tells us God is still in His Heaven!

In a topsy-turvy world, we need to remember that we can still depend on our all-loving God to control what happens in our lives. He is in charge. He gives us security. He is eternally stable in an unstable world.

We worry about lots of things. . . unemployment . . . taxes . . . loss of personal freedom . . . loss of friends. . . illness . . .attacks on our faith in God. These can be frightening. But the God who control the universe is in control of our lives. He cares about us. He will give us help.

Psalm 76:10 says:

Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee:
the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

God can use the things that so distress us to give us joy and glory to Himself. If He cannot make something evil turn out for our good, then He will not let it happen.
That's the sweet sermon the full moon preached to me last Monday morning.