In Ohio, Phyliss, a widowed worker having returned from Pakistan and the Persian Gulf, was immersed in a variety of ministries in her church and beyond. Her chaplaincy, prayer, and discipleship ministries had proven very fruitful. But she was praying for God’s guidance as she looked into the future.
Meanwhile in Ontario, Eric, a cross-cultural worker and pastor was slowly climbing out of a valley of deep grief over the home-going of his wife, Mary Helen. He had attained a plateau where God’s sunshine promised an ongoing measure of stability, joy, and contentment in ministry. But he was praying for God to somehow restore what he had lost in relationships with Mary Helen’s female friends. He thought platonic relationships might be possible, but he was too old for romance.
Behind the scenes, God was moving. In His loving and astounding way, He brought Phyliss and Eric together to receive from His hand more than they ever dreamed. Through comments made about Eric’s posts on grieving the two connected. They soon discovered a plenitude of commonalities; not only their connection to Pakistan but a history that went back to a church in Pontiac Michigan where Eric and Mary Helen had interned! Their chats on FB soon led to texts and phone calls and love, deep pervasive love!
Both of them ask themselves how this could have possibly happened. It is all too unlikely. Too amazing. But isn’t that the way God works?
Hi, I’m Eric. This week I asked Phyliss Hammerstrom to marry me, and she accepted! We bought the rings! We will be married on September 2nd at the Grace Bible Church in Stow, Ohio. We covet your prayers that God would sort through the challenges of an international marriage and use us in His service. May His kingdom come! May His name be glorified. Yes, love is a many splendored thing!
We all live east of Eden, but with a longing to return to Paradise. In that pursuit we try to construct our own version. We pursue money in the hopes that we can construct some blissful environment free from worries and fears of impending disaster. We pursue romance in hopes that the promise of poetry and literature will be fulfilled in the passion and companionship of our perfect love affair. We travel to some exotic destination thinking that there we will at least catch a glimpse of paradise for a week or two. Or we embrace alcohol or drugs thinking that, at the very least they will give us a few hours of relief from the purgatory of our disappointing lives. Or perhaps we dive into reading about romance to lose ourselves in an imaginary Eden for an hour or two. Or we pursue esoteric studies to gain multiplied PhD’s through researching the frontiers of knowledge—perhaps there we will find Eden. Or rich foods. Or multiplied affairs. Or exercise programs. Or changing our sexual orientation. Or tarot cards. Or transcendental meditation. We pursue the pot at the end of the rainbow by buying endless lottery tickets. Or…or…or…
But in every Eden we try to construct, we find the ancient serpent already there. He makes easy sport with us, for we drag into all our attempts; “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). We are fallen creatures. Adam’s nature is within us to corrupt every attempt at bliss. “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked who can know it” (Jer. 17:9)? “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jer. 13:23). “All of us also lived among them [in the world], gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).
Wrath? Is there no escape? Is there no way back to paradise? While we could never bridge the gap between us and God to seek again his love and favour, God himself took steps to deliver us from ourselves. God took the initiative. He did that by means of a covenant sealed with blood.
There in the Garden, before He banished Adam and Eve, he clothed their nakedness with skins of animals he had sacrificed, a picture of the cross to come. God promised that through “the seed of the woman,” Eve’s offspring [Christ], God would crush the serpent. (Gen. 3:15)
This promise is the initiation of the Covenant of Grace which God established with all mankind. Step by step throughout Old Testament history—through Noah, through Abraham, through David—God prefigured the Gospel as the fulfillment of that covenant. Through God’s undeserved grace expressed in a covenant sealed by blood, we have hope. By faith in that covenant ratified by the atoning death of Christ for our sins, God promises to restore Eden, first by forgiving our sins and planting a new Edenic nature in our hearts so that although our bodies deteriorate our souls may soar. Then he takes us to heaven as a joyful preparation for ultimately returning with Him to “a new heaven and a new earth” that will far exceed paradise. (See Rev. 21,22)
Every hope we have of bliss, of joy, of peace, of deliverance from addiction to sin is dependent upon the covenant of grace. And only the promised one, the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfills the covenant. We joyfully believe in the historical fulfillment of that covenant by putting our faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation. All praise to our Covenant God! Hallelujah for the cross!
(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at: Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)
I remember a preacher once saying that we all looked like we had swallowed a pickle. Instead of joy on our faces, we evidently looked glum. Clearly, God wants redeemed sinners to know joy, but can we just change the expression of our faces and have joy? Hardly.
A cursory read through the Psalms, for example, reveals that genuine God-fearers may occasionally look like they have swallowed a pickle. Many of the Psalms are laments. David, and others, frequently express “disquiet of soul,” a downcast countenance, sorrow and grief. In Ecclesiastes we are reminded that; “there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:4). Christian joy is not a denial of reality. It is not a grit your teeth and bear it attitude that we force ourselves to adopt to paper over pain, grief, or tragedy.
Happiness, on the other hand, normally depends on circumstances. Healthy…then happy. In a harmonious marriage…happy. Money in the bank…happy. Sunshine…happy. Normally, we don’t expect people who don’t have enough money to pay their bills to be happy. Or those in abusive relationships. We don’t expect people struggling through sleet on their way to work to be happy while cold drizzle runs down their back. In fact, if they pretend to be happy, we think them strange. Generally, pleasant circumstances make us happy.
Fifteen months ago, God called my wife of 61 years home to heaven. Fortunately, most of my family and peers didn’t expect me to get over my grief quickly. Yet some Christian writers who have gone through grief write as if “the joy of the Lord” will quickly triumph over tears. So, this subject is very personal to me.
I am not alone in dealing with grief. All around us there are a multitude of those who have been abandoned, abused, widowed, or struggle with cancer, the loss of a child, or a mental illness of some kind. What do we expect God to do for them? Should we expect them in a reasonable length of time to break into joyful song? Paul and Silas did while in prison. Clearly, we need to look deeper.
After the exiles returned from Babylon and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, Ezra read “from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.” When they saw how far short of God’s moral standards they had acted, they began mourning and weeping. However, Nehemiah and the leaders urged them; “This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). They found joy in God’s covenant love which had led to their return from captivity and the restoration of their city and land.
The prelude to joy is an acknowledgement of our sinfulness and need of forgiveness. We cannot expect joy to pervade our beings if we are self-righteous and judgmental of others, if we harbour unconfessed sin or lust, if we pilfer from our boss or spread gossip. Joy comes when there is nothing but a sense of God’s forgiving love between us and our Saviour. Joy comes from a source outside of ourselves.
Isaiah writes that we will joyfully draw water from the wells of salvation. (12:3) Wells of salvation? We can’t obtain water unless we have a source, in this case, a well. To get a well we first have to dig it. In the case of Christian joy, we’re fortunate that God steps in and metaphorically digs a well in our hearts that bubbles up with joy. How does he do that? By calling us to faith in Christ. We become born again. He takes away our stony hearts and gives us new hearts, tender, and sensitive to his love.
Clearly then, the prerequisite to know joy is to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ who bore our sins upon the cross. In a biblical sense if we do not have salvation, we have no well from which to draw up draughts of joy. But being saved means we have an inexhaustible source of joy through meditation on our forgiveness, adoption, reconciliation, justification, and many other facets of redemption.
Of those who know his salvation, God declares that he has made known to them, “the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand (Psalm 16:11). That might indicate that this joy is not fully known until we go to heaven. But no, joy is offered along “the path of life” as we walk with a sense of God’s presence. Having that sense is crucial.
Do we know God is near? Do we believe that “underneath are the everlasting arms?” With David do we realize that God is beside us, ahead of us, behind us, beneath us? (See Psalm 139.)
Jesus makes it clear that the impact of his message on his disciples is “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). His joy. Gospel joy. Christian joy. This joy cannot be experienced outside of his message. Ignorance of his teaching muddies the well and rusts out the bucket. Are we daily drawing water from the descriptive well of Scripture?
There is much more to consider about this delightful subject.
(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at: Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)
As spring clashes with the approaching summer, suddenly bushes and trees up and down our country roads burst into bloom. The flowers that festoon the roadsides seem to have been arranged to welcome the procession of a King. Perhaps it is a dress rehearsal for the return of King Jesus and a foretaste of the New Earth. These are what I found in Ontario, but in your area I’m sure you’ll find an abundance of beauty too.
Early on the lilacs flower and spread their scent. They were planted by our pioneers and have escaped along the verges on every hand.
Then come the hawthorn, considered by many to be a weed tree. “Clear the hedgerows,” they say. But why should we deprive those who have eyes to see God’s beautiful things of a sight, or the birds who want to feast on the berries?
Here and there throughout the countryside are several varieties of dogwood. Not the showy dogwood of the Smokies, but others such as the red osier dogwood and alternate-leaved dogwood.
The black locusts stand tall and showy with their pendants of flowers.
Scattered here and there, where some homeward bound schoolboy tossed his apple, wild apple trees have sprouted and grown into another source of sustenance for animal life. Apple orchards may also be found throughout Northumberland.
More rare, and often near dwellings, we find the horse chestnut. How I loved their hard nuts—not to eat—but to string and use for contests with other kids in school.
As the season progresses, other blossoming trees and bushes will grace our country roads. Why not take a rural ramble down one of those near you. You’ll find that no matter how messed up our world is, God has spread enough beauty to lift our spirits–and prepare us for the New Earth which will be beyond our wildest dreams.
(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at: Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)
Country Inspiration 