Category: Faith

Your Story, My Story, His Story

Posted on by Dorci

“Therefore we also,
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him
endured the cross,
despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2

I love books. While I haven’t taken nearly as much time lately to read as I’d like, I have been living out the chapters of my own book. 

We all are. 

Just like the countless stories we read in the Bible, we each have our own story. Some are more dramatic, some tragic, some adventurous, some joyful, and thankfully, all with a little comedic relief. 

All our stories look different, but all have one Author and one Finisher: Jesus. 

Long before we were born He knew the story that would be written with our lives. He knew how each chapter would unfold and what would need to take place to propel the story forward, to complete our faith, until our story was finished, our faith perfected. 

Sometimes we don’t understand what’s going on.

Why is this happening in my life, and why is it happening now? 

And sometimes we can start looking at other people’s stories, comparing ours with theirs, wishing our story had a chapter or two out of their book. 

But our God is a personal God, and our story is unique. Our Author takes into account its characters and how and what they need in order to develop, bit by bit, until fully grown. 

So while our story may be at times full of pain and questions, we never walk through it alone. Our Author walks with us. 

The choice we have is whether or not to walk with Him. To accept the story He’s given us, and even receive it with thanksgiving, knowing that He’s using it all, the good, the bad, and the ugly, to change us, grow us, and mature us until our faith is complete. 

And somehow, someway, He is making all our stories work together into one grand narrative that ultimately tell one story, His story. A story of grace and mercy, love and beauty. A story of redemption, faith, forgiveness, strength, and hope. 

A story of the gospel, lived out in our very own lives.

One day we’ll see that more fully than we ever can now. Because when the book closes on the story of our lives here, the exciting sequel begins, the likes of which the world has never seen. 

So let’s rejoice that we play a part in the grandest of stories, and that our Author and Finisher is with us and loves us to the end.

In Him,

Where Was God?

Posted on by Dorci

That’s the question on a lot of minds on a day like today.

And I understand that question. There are many events in my own life I’ve wondered where God was.

It was a day none of us will forget for so many reasons. The day quickly became dark and tragic, but there were also more acts of heroism that day, of light in the darkness, than we will ever fully know.

Like 24-year-old Welles Crowther who called his mother from the South Tower to let her know he was okay, and then began to lead others to safety, carrying an injured woman on his back down 15 floors and then returning to help more.

And Rick Rescorla who, as a head of security in the South Tower, ignored orders to keep employees at their desks, saving 2700 people.  

And Army Specialist Beau Doboszenski who was working as a tour guide on the other side of the Pentagon. Upon hearing the chaos, he ran to the crash site and spent the next several hours helping co-workers and running into the flames to help bring people out.

These acts of heroism are amazing enough, but looking at their backstories, we can see just a little bit of the hand of God orchestrating the saving of so many lives.

Like the fact that Welles Crowther had been a volunteer firefighter in his teens and was well prepared to confidently lead. Even the fact that somehow that day he had been wearing a red bandana that was able to keep him from breathing in too much smoke as he saved at least 12 people.  His body was found in a stairwell headed back up with the jaws of life.

And like the fact that Rick Rescorla had served in Vietnam, with distinction, and had the wisdom to lead his people to safety. And for years he had the forethought to have the employees practice fire drills. Because of that, more than 2700 people made it down the tower to safety in 16 minutes. Rick Rescorla’s body was never found.

And like the fact that Beau Doboszenski was a former firefighter and a trained EMT.

Too many lives were lost that day. The enemy of all that is good and right and holy was there to cause death and destruction and what he’d love to leave in his evil wake is a doubt and mistrust that God was there or that He even exists.

But God is the one who prepared people years in advance with special training and placed them where they needed to be when they needed to be there.

God is the Giver of strength, courage, wisdom, and perseverance.

God is the one who instills in people His love, the greater love that lays down his life for others.

We’ll never fully understand the whys this side of heaven, about that fateful day, or about tragic days in our own personal lives.

But God knows.

Years later we can catch a small glimpse into the behind-the-scenes stories of that day, shining a light on some of the good, among countless other similar sacrificial stories that took place among the evil and about how God was there in their midst. 

God sees the full picture. And we can trust He was there that day giving strength to heroes just as He’s with us every day, including our worst days, filling us with His strength, courage, and hope.

And someday maybe God will show us all the behind-the-scenes stories of those awful days in our own lives and how He was right there with us in the midst of it all. 

 

“For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” 1 Cor. 13:12b


Heavenly Father, thank you for never leaving us or forsaking us. Thank you for preparing a home for us and giving us the hope of being with you someday, when you will have struck down evil for the last time, and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.  Thank you for the incredible bravery of so many men and women on that day, for giving what we know was even beyond their own strength . We pray for those who lost loved ones that day. We ask that you would be especially near to them today, and that you would comfort them with your peace that passes all understanding. We know that you will prevail, that you’ve already conquered evil at the cross, and we pray for many more souls to come to know Christ as their own Lord and Savior, even today. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

Let’s Make Like a Tree…

Posted on by Dorci

I love trees, and today in the U.S. it’s Arbor Day, a day marked for celebration of trees (traditionally by planting a tree) and all the good they do for the environment around them. 

God uses trees throughout His Word, beginning and ending with the Tree of Life, and many other references throughout.

Today, though, I thought about how God tells us, in the Psalms and in Jeremiah, how we can be like a tree, sustained and fruitful even in hard times. 

Jeremiah records God’s word to His people:

“This is what the Lord says:

‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man,
who draws strength from mere flesh
and whose heart turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bush in the wastelands;
they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.’”
Jeremiah 17:5-8

At one point in history, God’s people demanded Samuel appoint them a king instead of looking to God as their King. The first king they put their trust in was Saul, and we know how that ended.  And for hundreds of years God’s people put their trust in, and were ruled by kings.

Even today, a lot of people (sometimes even God’s people) are trusting in men and women in office to fix things, to make bad situations good, to make wrong situations right.  And there seems to be no shortage of people willing to promise to do those things. 

But that never ends as well as we’d like because people are just people, and the world’s system is not God’s. Let the world have the world.

We have God, a Savior, a Lord, who can do much more – He can make our hearts right.

Jesus tells us “’Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’ By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive.” John 7:37-39

So, we might not be able to plant a tree today, but let’s be a tree and leave the world’s ways (sorry, I couldn’t help it!).

Let’s plant ourselves by the living water by putting our faith in Christ and Him alone and receive from Him rivers of living water, the Holy Spirit, continually moving through us, nourishing us, sustaining us, and producing in us fruit and all kinds of good things to benefit us and those around us, no matter the circumstances, with no end to its abundance.

Thankful Thursday – Pie

Posted on by Dorci

Isolation can give us a lot of time to think, and sometimes there’s nothing more dangerous than being inside our own heads.

We can start looking around, comparing our situation, our lives, to others and feel like we’re coming up short. Our piece of the pie seems like a sliver, and other’s a whopping piece with ice cream, or whipped cream, or both, slathered all over it.

And the truth is, we all have things in our lives we wish were different.  

There is much that others enjoy as a given part of life that I will never know.

At the beginning of Psalm 73, Asaph ponders the prosperity of those who are wicked. Though they live foolishly, they enjoy good health, they have no troubles, they aren’t plagued by common human burdens (he thinks).

And here he was, he thought, keeping his heart pure and his hands innocent, and yet every day brings a fresh round of pain and affliction.

Until, he says, he entered the sanctuary of God.

We he got his focus off himself and onto God, then he understood the final destiny of the wicked. Ultimately, all they had gained will come to absolutely nothing when they face God at the final judgment.

And finally Asaph writes, “My flesh and my heart may fail…”

There is much discussion about what Asaph meant by this. Did he mean his flesh and heart failed him when he fell into bitterness and envy of others? Or did he mean that eventually his flesh and heart will fail when he dies and moves on from this life? Maybe both.

“… but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” Psalm 73:26

Asaph is finally able to take a wide and godly perspective and realize that because he has God in his life, he doesn’t have just a sliver of pie, or even a big piece. He actually has the whole pie. 

Yes, his own heart may fail, but God is His strength, and His portion, his inheritance, in this life and in the next.

Forever.

Yes, I may have missed out on a lot in this life, and maybe that’s a good thing because it showed me how much I needed God.

But God (Elohiym – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) is my portion. And when everything in this life is gone, I will still have my Portion. I will have my relationship with God through Christ, and the faith and character and everything else He’s built on that Foundation through the many years I’ve walked with Him.

And it will last forever.

So the reality is, I haven’t missed out on one bit. I have God and all He is! And if you know Jesus, so do you. We have the Creator of the universe, our heavenly Father, the keeper of our souls and the One is able to make all grace abound toward us and bless us abundantly, our Lord and Savior and Friend and Brother and Co-Heir in the faith, Jesus, and our Comforter and Peace Giver, the One who seals us for eternal life, the Holy Spirit.

We can never come to the end of the list of His blessings. And anything we missed in this life that He deems important He will more than make up for in the next. 

So instead of focusing inward or outward, let’s look up.  We have more pie than we could ever eat.

Path of Faith

Posted on by Dorci

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 

But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary (against them).

Now in the fourth watch of the night (3am-6am), Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. 

And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.”

So He said, “Come.” 

And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”
Matthew 14:22-31

The changing picture at the top of this page always has some sort of path or road which represents the paths we take in the changing seasons of our spiritual lives. 

In this scene in the book of Matthew, we see Jesus telling Peter to come to Him on some undefined, invisible path on the water while the winds raged against them.

And Peter, precious Peter, has enough faith to step out of the boat and to actually start walking toward Jesus on this invisible path.

But halfway through, his faith moves from Jesus to the wind and the waves, and he begins to sink.

I can’t blame Peter too much.  Being willing to walk on water is amazing enough, but he got out of the boat when the wind and waves were so strong they were tossing them around. And this was no gentle rocking. The word “tossed” means pain, toil, torment.

Just as Jesus called Peter to walk a path of faith, He calls us to come to Him, to focus on Him and not the pain, not the toil, and not the torment.

When storms come and the winds of circumstance come against us, we might not see a clear path, and that is when, more than ever, we need to look to Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, walk toward Him a path of faith.