Courage to Craft

by Mary Beth on February 27, 2019

By faith, Noah in reverent fear built his yacht,

Created to save from water, by water.

By faith, our fear of the Lord stirs courage to craft,

Equipped to build in the Spirit’s fire, to save from eternal fire.

“The ruah of God hovers over the face of the waters,” 1

for “the deep gave forth its voice.”

I’ll be the poet who sings your glory-and live what I sing everyday.

-mbanderson

  1. R. Luyster, Wind and Water: Cosmogonic Symbolism in the Old Testament 1981

ESV, Hab. 3:10, Job 30:18, Psalm 61

It takes focus to walk by faith. It takes intentional space to listen well. It takes a hungry soul to consistently trust in the promises of God. It takes confidence to not be afraid. It takes time and wisdom to discern how to be effective as His disciple; His image bearer.

Yet, as Christ builds His government within us, by grace we’ll eventually move towards His purposes and pleasure. How and why is God hovering over the deep waters of our soul? A purpose to which end? Yes, God’s will is for our sanctification but His ways are beyond finding out! Let’s consider, by faith Noah built a massive ark. What about Moses and God’s counsel by the burning bush? And Sarah’s laughter? Pharaoh repeatedly hardens his heart, “Who is the Lord?” Paul’s aim to press on.

The mighty Spirit of God, our great Comforter and Counselor helps us to create, engage, evolve, and produce fruit, in its season, for His kingdom and glory.

May I not be unfaithful to my commission. Thy will but holds me to my life’s fruition. I’m thankful our Abba, Almighty is within us and goes before us.

“But when I turn and grasp the making hand, And will the making will, with confidence I ride the crest of the creation-wave, Helpless no more, no more existence’ slave; In the heart of love’s creating fire I stand, And, love-possessed in heart and soul and sense, Take up the making share the making Master gave.”

-George MacDonald

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In the Great Hand of God I Stand

by Mary Beth on January 22, 2019

“Nothing is alien in thy world immense-

No look of sky or earth or man or beast;

“In the great hand of God I stand, and thence”

Look out on life, his endless, holy feast.

To try to feel is but to court despair,

To dig for a sun within a garden-fence:

Who does thy will, O God, he lives upon thy air.”

~George MacDonald

As we travel through different seasons of life,

often the hymns,

“This is my Father’s world”, or “Great is Thy faithfulness” will comfort,

encourage and remind us to rest in God.

For He is our provision and protection especially when, at times,

we find ourselves feeling a bit alien, surprised or alone in our circumstances.

Our trust in God may appear to be tested or refined,

yet we find our hearts can return once again,

to walk in the fear of the LORD.

“To love God with “all our heart” is to know the spiritual passion
of measureless gratitude for loving-kindness,
and self-devotedness to goodness;
to love Him “with all our mind,” is to know the passion for Truth
that is the enthusiasm of Science,
the passion for Beauty that inspires the poet and the artist,
when all truth and beauty are regarded as the self-revealings of God;
to love Him “with all our soul,”
is to know the saint’s rapture of devotion and gaze
of penitential awe into the face of the
All-holy,
the saint’s abhorrence of sin, and agony of desire to save a sinner’s soul;
and to love Him “with all our strength,”
is the supreme spiritual passion that tests the rest;
the passion for reality,
for worship in spirit and in truth,
for being what we adore, for doing what we know to be God’s word;
the loyalty  that exacts the living sacrifice,
the whole burnt-offering that is our reasonable service,
and in our coldest hours
keeps steadfast to what seemed good when we were aglow.”
~J. H. Thom

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Eternity and Mortality

by Mary Beth on January 1, 2019

“I have a confession to make: I don’t struggle with prayer. I struggle with priorities.” Nathan W. Bingham

Moses prayed for his generation, desiring God’s blessing as they wandered in the wilderness. What if we follow Moses in his prayer, to seek God’s mercy for our generation in times of aimless wilderness and the challenges against authority? And to pray for the future generations after us?

Psalm 90 turns our attention not only to time and how quickly it passes, but invites our focus on the description of God as eternal and unchanging. He is our dwelling place, “in all generations; from ever-lasting to ever-lasting He is God.” Scripture speaks to help us understand how short our human life is; and how we are like a dream or like grass. “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” ESV

In the midst of life in the wilderness, God has mercy on His people with His own presence. He is our Immanuel, God with us. He has promised to never leave or forsake us. According to His great mercy, we have been born again to a “living hope” through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 1:3. Our perspective on the word hope, leans toward circumstances which hold levels of uncertainty. Biblical hope is based upon certainty; a confident expectation. Do we have an eager expectation of biblical hope?

1 Peter 1:4 references our living hope, “to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Living hope refers to an undying and lasting character of this hope. In the midst of life’s absurdities and ambivalence, Moses remembers our eternal and great God of all hope. Throughout his prayer, guidance and wisdom speaks of God’s eternal character, purposes, promises, and plans.

Our living hope in Christ, steps into our ordinary day to press forward, to persevere through pain and endure trials and suffering. We are not left without hope. Yes, wounded and at times stunned by what we see and hear within ourselves and without in the world, yet we press on to trust and to keep ourselves in the perfect love of God. As Archer Butler writes, “…it’s the unchanged smile of an eternal Friend.”

In 2019, I invite you to join me in the prayer of Moses, from Psalm 90:

“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom; satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all of our days. Let the favor of the Lord be upon us; and establish the work of our hands; yes establish the work of our hands.”

God gives eternal significance to the hearts and hands that serve Him. With confidence in a living hope through Christ, let’s press on and take hold of God’s mercy to our souls in these concerning times. Like Moses, we are dependent people upon God’s blessings. May His kingdom come.


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