September 2011 Devotionals
September 25, 2011
Grace Relieved My Fears
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
I lost my dear cousin Jean and her husband Charles in the Oklahoma City bombing, and will always grieve that loss. When Walt and I were flying out there three weeks later for the memorial service, one of my cousins said to me, "Ronnie, Jean's son-in-law, is not a believer." How I wanted to comfort Ronnie in his terrible loss! So when we got there, I asked him, "Ronnie, has anyone ever shown you how much God loves you and wants you to be with Him forever?"
He answered, with tears in his eyes, "Aunt Libby, I've bought every single translation of the Bible, trying to find out how to be a good Christian. I think maybe I am, but then I let out a cuss word at work, and then I know I couldn't be a Christian."
"Oh, dear Ronnie, that's not what makes you a Christian! Jesus has already paid for your sins. All you have to do is take His gift of salvation. Jean's pastor-the man who led the memorial service-teaches that so well. Have you ever heard him?"
"I went there once," he answered, "but I didn't feel guilty when I came away, so I was afraid it was a modernist church."
Dear Ronnie! He thought that in his relationship with Jesus, he ought to feel very guilty all the time. But that's not what Jesus intends.
Remember the song, "Amazing Grace"? Here's the second verse:
It was grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
How precious God's grace is! God's grace shows us we are unworthy for Heaven. His grace reveals our need for forgiveness. But it's His grace, too, that offers mercy and forgiveness, and fellowship with Him forever.
Ronnie couldn't make himself good enough for Heaven by stopping his swearing. Nor can you and I earn Heaven by stopping our faults, whatever they are. Jesus made Ronnie good enough for Heaven by trading places with him, by dying in his place on the cross, and giving him His righteousness. And so Ronnie's fears and guilt were changed into gratefulness and joy, because all his sins-including the cussing!-were taken care of on the cross. It's no wonder we love to sing "Amazing Grace"!
September 19, 2011
Pre-Chewed Worms? I Don't Think So!
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
One spring when Walt was trimming the red-tips in our back yard, he was dismayed to find he'd cut a branch holding a cunning little nest of three baby cardinals. The children quickly clustered around him, awed by the birds' tiny gaping mouths, their insistent chirpings, their little featherless bodies.
I said, "Let's don't touch them. Maybe the mother bird will come back and feed them."
"Oh, she won't, Mother," the children chorused, "not since people have been around them. We'll have to feed them ourselves."
"Kids, I'm sorry, but I've tried to save baby birds before, and I'm just no good at it."
"We can do it, Mother," nine-year-old Ruthie pleaded. "I know exactly what to do. I'll go dig up some worms," - she hesitated as she saw what the next step had to be, so she continued hurriedly, "- and then you chew them up, and we can feed them!"
Well, the sad end of the story is that I didn't chew up the worms to feed the little birdies, and they didn't thrive on the gruel I made of cream of wheat, and so the next day we had a funeral in the back yard.
There is a moral to this story. Just hang on!
Once Walt and I introduced a woman named Catherine to Jesus. She was so thrilled at the Gospel story, so hungry to learn all about the Christian life, that she devoured the Scriptures. About ten o'clock nearly every morning I would hear a timid knocking at the front door. It would be Catherine, with her Bible tucked under her arm.
"Libby, this is what I read this morning, and I don't understand what it means. Will you tell me, please?"
We'd sit down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, and we would read the Scripture together. I'd ask her to read it slowly, and think about what each sentence said. As she read it, she'd say, "Oh, yes, I see what it means. Thanks!"
This went on for several weeks. But one morning she knocked, and said, "Libby, I came to tell you I don't need you anymore."
"No?"
"This morning when I read, I could understand it all by myself! You don't have to explain it to me every morning."
No more pre-chewed worms! No more spoon-feeding of the Scripture! Catherine could be taught by the Holy Spirit as she read her Bible carefully. She could know what God wanted her to do if she read slowly and carefully, and asked God for understanding!
God gave us the Bible to communicate with us. If we are willing to do what He tells us, the Gospel of John 7:17 says, we can understand it. What a delight it is to know that God won't leave us in the dark. He has told us all about Himself in the Scriptures. As we read His Word, we can hear His voice plainly. We can learn exactly what is on His great heart of love, from His own Book.
September 12, 2011
Our Only Refuge: Almighty God
A Word of Encouragement Elizabeth Rice Handford
As I've grieved over the trauma of 9-11-01, God brought this incident to my mind.
Once, when the children were very small, Walt was away from home for two weeks on a "preaching mission." A couple of weeks before he left, a brutal murder had been committed two blocks from our home, and it was yet unsolved. It was evening, and I was reading a bed-time story to the children. Suddenly, though I had heard no noise to cause it, our beagle jumped up and started howling. She was trembling so much that her voice quavered.
"What's wrong, Ranger? What are you afraid of?"
She only howled louder.
My heart started pounding. We lived on the edge of town, with no near neighbor. The doors were locked, but I didn't feel very secure. Should I try to get the children out of the house, in the night, in their pajamas? Where could I take them? How could I protect them all? The twins were not yet walking, Margie was two, Paul four, Ruth six, and John and Debbie eight. I couldn't even get them all to the car without several trips, and that would mean leaving the rest of them unprotected even by my small strength.
God seemed to speak right to my heart. "I'm here, Libby. I am fully qualified to take care of every one of those dear children. I love them more than you do. Are you going to trust me, or are you going to spend the rest of your life in fear?"
Well, yes, but what if real danger lurked outside?
I think God smiled down at me. "You are always safe in my hands, whatever the danger. If I let something bad happen, it's because I'm going to do something wonderful through it. Are you going to trust Me, or are you going to spend the rest of your life in fear?"
Well, really, I have no other choice, do I?
So I began the journey of learning to trust God, rather than living in constant fear of the unknown. . . .
. . . Not that I've always mastered my fears. But here's the Scripture God often uses to quiet my heart:
From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee,
When my heart is overwhelmed.
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For thou hast been a shelter for me,
And a strong tower from the enemy.
I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever:
I will trust in the covert of thy wings.
Psalm 62:2-4
What a wonderful comfort that Scripture is when we think about the trauma of 9-11-01!
September 5, 2011
Anchored inside the Harbor
A Word of Encouragement from Elizabeth Rice Handford
Walt had always wanted to own a sailboat, growing up on Puget Sound. But it wasn't until he was nearly 60 years old that he finally could satisfy that yearning.
He bought a lovely 14-foot Sea Lark, with sleek lines (built for racing, though we didn't know it). We launched it on Lake Hartwell. I counted the trees as they crept by and estimated we were sailing a trifling 3-knots. A friend suggested we take it to Lake Jocassee where the winds were likely to be stronger.
We merrily drove up to Lake Jocassee and launched our sail boat. Walt had hoisted the mainsail, and was putting up the jib sail when the winds blew so strong, we were blown out to the middle of the lake, and leaning perilously over in the wind. Walt yelled, "Libby, turn us into the wind!" Now if your second mate is a land-lubber, and the rudder has a couple of angles to it, the likelihood of her knowing how to turn "into the wind" is slim.
So slim, in fact, we found ourselves floating in our life jackets far from shore beside a boat turned upside down, the sails still fluttering eerily beneath us. The lunch basket and my Agatha Christie paperback floated gently away across the water. The shore looked terribly far away.
Eventually a man in a motorboat saw our distress. He good-naturedly put a rope through a cleat on the sailboat, and hauled us safely back to shore. That rope, connected to the power boat, became my assurance we were going to be all right.
The other day I was needing comfort about some troubles in life, and found a sweet assurance in the Bible in Hebrews 6:17-20. It may be a comfort to you, too. This Scripture portrays a ship outside a harbor, unable to dock because of the night. But a little boat has taken the ship's anchor inside the harbor and it is securely fastened to bedrock. The ship is safe outside the harbor because its anchor is grounded in the harbor. It will safely sail into harbor in the morning. This Scripture tells us we can take courage because Jesus is our anchor, and He has entered the harbor of safety ahead of us. He will keep us safe until He can bring us into Heaven.
We might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus,
How can we be sure this is true? The verses just before tell us why:
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie.
We could eventually laugh about our sailing mishap, and enjoy the idea of being hauled back to shore not with the wind, but with a rope. But in the fun of the story, don't miss the profound truth that God has promised us Heaven and everlasting joy because of His grace. We can count on Him to keep His promises, because He has never, ever lied! When you trust Jesus as your Savior, you are safe forever.