Shalom: More than a Hello

I enjoy receiving the Dictionary.com “word of the day.” The word today is “ataraxia.” At first, it struck me as an unfriendly word, one that might have a meaning related to ill health or an attack of some kind. I was surprised to read the definition: “a state of freedom from emotional disturbance and anxiety; tranquility.”

I looked into the word a little deeper and learned that its origin is from ancient Greece; a “lucid state of robust equanimity (I had to look this word up too. It means "composure"). The ancient Greeks used it to describe a status of freedom from distress and worry. Worry and distress are not strangers to me.

The expanded definition really got my attention when I read that it was a term used to “describe the ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle!” It is a mental condition important in troubled times.

As followers of Jesus and readers of the Bible we are familiar with the Hebrew word “Shalom.” It means completeness, soundness, welfare, peace. When I combined these words together, the Greek Ataraxia and the Hebrew Shalom, I opened 2 Corinthians 10:4 “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

I flipped over to Ephesians 6:10-18 which reminded me again that we too are soldiers! Living within troubled times in our nation and our world, we can discover our “ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle.” That mental state rests on having the right weapons, and knowing how to use them based on the Holy Spirit’s counsel and mental/emotional comfort when we face personal, national, or world challenges.

ATARAXIA is now a word I’m combining with SHALOM. Let’s reinvigorate these ideas as we face various battles surrounding us.

Messiah- The Master Designer

When I was a child, I grew up with a hammer in one hand and a staple gun in the other. My parents owned a professional parade float business called UNIVERSAL DECORATORS.

Our travels were not “universal” however we did travel all over the south of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s providing beautiful floats for festivals and for Christmas stretching from Virginia to Alabama. One newspaper described my Daddy as an “architect of dreams.”

My Mother told stories about boarding a train when I was a baby leaving from Raleigh, NC where I was born to meet up with Daddy. Each year, he furnished floats for the Hampton Watermelon Festival, one of the oldest, if not THE oldest festival in South Carolina which began in the 1940s. I always looked forward to that parade, among many others.

Growing up, we spent 2-3 weeks there every summer where my younger sister and I played and worked on the floats getting them ready for parade day.

It was a wonderful setting not only for our imaginations but to learn our parents’ dedicated, entrepreneurial work ethic early on. The Watermelon Festival was the biggest event of the year in that rural part of South Carolina and usually featured 25 of our floats.

My younger sister and I learned early to staple fringe, festooning, foil, and floral sheeting on floats featuring swans, toy houses, a little train with a caboose, and other fanciful themes. When boxes arrived by train from a Florida manufacturing company it was like Christmas to open the boxes and pull out the colorful materials.

That is when the staple guns went to work, affixing the bright decorations onto the wood and steel frame creating floats to delight the eyes of thousands of children and adults lined up expectantly along the parade route.

When parade time came we watched our beautiful floats lined up by the Parade Marshall, along with high school and military marching bands high stepping and playing popular songs. American flags waved in the breezes.

Our family experienced so many glorious moments, seeing our finished work, parade after hundreds of parades across the south, and knowing the happiness that Universal Decorators created for thousands of folks.

You may ask, what does decorating parade floats have to do with decorating our lives?

When Mother and Daddy designed a parade float, they began with architectural ideas and raw wood; unadorned, nails, and bolts set on top of a steel frame with a trailer tongue. Under their direction, their employees built a sturdy frame which had to withstand the rigors of the two-lane roads from town to town. (In those days, a South Carolina fourteen-year-old could get a daylight driver’s license. In the summers, I began pulling 25-foot floats for hundreds of miles practically the day I turned 14.)

The raw foundation took shape over days and weeks. Sometimes a nail didn’t go in straight, or a piece of wood was not correctly measured. The foundation had to be just right and sometimes changed or reworked.

In our early walk with the Lord, He begins with raw materials too, laying a foundation for our faith. Our Master Decorator often rearranges and/or changes our lives as needed. All the while He is "decorating" us inside with His Holy Spirit while He builds us into an outward reflection of His love.

Just like the sturdy underpinning of my parents’ pride and joy, their 1957 “Miss America” float, Jesus changes our lives into one of faith and purpose as part of His family. In His competent Hands, He lines us up on the personal route of our life’s journey encouraging us along the way to bless others as He has blessed us. However, sometimes life and faith are harrowing. Our lives turn a tough corner along the route, and we wonder, “Will I even scrape by.”

Gritting our teeth and praying, “God have mercy on me,” He pulls us through. No matter where your life’s parade is headed, stay on the route. And praise God when you make it!

1 Corinthians 3:10 “According to the grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and Another is building on it. But each man [and woman]must be careful how he builds on it.” Apostle Paul

Knowing Jesus is the Most Spectacular Gift Now and Forever!

One word occurred to me last week that explains a lot about the disturbing results of the pandemic. Within a dark, supercharged veil hanging over our nation and our world, we are often living in an atmosphere of GRIEF. We grieve the far-reaching changes in our personal and national life. Our radically altered daily lives and losses in the pandemic have produced deep-seated loneliness. Increased suicides, drugs, and alcohol usage, and family members dying alone in hospitals have taken a national toll. The shock of fast-moving totalitarianism we could have never imagined has created anxiety and a sense of helplessness.

These two bible passages have served as a secure stake in the ground for me. First, Isaiah 5:20 describes our upside-down world in ancient and modern times saying, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.”

Living in what I call a "Five-Twenty world," (Isaiah 5:20) the Lord has bestowed hope and blessings on me with His presence. Thankfully, in facing the realities of Isaiah’s words, Psalm 23 is a frequent touchstone encapsulating the beauty of our Lord’s unconditional love, comfort, trustworthiness, and sovereignty. I prefer the King James bible for this profound passage:

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

With these and other verses, I remind myself that we are all passing through this world on our way to another. Our eternal citizenship is in heaven. Our Lord Jesus stamped our permanent passport with His shed blood on the cross freeing us from sin’s destination when we recognize Him as our Perfect Sacrificial Lamb Who threw off His graveclothes and rose up under His own power on Resurrection Day! Our confessions, repentance, and asking Him to rescue us with His forgiveness and unmerited grace, open the door for His Holy Spirit reside in our hearts.

For those who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ-and for those that I pray will consider Him as Savior-here is what God promises us when we arrive in Heaven, our final destination. Revelation 21:4 “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

I hope my thoughts offer comfort and encouragement in whatever challenges you may face.

Photos by Ned McNair, Mr. Sunrise

Spiritual DNA

Receiving my DNA results from 

Ancestry.com confirmed most of my already-known ancestry; Irish, Scottish, and British. My patriarchal family tree allowed me to become a member of Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). Scientific tools have opened countless mysterious 

doors for millions to shine a light on our genetic information. Our spiritual DNA, however, sources our true identity with the treasures of eternal life. 

God forged DNA in His infinite imagination when He created physical life. 

He wove our spiritual DNA into a redemptive pattern of salvation  throughout the Bible’s 66 books culminating in the Incarnation when Jesus donned our human DNA.  

 

Ancestry.com has blessed many. Yet God, the Creator of DNA itself, enshrined His love and sacrifice into an eternal family tree through Jewish scribes who brilliantly captivated us with the “greatest story ever told.” God’s human entrance to our world came through Mary. Her Jewish DNA was blended with the most profound anomaly in human history; the virgin birth.   

 

God used Jewish patriarchs, Jewish scribes, a young Jewish mother, and Jewish disciples to transmit our spiritual DNA, setting the stage to welcome and crown our Jewish Savior. When we encounter Jesus, rich in overwhelming love, it is more than human DNA can grasp!   

 

Our spiritual DNA offers us a colossal family tree. It stretches around the world across cultures, colors, economic status, national boundaries, and backgrounds! My Christian family is a potpourri of believers in many Christian faith traditions. The mix includes believers on every continent along with Muslim and Jewish-background believers. It is a beautiful tapestry of cultures on earth.  

 

Whether we know much about our physical ancestry or not, when we invite Jesus to dwell in our hearts and minds, HE becomes our Spiritual DNA. His Holy Spirit saves, guides, and counsels us. Strengthens and enables us to bless and serve others. He enriches our earthly lives and secures our place in Heaven. Ancestry: Invented by God! 

 “Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”  -Epictetus

Healing in the Nail Scarred Hands

Our Lord Jesus chose the pain pounded into His hands and His feet. Not as a martyr but as a Savior. He substituted Himself, bestowing hope and life eternal on us amid the chaotic pain of living in our fallen world.

To the Romans, His friends, family, and enemies, the wooden cross looked like the end for Him. His resurrection three days later proved them wrong. In His redemptive destiny, our Lord became the pain of sin itself when He obeyed Father God’s plan in the Garden of Gethsemane. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Jesus was more than acquainted with grief and sorrow. He was intimately connected with it. He could have avoided the nails hammered through His flesh and bones because He was God. Scripture reminds us in Isaiah 53:3 that Jesus “was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.”

He was God nailed on an ancient tree.

Nailed there not by the will or hatred of ancients, but by the will of His own obedience; His own choice to take our place as the Perfect Lamb of God with the purest blood coursing through His veins. The divine perfection of God-blood mysteriously joined with a young Jewish mother’s blood. In that way, Jesus experienced first-hand the walking, talking, feelings of humankind.

The Romans slamming nails into Jesus’ body outside Jerusalem took place while priests were killing thousands of lambs in The Temple. It was a ritual to sacrifice lamb’s blood during Passover week. On crucifixion day, another fact came into view; thousands of lambs were no longer needed since the one Perfect Lamb took care of all sins from beginning to end. In only a few hours, the King of the Jews changed the trajectory of humankind from death to eternal life.

The crucifixion tree, a violent symbol of cruelty was meant for permanent death yet it turned into an instrument of life for sinners. A new reality was locked in when Jesus rose up by His own power from a donated tomb three days later. Thus, the risen Savior opened the way for us to live now and forever.

Bowing in worship to ask for His forgiveness, then honor and thank Him, we can barely comprehend His gift. Nevertheless, we know His sacrifice and resurrection to be true and transformative …the most profound love straight from the heart of Father God.

In His hands, the nails He suffered became hope. His nails became deliverance, healing, and new life.

Most of us have lived through emotional nails of sorrow, challenge, and even desperation. Some of those sorrows have to do with mental, physical illness, and diseases, ours and others. When we call on our Lord, He reaches out to help us with his nail scarred hands.

With His hands, Jesus fashions us into emblems of His deliverance and salvation. He removes the nails that have sunk deep into our souls and spirits. It may not happen in an instant. More often, we go on a sometimes long journey with Him. But hope is always much more possible through Him as opposed to not calling upon our Lord at all.

The enemy always drives the nails into our lives and spirits aiming for permanent damage and spiritual death. Jesus’ resurrection proved the enemy incapable of overpowering Him. Counting on Jesus as our willing Substitute for our sins, the finished work of our Lord on the tree outside Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, gives us endless options of hope and help.

Even with the ravages of sin’s nails, nevertheless God renews and sustains us no matter what. Jesus pulls our nails out by the power of His Holy Spirit, the Comforter. He gently removes life’s nails and tosses the accumulated pains away.

Thanks be to God!

Flowers and Weeds

 Southern spring, now summer has burst out with flowers.  My husband and I are not master gardeners, but we plant, water, and then enjoy flowers of many kinds. Every year we experiment with different flower ideas on our small patio and deck.  Last year, our gladiolas were not a success. Only two long-stem blooms emerged from the twenty-or so bulbs. We also planted two small Hydrangeas and this year they bloomed into beautiful, rounded visions of lavender/blue.

Our 7-foot-tall gardenia bush busted out with fragrances and blooms more plenteous than ever. The blooms weighed so heavily on the branches that we had to encircle the bush with rope and tie it together. And insects!! They have enjoyed a field day eating holes in the leaves of our rose bushes. I think I have now stopped their leafy food frenzy with a killer spray. 

Anyone who enjoys gardening looks at weeds as an unwelcome guest. They invade anywhere they like, ruining a lovely scene. Pulling weeds is my least favorite task but I am always happy with the results. Panting and pulling in the hot sun, means that later I can sit under our patio umbrella, take long sips of water or iced tea, while taking in the beauty of God’s floral handiwork.  The sounds of our small fountain and songs of birds visiting Paul’s feeders create a full picture of shalom. 

                                              
Often, simple analogies come to mind when I am gardening. Here's what surfaced this morning.  The Lord created a magnificent palate of nature’s beauty for us. However, the magnificence of His beautiful sacrifice, the red of His shed blood, redeems and covers us with His snow-white palate of hope.  God on the cross. The Perfect Lamb hanging there as our Substitute for sin’s dark grip.  

Beginning my journey with Jesus at seventeen, I discovered that it was not a straight line. Yes, flowers have filled my life. The mission field, wonderful jobs, friends. Nevertheless, weeds have sprung up many times. Some weeds popped up because of my inattention to the Lord, some weeds that had nothing to do with my neglect or sin, but from the outside…wild weeds of pain.

When I chose to turn away from the Lord for five years, I lived a self-imposed winter. Years later, a winter of sorrow with empty arms was followed by the glorious springs of two miracle adoptions.

Some weeds cover life like kudzu vines draping over trees in the south. Or many big, ugly weeds stubbornly infest marriages. In our marriage, we found that the Master Gardner kept planting His gorgeous blooms of

healing, helping us pull out the stubborn weeds. He always provided His love-and His correction-tending the garden of our lives. With His enabling, we kept choosing outrageous commitment to save our love.  Now those commitments have lasted 45 years already.

Yes, weeds of sins, pain, and pop-up problems where winters seem like an endless garden of despair. Always though, the Master Gardner returns with gifts of His Presence, the spring of renewed hope and strength.  

Hosea 14:5-6 is a precious promise that comes from God’s heart through the minor prophet Hosea. God told Hosea to remain faithful to his wayward wife, in essence to seek her out, redeem, and forgive her unfaithfulness. It is a timeless picture of God’s redemption, saving us from ourselves, our sins, and life’s weeds.

 “I will be like dew to the people of Israel. They will blossom like flowers. They will be firmly rooted like cedars from Lebanon. They will be like growing branches. They will be beautiful like olive trees. They will be fragrant like cedars from Lebanon.”

 

 

Unburdened!

Sheep walk along many word paths in the books of the Bible; grazing, resting, sacrificed, or lost. Sheep are mentioned five-hundred times in scripture, more than any other animal. We ourselves are described as sheep.  Psalm 23 is my favorite where the first verse proclaims, “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

I recently ran across a story about Baarack, a lost sheep in Australia. Baarack was near death. He carried a heavy burden, a burden of wool.  Barely walking, he foraged for bits of grass made even worse because the wool almost covered his eyes rendering him practically blind. And in the wildness of the woods, predators lurked.

 Found by someone walking in the woods, he was in dreadful condition.  Fortunately for Baarack, he was transported by pick-up truck to Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary near Melbourne, Australia. Their wonderful work is a rescue operation for neglected or abandoned farm animals. Like kind shepherds to animals in need, the staff gently unloaded Baarack when he  arrived.

After removing insects, leaves, and twigs from his matted fleece, they pulled out the shearing tool and began to cut away Baarack’s burden. When they finished shearing, they weighed the fleece.  The scales registered seventy pounds! And the staff name for their rescued sheep is so clever, Baa-Rack!

His before and after photos are an astonishing display of redemption.

 Baarack’s story is our story. We carry burdens too heavy. We are lost in the challenges of life that often render us hopeless. Then, we encounter Jesus, the Perfect sacrificial Lamb, the Eternal Rescuer, the  One Whom God the Father sent two thousand years ago to redeem us.  The One who chose to shed His blood on the cross, making way for the Holy Spirit to shear off the burdens that beset us.

Baarack’s new life began with the kind hands of the farm’s staff. When Jesus rescues us, Matthew 11:28-30 describes our new life:  “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” 

The Perfect Lamb’s blood covers us not with cumbersome burdens but with spiritual life abundant. Our world-blinded eyes are opened to another  world, a world of hope. We feed at a table of love provided and guided by Jesus, our Good Shepherd Who rescues us from ourselves.

Here are ways to follow and learn about the wonderful work at Edgar’s Mission Farm Sanctuary: www.edgarsmission.org.au  @edgarsmission, and on Facebook.