Perfect Love

One Sunday morning some years ago, I was sitting in the morning worship service at my church, feeling very afraid. I was going through probably the worst trial of my life, and I didn't know how things would work out. This verse came to my mind:

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Because of my fear, thought, "I must not have perfect love." And guilt sat down beside me too.

That's when a still, small Voice spoke to my heart, "It's not your love that has to be perfect. It's My love that's perfect. Rest in My perfect love."

When I did, I found peace.

The other side of fear is confidence. If we confidently rest in the Father's love, it follows that we will be without fear. Love and fear are incompatible. They cannot coexist.

According to John, if we abide in Christ and have fellowship with the Father (1 John 1:3), endeavor to keep His commandments (2:3), remain separate from the world (2:15-17), abide in the truth (2:24), and love others (4:7-12), then we can have confidence that we will not be condemned in the day of judgment (4:17-18).

"Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love" (1 John 4:18, NLT). If we are afraid, then, it is because we have not fully experienced His perfect love.

When we experience the Father's love for us, that love is so powerful and life-changing that fear is forever removed. Certainly, much in our world today is cause for fear. But no matter what takes place, it cannot separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).

If we experience fear in any portion of our life, to that extent, we deny God's love and fail to trust Him.

Are you resting in God's perfect love today? Do you trust Him to take care of you, come what may? Remember, God will take care of you.

When the Bridge Fell

It had been raining most of the week in New York State when my friend and I drove across the New York State Thruway bridge spanning the Schoharie Creek near Amsterdam late on a Saturday afternoon on our way back to Long Island.

The placid Schoharie Creek below had swelled to a churning, rushing river. No one knew that the flood waves were undermining the steel and concrete piers that supported the bridge.

The next morning, April 5, 1987, as a lady traveled westbound on the Thruway, her dog became very restless. She stopped to let it exercise along the side of the highway just before crossing the Schoharie Creek Thruway Bridge.

Schoharie Creek Thruway Bridge Collapse Courtesy Google.com

As she got out of the car, she heard a tremendous roar. She turned just in time to witness the bridge collapse into the creek below.

The way the bridge had been situated made it nearly impossible to see that it was gone until it was too late to stop. As traffic approached, the lady stepped out into the roadway and waved frantically, desperately trying to warn the vehicles to stop before they would plunge into the abyss.

To her horror, five drivers ignored her, and their vehicles disappeared into empty space. One even flipped her an obscene gesture as he passed--just moments before he plunged to his death. Ten people lost their lives before anyone heeded her warning.

It reminds me of Hebrews 11:7, which describers how the people of Noah's day derided him for 120 years as he warned of the coming judgment of the Great Flood. Only eight people of that day heeded his warning and were saved.

Today, God's witnesses stand on the highway of life, warning people of God's impending judgment. Many ignore us. Others get angry, mock or ridicule, or even persecute us. But we must not quit warning them.

Ezekiel 33:9 says that if the watchman on the wall doesn't warn the people of impending danger, their blood will be on his hands. If we as Christians don't issue the warning of judgment yet to come on this sinful world, their blood will be on our hands.

Romans 10:14, NLT asks, "How can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless [we tell] them?"

"So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation?" says Hebrews 2:3, NLT.

As we enter this season of Lent leading up to the celebration of Holy Week and the Resurrection, let's ask ourselves the question: Are we good watchmen, warning of the dangers to come? Or, are we neglecting this great salvation made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ?

God's Law of Returns

Courtesy versaday.com

When I first read that verse in Ecclesiastes 11:1, I was puzzled. Since I don't even like gravy on bread, that word picture of soggy bread didn't appeal to me.

Then I came across this translation in the New Living Translation: "Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you." In other words, "Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later."

Now, that makes sense. Here's how it worked out in the lives of two people whose names you will recognize:

The son of a gardener on an estate in Scotland dreamed of becoming a medical doctor. Neither he nor his dad could figure out how such a huge financial undertaking could be met.

Weekend visitors arrived at the castle. One of them, a boy, went swimming in the pool. He developed cramps and was about to drown when the gardener's son leaped into the water and saved him. The father of the swimmer was so overjoyed at the rescue that he offered to reward the rescuer.

"What can I do to help the lad?" he asked the rescuer's father.

The gardener related their dream that the son become a physician. "If you could help him to go to school, that would mean more to my son than anything else in the world."

Upon hearing the request, the swimmer's father said, "That's it! We will see him through his education." And through this generosity, Alexander Fleming became a doctor of medicine.

Years later, the boy who nearly drowned, Winston Churchill, became Prime Minister of England. While on a trip to Egypt, he was stricken with virulent pneumonia. Aides thought he was going to die.

A new drug, however, had just been discovered by Dr. Alexander Fleming--penicillin. Dr. Fleming heard of Mr. Churchill's illness. He flew to Egypt to administer the new medication. The results were miraculous, and Churchill recovered completely.

c AnnaLee Conti 2002

In 1948, my grandparents, Charles and Florence Personeus, pioneer missionaries to Alaska, were asked to build a church in Pelican. The town donated land, but it needed to be cleared. Windfalls twelve trees deep covered the site, and my grandparents had no tools. An old logger they had befriends thirty years earlier supplied them with hand tools for the mammoth task.*


When we planted a new church in Gloversville, New York, in the late seventies, we spent much time over a two-year period ministering to a young couple that was separated when we met. God saved their marriage (see God Saved Our Marriage), and they became faithful workers in the church--until a job-transfer moved them out of state. We knew God was building lives, not just churches, but their move was a great loss to our new church.

That summer, our Fellowship's biennial General Council was being held in St. Louis, Missouri, in August. We really felt the need of going to receive personal encouragement and fellowship, but as pioneer pastors, we had no funds available for such a trip.

Then a letter arrived from the couple that had recently moved away, thanking us for all we had done to help them reestablish their marriage. They enclosed a check and a note telling us to use the money for something special for ourselves. It was the exact amount we needed to go to General Council.

We have learned that we can never outgive God. It may not come back in kind, but God has promised, "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom," (Luke 6:38, NKJV).

I'd love to hear about a time when God has proven that promise in your life.

*Excerpt from my book, Frontiers of Faith.

Never Give Up

Growing up in Alaska in the fifties and sixties, we drank mostly reconstituted evaporated canned milk. My mother insisted that we needed three glasses a day. (Perhaps that's why I don't drink much milk today.) Back then, I didn't gave much thought to the miracle of evaporated milk. Without it, we would have had no milk.

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Then I read about Gail Borden, Jr., the journalist in the Texas Territory in the 1820's who coined the phrase, "Remember the Alamo." His greatest achievement was to condense food so it would remain edible for a long time.

"I mean to put a potato into a pillbox, a pumpkin into a tablespoon, and a watermelon into a saucer," he once said.

His ambition intensified into a passion when he observed a great tragedy while sailing home from England. On board ship, he saw children die as a result of drinking contaminated milk. He vowed to dedicate his life to finding a way to make milk safe for human consumption for a long time.

At every opportunity he had already been experimenting on guests, serving them concentrated soups and foods. For the California Gold Rush, he invented the dehydrated meat biscuit.

Through his experiments with his meat biscuits, Borden knew food could be kept fresh over long periods of time if moisture was reduced. He poured a gallon of milk into a kettle and boiled off the water. The experiment failed. The milk tasted burnt.

While visiting a Shaker colony in New York, Borden discovered the solution as he watched them condense maple sugar in a vacuum-sealed pan. Because less heat was required to cause evaporation in a vacuum, the burnt taste was reduced.

Borden finally succeeded, and the U. S. Army placed the first big order for 500 pounds of evaporated milk. Not only did Borden invent the process, but the company he founded became a multi-billion dollar company. He is known as the father of the modern dairy business.

On Borden's tombstone is inscribed, "I tried and failed. I tried again and succeeded."

The Apostle Paul observed in First Corinthians 13:7 that love is the best motivation to success:

Courtesy GoVerse

Borden's heart was touched by the deaths of those children. That motivated him to succeed, and he never gave up.

So, never give up! You are a failure only if you do not keep on trying.

What motivates you to succeed? What do you love enough to keep on trying until you succeed?

Prescription for a Better Life

Last week I wrote about the Power of a Smile. Did you know that smiling can change your life?

Frank Bettger, a major league ball player who turned to sales management after an injury, became famous for his inspirational speeches. He would ask people to promise to smile for 30 days.

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He said, "I have asked thousands of men and women in audiences all over the country for a pledge to smile, just for 30 days, their happiest smile at every living creature they see. Easily 75 percent of the people in each audience willingly raised theirs hands."

What was the result?

A letter from a man in Knoxville, Tennessee, is typical of several letters he received:

"My wife and I had just agreed to separate. Of course, I thought she was entirely at fault. Within a few days after I began to put the idea into action, happiness was restored in my home.

"I then came to realize that I had been losing out in business because of a sullen, losing attitude. At the end of the day, I would go home and take it out on my wife and children. It was all my fault, not my wife's at all.

"I am a totally different man from what I was a year ago. I'm happier because I've made others happy too. Now, everybody greets me with a smile. In addition, my business has shown surprising improvement."

This man was so excited about the results he got from smiling that he kept writing to Bettger about it for years.

Are there things in your life that aren't going as well as you would like? Perhaps you need to smile more too.

Centuries ago, the wise writer of the Book of Proverbs pointed out that

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You may not feel like smiling, but if you do it anyway, your mood will catch up with that act of your will, and you will soon feel better. You can change your feelings by your actions.

Try it! It may be just the prescription you need to make your life better. I'd love to hear about your results.

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The Power of a Smile

A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of root beer and started on his journey.

When he had gone about three blocks, he met an old man sitting in the park staring at the pigeons. The boy sat down next to him and opened his suitcase. He was about to take a drink from his can of root beer when he noticed that the old man looked hungry, so he offered him a Twinkie.

Gratefully, the man accepted it and smiled at the boy. His smile was so pleasant that the boy wanted to see it again, so he gave him a root beer.

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Again the man smiled at him. The boy was delighted. They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling but never said a word.

As it grew dark, the boy realized how tired he was and got up to leave. Before he took more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back, and gave the old man a hug. The old man gave him his biggest smile ever.

When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother, seeing the look of joy on his face, asked, "What did you do today that made you so happy?"

"I had lunch with God," he said. "And you know what? He's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen."

Meanwhile, the old man, also radiant with joy, returned to his home. His son was stunned by the look of peace on his face and asked, "Dad, what did you do today that made you so happy?"

He replied, "I ate Twinkies in the park with God." Then he added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected."

This story reminds me of a poem my grandmother, Florence L. Personeus, wrote years ago that I included in my book, Frontiers of Faith:

Just a Smile

It was only a smile and a wave of the hand,

As the giver hastened away,

But it cheered and brightened a heart that was sad

At the close of a weary day.

A smile often comes like a ray of sunlight

Sent from Heaven to us here below;

'Twill bring joy in return, to scatter bright smiles,

For we reap whatever we sow.

If we only knew how a little smile

Might cheer the heart of another,

How it strengthens them to struggle on,

We would smile just to help each other.

For those bright, cheery smiles that come and go

Flash sunshine on Life's thorny way,

And the good they can do not one of us knows,

So let's scatter smiles every day.

                                                           --Florence L. Personeus

                           

We often underestimate the power of a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, or the smallest act of caring, but they have the power to turn a life around. And when You do it for one of God's children, you are doing it for Him.

Who did you smile at today?

Are You a Thermometer or a Thermostat?

With the cold weather now upon us, I find myself consulting my thermometer and thermostat more frequently. Have you ever thought about these two instruments? They have related but quite different functions.

Both have to do with how hot or cold it is, but the similarity stops there. A thermometer merely reflects its surroundings. It does nothing to influence them. A thermostat, however, seeks to regulate rather than imitate, turning on the furnace or the air conditioner according to the need.

Thermostat
Courtesy Google.com

Thermometer
Courtesy Google.com

As a Christian, I want to be more like a thermostat than a thermometer. I don't want to simply report the conditions of the moment. I want to try to affect the future in a positive way.

For example, in dealing with finances in their families, thermometer types only report the conditions of the moment: "We can't tithe or support missions or you name it because the economy hasn't done very well this year. We didn't get a raise. We have too many bills."

What thermometer types don't do well is affect the future, except maybe negatively with self-fulfilling prophecies.

Thermostat-based talk says, "What ought the temperature be, and how can we make it happen?"

Thermostat types don't ignore the conditions. No, they first recognize what they face, but then they study the Word and pray and ask God to show them what He wants them to accomplish and how.

The Bible is full of wisdom. If we follow God's instructions and pray and work and trust Him, He will make a way where there seems to be no way.

In Acts 13:43, Paul and Barnabas urged the believers in Antioch to continue to rely on the grace of God. In times of difficulty, we too must not only report the conditions but respond to them with prayer and obedience to God's Word, trusting in His grace to see us through victoriously.

This year, I want to be a thermostat, don't you? I want to have a positive influence on the people and situations I in meet in 2016.

What do you need to do to become more like a thermostat?


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