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                                                 If the mind is closed,

                                             we can speak to the heart.

                                                                John Ridgway  

     We were created in the image of God with an intellect (mind), a will and emotions.  The function of the mind was to perceive truth as it is related to God, the will would then respond in obedience and the emotions would rejoice in that decision.  In our fallen state of rebellion that we inherited from Adam, the order is typically reversed.  Our emotions govern our will, with the mind (intellect) serving only to justify the faulty decision of the will.  II Corinthians 4:4 tells us that “The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  Ephesians 4:18 relates to us that our “understanding” is darkened.  G. Campbell Morgan characterized this darkened understanding as “Intellectual limitation secondary to spiritual dullness resulting from moral failure.”  The only hope for our failure is found in II Corinthians 4:6 where it states “For God who said ‘Let light shine out of darkness,‘ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  As followers of Christ, we are sent forth as His salt and His light.  His light penetrates the minds of some with whom we interact but not others.  Our efforts to persuade are met with indifference and noncommittal.  Such apologists as Josh McDowell (Evidence that Demands a Verdict), Lee Strobel (The Case for Faith), and C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity) are met with either skepticism or disinterest.  Various intellectual objections are raised for which no explanation seems satisfactory to their minds.  Their minds are closed to the gospel of Christ.  

     John Ridgway, a Navigator missionary who has served in India and Indonesia, related a story several years ago in which a relative of his had a closed mind to the gospel.  John’s words, and those of others had been fruitless for an extended period of time.  Although his relative’s mind was closed to a consideration of the gospel message, John determined that he could still speak to this man’s heart.  The need of his heart was simply to experience God’s love.  John then began to share some of the portions of the Psalms describing the great love that the Lord had for his relative.  These included Psalm 23, 121 and numerous others.  The message repeated so often in Psalm 107 is that of God’s love reaching us in many different situations, including those related to our blindness and rebellion.  The Psalm starts with the phrase in verse one “Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever,” and concludes with verse 43 which states “Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the LORD.”  Four times in the Psalm, after each situation is resolved by the hand of the Lord, whether it be due to hunger and thirst with their lives ebbing away, subjection to bitter labor with no one to help, suffering affliction because of iniquities, or circumstances that brought them to their wits‘ end, the verse is inserted which states “Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for men.”  As months went by, his relatives‘ intellectual resistance began to melt away and disappeared.  God’s love had penetrated his heart and he subsequently became a follower of Christ.

     Over the years I have encountered a number of individuals with a closed mind toward the gospel.  One such man had declined over a period of ten years to even look at the Bible together.  Several years ago I heard that he had been admitted to the hospital for a surgical procedure.  Motivated by John Ridgway’s remarks, I considered speaking to his heart through the Psalms.  I brought him a devotional book with daily readings and gave it to him while he was in the hospital.  I did not see him again for several months, at which time he related that he enjoyed the book so much that he was reading it morning and evening.  Our relationship has now developed to a point where we are discussing the gospel message freely.  The Lord had spoken to his mind through his heart.  In the recent past I have also met with a young man who had several intellectual objections to the Bible and its message.  Some of these he held so strongly that he didn’t even want me to discuss them with him.  Furthermore, he was not convinced of the authority of the Bible nor its relevance to his life.  After a year or more of reading through several of the Gospels together, his objections seemed to vanish.  He has never mentioned them again.  The love of God expressed to him through the person of Christ had spoken to his heart.  He has since openly confessed Christ as his Lord and Savior and looks to the word of God for guidance in his life.

     Hebrews 4:12 relates that the word of God is a “living and active sword.”  If someone is continually exposed to the word, it will do its work in their lives.  Jim Morris used the illustration of a person being confronted by another individual holding a knife and hearing them say “give me your money!”  If the individual confronted were to say “I don’t believe that is a knife,” the one with the knife might then be tempted to prove that it is, indeed, a knife!  In a similar way, the objections to the word not having validity or authority does not prevent the Holy Spirit from doing its work in the lives of others.  

     Although there are a number of authors who speak decisively about many doctrinal and apologetic positions, I have never ceased to rely ultimately upon bringing individuals face to face with Christ in the gospels.  Despite intellectual limitation, spiritual dullness and moral failure, mankind universally suffers from weariness and burdens.  It is only as they consider the person of Christ that they hear Him say “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)  It is here that they ultimately find God’s great love for them expressed in Christ.  “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  (I John 4:10)   

     As you share His love with others, my prayer for you is what Paul prayed for the Thessalonians.  “With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.” (II Thessalonians 1:11) 

In Christ, Richard Spann                                           

                                 Come near to God and He will come near to you.

                                                                                              James 4:8                                                                                  

     Last year I set apart an entire day to come near to God.  I had spent afternoons of four hours alone with God previously, but this was the first time that I had scheduled an entire day with Him.  I did not meet anyone else the entire day except for an employee at Quik Trip.  I ate all my meals alone and talked with no one else all day.  I wanted a day just to spend in His presence, talking to Him in prayer, reading the Bible, and listening to Him. 

     Most of the day was involved in driving to different locations throughout the city.  I spent time in prayer at all of these places.  They included homes in which I had previously lived, schools, as well as several churches where I had attended earlier in life.  All the hospitals, offices, and clinics in which I had once been employed were visited as well.  The day brought back many memories of people and events.  A number of opportunities had been given over a lifetime to help others with medical problems.  In numerous cases, opportunities were made available to share the Gospel and to invest in the lives of many.  These investments had taken place in various homes in which I had lived, as well as in churches, hospitals and clinics.  My mind went back to encounters I remembered.  Many questions came to mind.  In the case of some, I was not sure that they had ever come to faith in Christ.  Others faced severe medical problems which had not been resolved at the time of my retirement.  I particularly remembered those who were following Christ as a result of our time together.  I had not seen some of them for a while and was concerned about their walk with the Lord.  Significant time was spent at each location praying for the Lord’s work in each life I remembered.

     Upon returning home late in the afternoon, I reclined in a chair and a quiet thought was given to me from the Lord.  He reminded me that some of the day was to be spent listening to Him, but so far I had done all the talking!  He prompted me to pick up the Bible where I had left off reading from the day before.  He had something He wanted to say!  The first four verses of Exodus chapter 34 were pretty hum-drum.  They were about Moses chiseling out some stone tablets. (Yawn!)   Then I came to verse five.  This was His word for me that day.  This is what He had been wanting me to know all day!  This was His promise to me from James 4:8, which says, “Come near to me and I will come near to you.”  The verse He picked out for me that day could not have been more perfect!  “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD.”  (Exodus 34:5)   He wanted me to know that from the beginning of that day until the end, He had been proclaiming His name, the LORD, to me.  He was with me in every location, listening to every prayer, concerned about each individual, and answering each prayer as it was uttered!  How do I know this?  I know this because His name is the LORD, the becoming One.  He is the One who becomes all I need Him to be.  He also was assuring me that He was becoming all that the people I cared about needed as well.  He was taking care of each one, drawing them further to Himself and building them up in Christ.  He was also becoming what I needed in comfort, confidence and reassurance.  He was reminding me of his promise given to us in I Corinthians 15:58,  “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”  This day was a powerful personal reminder of His promise to us in James 4:8,  “Come near to God and He will come near to you.”

     James 4:8 begins with an invitation,  “Come.”  How often has this invitation been given to us in the scriptures?  How often has the Holy Spirit whispered to me “come” in the past?  Did I dismiss this thought simply because I was distracted, or not taking the thought seriously?  Did I really think it was all that important?  Did I even know what it meant to come near?   As I consider the significance of the word “come,” another word occurs to me.  This word is “open.”  I need to to open up my schedule to be available to Him.  I must open my mind to understand, and open my heart to respond to Him.  This involves waiting on Him.  This is not the waiting on Him for answers, nor the waiting for Him to fix a problem, but rather waiting to  know Him more deeply.  The “come” He is interested in is simply to be with him, to be changed by Him into His likeness, and to rejoice in my oneness with Him.    

     The Lord’s promise to us, as contained in James 4:8, is that He will come to us!  He is longing, yes, longing to reveal Himself to us.  Nothing pleases Him more.  That is why He created us, so that He might reveal Himself to us in love and receive our love in return.  As St. Augustine states, “He thirsts to be thirsted after.”  It is our knowledge of Him that produces our love for Him, which results in our worship and praise of all that He is.  He watches, and waits for us to come.  It is not just that He takes two steps towards us when we take only one.  No!  He comes running!  If you doubt this, reread Luke 15:20!   

     The LORD’s very name implies His desire to come to us.  The Becoming One is all we need now, or will ever need.  God, and God alone,  is enough.  Nothing but Him will ultimately satisfy the human heart.  We were created to know Him.  The more we know of Him, the more we want to come to Him.  To the degree and frequency we come to Him we will appreciate that He is, indeed, all that we need.      

In Christ, Richard Spann             

         The Lord has created a magnificent universe for us to see and enjoy.  From the smallest flower, (Matthew 6:28) to the most distant star, (Psalms 19:1) it is designed for our pleasure.  Some, however, are born without sight, and others, like myself, are born with poor vision.  I started wearing glasses at eight years of age.  My vision steadily worsened, but I thought all was being done to help me see because I already wore glasses!  In little league baseball I looked like one of the three stooges, (Larry, Moe, and Curly), when I was playing baseball.  I didn’t react in time to be an infielder, and couldn’t judge a fly ball as an outfielder.  They tried me out as a pitcher, but removed me from the mound after walking two batters, striking out two, and hitting two others with the baseball!  In college, I miraculously survived an accident caused by my poor eyesight.  Not until after I was married did I see an optometrist who realized the degree of difficulty I was experiencing.  When fitted with the proper glasses I could see the individual leaves on a tree for the first time!  After having poor vision for the first twenty five years of my life, I could finally see what was created for me to see.    

     There is another type of sight for which we have been created as well.  It is the sight that allows us to see spiritual truth.  The Lord addresses the need for this sight in the following words, “I have come into the world to give sight to those who are spiritually blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.” (John 9:39, Living Bible)  In the spiritual realm, many spend far more than twenty five years in blindness.  We are all born spiritually blind, but only become aware of that fact later in life.  The results of spiritual blindness, however, are infinitely more significant than inability to play baseball or to avoid accidents while driving.    What is this spiritual blindness to which He refers?  He is referring to the refusal to put our trust in Him as our Lord and Savior.  If we have received sight through the Grace of God in Christ Jesus, we need to guard this sight lest we become nearsighted and blind through our failure to persevere in our walk with Him.  This warning is recorded for us in II Peter 1:5-9.  “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.”   

     As blessed as we are to enjoy physical and spiritual sight, however, they are only the preliminary gifts of sight!  What the Lord has in mind for us to see far surpasses our imagination.  It is a sight about which we are told that no one can see and go on living!  It is the ultimate in beauty and glory.  It is the face of God Himself!  The Lord has promised that those who belong to Him will see His face.  “They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Revelation 21:4)  This is what the psalmist was anticipating when he wrote these words long ago.  “As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:  I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” (Psalm 17:15)  The entire world is after that which satisfies the human soul.  It is this vision, the face of God, that brings us the ultimate satisfaction for which we were created.  Seeing God face to face is the promise which we have been given for the future.  It is of significant interest, then, that we find admonitions to seek His face now.  One of these is in Psalm 27:8.  “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’  Your face, LORD, I will seek!”  What does it mean for us to seek His face now?     

     The scriptures themselves are instructive to those who would seek His face.  The psalmist declares, “Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?  Who may stand in his holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.” (Psalm 24:3-4)  The Lord Himself states the following, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Mathew 5:8)  In seeking His face, we discover what Thomas Merton describes….”that God loves you, is present in you, lives in you, dwells in you, calls you, saves you, and offers you an understanding and light which are like nothing you ever found in books or heard in sermons.” Thomas Merton, The Hidden Ground of Love, ed. William Shannon (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1985)  pg.156.  Theodore Brakel, a Dutch Pietist in the seventeenth century describes his seeking as follows.  “I was ….transported into such a state of joy and my thoughts were so drawn upward that, seeing God with the eyes of my soul, I felt one with him.  I felt myself transported into God’s being and at the same time I was so filled with joy, peace and sweetness, that I cannot express it.  With my spirit I was entirely in heaven for two or three days.”  As quoted in F. Ernest Stoeffler, The Rise of Evangelical Pietism (Leiden: Brill, 1965) pg.149. 

      We were created to see, not just the material, or the spiritual, but to see the face of God Himself.  It is in the seeking of His face now that we discover that God, and God alone, satisfies the longing of our hearts.  Until we are with Him in Glory we can only behold Him now with the eyes of our soul.  The thirst to see Him, even with the eyes of our soul, is implanted in us by God. (John 17:24)  As we respond to this thirst, we are drawn into a worshipful identity with the Trinity, our oneness with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (John 17:21-22)  It is my desire and prayer for you that as you seek Him now your hearts will be filled with His presence as you await the day to see Him face to face. 

In Christ, Richard Spann       

     

    

 

           

    

                                    The High Places, however, were not removed.

     “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD His God, as the heart of David his father had been.” (I Kings 11:4)  “On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.”  He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.” (I Kings 11:7-8)  The seeds of destruction in the form of idol worship were planted throughout Judah, leading to its final destruction and removal to Babylon .  Although Hezekiah removed them more than 210 years later, they were rebuilt by his son Manasseh and only finally destroyed by Josiah nearly three hundred years after Solomon had built them.  Even those considered as “good” kings did not remove them.  Asa did not fully remove them. (I Kings 15:14)  During Jehoshaphat’s reign it was said that “The high places, however, were not removed, and the people continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense there.” (I Kings 22:43)  Although Joash was considered a “good” king, the same was written about him in II Kings 12:3, “The high places, however, were not removed.”  The same was also written about other “good” kings, about Amaziah (II Kings 14:4), Azariah (II Kings 15:4), and Jotham. (II Kings 15:35)   

     The knowledge of God that the people of Israel were given was to result in the love of God (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) and be manifested in the fear of God (Deuteronomy 6:13), and in trust in Him.  Instead the nation, progressively over three hundred years, trusted false gods.  They depended upon these idols to provide for them, to protect and to guide them.  Instead of fearing and serving the One true God (Deuteronomy 6:13), they feared and served other gods.    They went to these high places first rather than make the trip to Jerusalem to worship the One true God.  

     In Galatians 6:7 it is written.  “Do not be deceived.  God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.”  The same is true for nations.  For nearly three hundred years the nation had sown itself to idolatry.  The reaping is described in II Chronicles 34:24-25.  “This is what the LORD says:  I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people-all the curses written in the book that has been read in the presence of the King of Judah.  Because they have forsaken me and burned incense to other gods and provoked me to anger by all that their hands have made, my anger will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched.” 

     Our nation is now 246 years old.  It was founded to provide us the freedom to worship God.  Our coins still say “In God We Trust.”  High places, however, have been progressively built and have not been removed.  Increasingly, more and more of the population seeks to burn incense at those idols that have been established in our country.  What are these idols, these high places?  They represent those things in which we put our trust, those things that provide for us, that give us protection and guidance.  The list is legion.  It includes our retirement accounts, jobs, reputations, education, degrees which we may possess, skills, natural abilities, as well as our race and our cultural background.  Pastor Tony Evans regards all these as a “resource.”  He states that there is only one Source for our lives who is the LORD.  He is the One we should fear, worship and trust. He is the One in charge of all the resources.  He is free to take care of us by using any of none of the resources we can number.  He is our only Source.  When we take any resource we have and regard it as the Source, we have created an idol, a high place at which we worship. 

     G. Campbell Morgan makes these comments about worship.  “It is unthinkable and impossible that human nature should exist without a god in some form.  The most blatant infidel, denying the existence of a Supreme Being, yet worships; and where there is no other object, then man enshrines his own intellect, bows down before that, declaring that he will receive and yield to the things he can comprehend, thus making his understanding the very deity that receives his worship.”  The Crisis of the Christ, Hardpress Publishing, Fifth Edition, page 22.  With man’s understanding as his deity, then, truth is relative, each person having their own truth.  Sexual immorality, then, becomes sexual choice, sexual preference, and sexual freedom.  Our country is only twenty four years short of the time God allowed His chosen people before it was time for them to reap what they had sown.  Has the Lord already started His judgment?  The gods and idols of many have been exposed and threatened by the twenty percent drop in the market and the highest rate of inflation in forty years.   

     What is true of nations is also true of us as individuals.  We need to examine our own lives as well.  Deuteronomy 6:13 says that we should “serve Him only.”  We can tell what we are serving by looking at our resources.  Where do we use financial resources that we do not need at the moment?  When we are not on our jobs, how do we use our time?  What occupies our thinking in moments when we are not busy?  Where do we use the talents that Lord has given us?  What are we most concerned about losing?  How do we raise our children?  Do we focus on the development of their Christian character, preparing them to make a difference in the world, or do we train them to merely make a living?  By focusing merely on their education, their degrees, their employment opportunities and careers we have unknowingly led them to worship and burn incense at the idol called the American dream. 

     How do we, then, remove the high places in our lives?  We must realize that we cannot serve God and high places at the same time.  “No one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.  You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)  We also need to realize that these high places are not trust worthy.  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” (Mathew 6:19)  We need to return with our whole heart to the One Source who is our Life and allow Him to be in charge of all resources.  “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  (Matthew 6:33)  It is by trusting in Him only that we can experience His removal of the high places in our lives.  

     When we are freed from our high places we are then able to know God more fully.  To know God is to love Him.  To love hIm is to trust Him.  He, as our One Source, has given us the following promises.  “The Lord Himself will go before you.  He will be with you.  He will not leave you or forget you.  Don’ t be afraid and don’t worry.”  (Deuteronomy 31:8)  “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”  (Philippians 4:19)  

In Christ, Richard Spann   

     

     

               

                                                          Because He Lives

     It was a very festive occasion.  My wife and I along with other members of our church had been invited to a retirement party for one of our pastors.  We met and conversed with a number of those we knew and we were looking forward to the program which was to celebrate his years of service.  Despite the upbeat atmosphere, however, I was suppressing a gnawing concern about a biopsy that was performed two days earlier.  The results were to be available the next morning.  I kept telling myself that there was only a slight elevation of the PSA and the likelihood of having prostate cancer was slim.  As different speakers talked about the service and life of the pastor I forgot completely about my health concerns, that is, until the soloist began to sing one of Bill Gaither’s songs.  

                                 Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,

                                 Because He lives, all fear is gone.

                                 Because I know He holds the future, 

                                 And life is worth the living, just because He lives.  

Despite the fact that this was one of our pastor’s favorites and had been a request of his for the program, the Holy Spirit immediately impressed me with the following thoughts.  “This song is for you as well as for the pastor.  The biopsy is positive for cancer, but you can face tomorrow, because I live and I will be with you.”   

     His presence did sustain me through the surgery and has sustained me since.  The scriptures often remind us of His presence as in Isaiah 41:10.  “So do not fear, for I am with you.”  He holds the future firmly in His grasp as He tells us in Psalm 139:3 (LB).  “You chart the path ahead of me, and tell me where to stop and rest.”  And in verse 5 (LB), it says the following.  “You both precede and follow me, and place your hand of blessing on my head.”  Why is life worth the living just because He lives?  The fact that He is resurrected and lives today firmly establishes the fact the God was satisfied with His sacrifice for us.  In Him we have pardon and peace.  He lives to give His life to us so that in Him we have His purity, His power and His purpose.  Life is worth the living because He lives in us to manifest His love to us and through us! 

     In the years that followed, the Holy Spirit continued to enlarge my understanding of this song, not only of the chorus, but of the stanzas as well.  

                                  How sweet to hold a newborn baby,

                                  and feel the pride and joy he (she) brings;

                                  But greater still the calm assurance;

                                  this child can face uncertain days because He lives!    

     I remember clearly holding our first daughter the day she was born in a Rochester MN hospital.  The pride and joy that I felt then I still feel today.  That pride and joy grew and grew as she followed Christ throughout her life.  She married a godly young man and started her family eventually having five children.  When the youngest child was but four years of age, however, she was diagnosed with inoperable cancer.  She faced many uncertain days of pain, nausea, weakness and side effects of chemotherapy over the next next five years.  She faced these days, however, with calm assurance until the day the Lord took her home last year.  She knew that the Lord held her future in his hands.  Because He lived in her and through her, life was worth the living just because He lives.

    

   

                                And then one day I’ll cross the river

                                I’ll fight life’s final war with pain;

                                And then, as death gives way to victory,

                                I’ll see the lights of glory and I’ll know He lives!  

     Last year, I held my wife’s hand as she crossed the river.  She had fought life’s final war with pain.  Death gave way to victory.  As I was looking at her, she was looking at the lights of glory!  Before long I will join her in beholding those lights.  I have had four surgeries, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy for recurrent bladder cancer over the last seven years.  Whether the Lord calls me home this year or waits many years is uncertain.  What is certain, however, is His love for me.  “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)   It is because of this love that I continue to sing the chorus I heard that night twenty years ago!     

                                Because He lives, I can face tomorrow

                                Because He lives, all fear is gone

                                Because I know He holds the future.

                                And life is worth the living, 

                                Just because He lives.  

In Christ, Richard Spann

                              

     

 Howard Hendricks once commented that we live our lives in such a tight spiral that we honk at our own taillights!  That is an apt description of our times.  When our grandparents missed the stage, they knew that there would be another one next month.  I have literally noticed people who are upset because they missed one section of a revolving door!  This mindset carries over from travel to the totality of our lives.  A father’s day is too crowded to have breakfast with his children.  When he comes home late from work, as is often the case, he hurries off to other activities.  He leaves undone that which he should have done.  Hurry has claimed that which is urgent rather than that which is important.  Many families pass a “genetic” code of hurrying on to their children.  Music lessons, baseball, volleyball, soccer, and dance lessons are all introduced to our children at an early age, commanding evenings and weekends.  They learn, like their parents, to hurry from one thing to the next.  There is little family time and limited meaningful interaction with the parents.  Time with the Lord is often left out altogether.  There is no daily spiritual interaction between parents and children.  The parents send their children to church or enroll them in a Christian school, hoping that those measures will suffice.  In fact, it results in a colossal failure.

     The causes of a hurried lifestyle are multiple.  We may simply be doing the wrong thing.  Once we are involved in an activity that takes our time it may be hard to stop.  There may be pressure from others to continue an activity or relationship.  Even knowing that what we are doing is wrong, there may be enough satisfaction or enjoyment that we continue anyway.  More commonly, we are involved in too many activities, hobbies or relationships and have no margin in our lives.  We have replaced that which is essential in our lives for that which we should eliminate or delegate.  The root cause for hurry, in most cases, is trying to take care of our own lives and manage them ourselves. We are not designed to do this.  We do not have the capacity to control ourselves.  Only the Lord can do this.  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6) 

     The results of hurry in our lives are familiar to us all.  Mistakes are made in judgment.  We are often frustrated, anxious and commonly irritated with others.  Those, who, with an agenda involving spiritual growth and activity, try to hurry things along in that realm may find themselves irritated with God.  Their efforts only serve to delay the work of God in their own lives as well as in the lives of others.  Abraham decided to hurry God’s agenda along by having a son with Hagar.  History amply tells the story of how Ishmael and his descendants have hindered the work of the Lord.  Likewise Moses, in his attempts to hurry God’s timing, led to his herding sheep for another forty years before he was of use to the Lord.

     To hurry the work of God in our lives and others is to be out of step with God.  When we try to “help Him out” we are taking over God’s work from Him.  Hurry is wanting our agenda, not His.  It is wanting to be in charge ourselves.  It is wanting control.  Hurry reflects our impatience with God.  It results in impatience with others as well.  Hurry accuses God of mismanagement.  It is an affront to His character.  Hurry looks to ourselves and is a reliance on self.  When we live a hurried lifestyle, self is asserting its own authority.  Hurry must die, because self must die. 

     It is the Lord’s work to prepare us for eternity, not our own work.  He works from eternity for eternity.  He is never in a hurry.  Our hurry focuses on events, situations, and circumstances.  His work focuses on character.  Only He knows how far we have to go, what is needed, how long it will take, and how to get there.  We will never get rid of hurry by trying to get rid of hurry.  We must get at the root cause.  Hurry is but a symptom, a symptom of lack of trust in God, which comes from a lack of knowledge of God.  To know Him is to trust Him.  Jesus is the only person who was never in a hurry.  Why was this?  He was the only person who knew God perfectly.  To know Him perfectly is to trust Him perfectly.  We are given by virtue of the resurrection, the life of the One who never needed to hurry.  This is because He had perfect trust in God to control each aspect of His life.  It is through immersion of our life with His that we are willing to surrender to His love and turn over the control of our lives to Him.  There is no longer any need for hurry for those who trust Him fully.    

                                                     Forgetting what is behind

      The above is a portion of the Apostle Paul’s words to us in Philippians 3:12-14.  “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:  Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”  What was it about the past in Paul’s life and in ours as well that needs to be forgotten if we are to press on toward the goal to win the prize?  As I have considered my own life and those of others, i have observed two things that are a detriment to our future progress in our life and ministry with Christ.  They have different names, but they are what we all have experienced in the past.  They are known by the names of success and failure.  They may have been areas that we conquered, or that conquered us.  There were times of encouragement, and those of discouragement.  There were situations in which we received some measure of acclaim and also those when we seemed to be ignored.  We have had moments when everything was in control as well as those of disarray.  We have all seen areas in which we have achieved our objectives as well as those where we could see nothing accomplished.  The above list is only partial, but I am sure that you can relate to these statements.  

     I have seen success effect others in various ways.  Some look with satisfaction on what the Lord has accomplished through their lives.  They contemplate the good outcome from their investment of time and resources and think they have accomplished all that the Lord had for them to do.  My wife and I once took a tour through an English village featuring castles , museums and cathedrals.  Our guide, noticing that we were from America, commented that England, as a country, looked to the past, while America looked to the future.  This statement was true.  Unfortunately, there are some in ministry as well who have created memories to efforts in the past and are content to merely remember them.

     I recall others who have looked with nostalgia on former days of their ministry.  They have wished to alter the seeming failure with ministry in the present by reinstitution of methods and activities of the past.  What was “good” at that time, however, is not what God desired for the future.  The “good” in the past was meant to prepare us to walk by faith in the future.  We are to seek the Lord, not the experiences of the past.   

     The Lord tells us that “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)   Was Demas one of those who looked back?  Paul says that “Demas, having loved the present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”  (II Timothy 4:10)  The world beckoned him.  It was alluring.  Gradually, not suddenly,  as he contemplated the ease of a former life, with its attractions and benefits, he deserted Paul and the ministry.  He had not forgotten what was behind.   

     The most destructive effect of success, however, is the development of pride. It is written in James 4:6 that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  If God opposes us in our work we have a mighty adversary!  We might try to hide how proud we are of what God has done through us, but Luke 1:51 tells us that “He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.”  We would do well to remember the Psalmist in Psalm 109:26-27.  “Help me O LORD my God; save me in accordance with your love.  Let them know that it is your hand, that you, O LORD, have done it.”  Isaiah 26:12 also speaks to us with these words.  “LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us.”  Paul had chosen to forget those things of the past that might produce pride, and so must we. 

     The failures of the past need to be forgotten as well.  The time spent with others will not have the impact in some that we desired.  There will be differences of opinion that come up on spiritual topics that separate relationships.  In some of those in whom we invest our lives, the “worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and  choke the word, making it unfruitful.”  (Mark 4:19)  Those whom we anticipate as leaders in the future develop health crisis, family issues or move out of town.  Funds to support the ministry diminish.  The replacement of aging workers in the harvest field by younger ones does not occur as anticipated.  Those from men’s ministries developed in the church transfer to other churches.  The above is only a partial list of failures which I have experienced.  Paul says, however, that we should forget these things.  Why?  Luke 9:62 applies to the dissatisfied as well as those who are satisfied with the past.  If we are looking back, we are not fit for service in His kingdom.  Whether encouraged or discouraged, our eyes must be directed ahead, not behind us.  This is why Paul said that we must press on toward the goal.  Forgetting what lies behind is not enough!  We must replace remembering the past by remembering the prize set before us.  This prize is not based on success or failure.  It is based on faithfulness! 

     I remember attending a service in our church many years ago.  I was working in the hospital that weekend and had a busy Sunday morning.  The service was almost over when I arrived at the church.  I crept into the back row and sat down just as the Pastor was finishing the sermon.  His words were “Remember, God has not called you to be successful, He has called you to be faithful!“   

     Regardless of our past, whether there was success or failure, it should not occupy our mind.  We are to “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me (us) heavenward in Christ Jesus”   (Philippians 3:14).  We are certain to obtain this prize because of the following promise He has given to us.  “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm, let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (I Corinthians 15:58) 

In Christ,  Richard Spann      

                  

 Howard Hendricks once commented that we live our lives in such a tight spiral that we honk at our own taillights!  That is an apt description of our times.  When our grandparents missed the stage, they knew that there would be another one next month.  I have literally noticed people who are upset because they missed one section of a revolving door!  This mindset carries over from travel to the totality of our lives.  A father’s day is too crowded to have breakfast with his children.  When he comes home late from work, as is often the case, he hurries off to other activities.  He leaves undone that which he should have done.  Hurry has claimed that which is urgent rather than that which is important.  Many families pass a “genetic” code of hurrying on to their children.  Music lessons, baseball, volleyball, soccer, and dance lessons are all introduced to our children at an early age, commanding evenings and weekends.  They learn, like their parents, to hurry from one thing to the next.  There is little family time and limited meaningful interaction with the parents.  Time with the Lord is often left out altogether.  There is no daily spiritual interaction between parents and children.  The parents send their children to church or enroll them in a Christian school, hoping that those measures will suffice.  In fact, it results in a colossal failure.

     The causes of a hurried lifestyle are multiple.  We may simply be doing the wrong thing.  Once we are involved in an activity that takes our time it may be hard to stop.  There may be pressure from others to continue an activity or relationship.  Even knowing that what we are doing is wrong, there may be enough satisfaction or enjoyment that we continue anyway.  More commonly, we are involved in too many activities, hobbies or relationships and have no margin in our lives.  We have replaced that which is essential in our lives for that which we should eliminate or delegate.  The root cause for hurry, in most cases, is trying to take care of our own lives and manage them ourselves. We are not designed to do this.  We do not have the capacity to control ourselves.  Only the Lord can do this.  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”  (Proverbs 3:5-6) 

     The results of hurry in our lives are familiar to us all.  Mistakes are made in judgment.  We are often frustrated, anxious and commonly irritated with others.  Those, who, with an agenda involving spiritual growth and activity, try to hurry things along in that realm may find themselves irritated with God.  Their efforts only serve to delay the work of God in their own lives as well as in the lives of others.  Abraham decided to hurry God’s agenda along by having a son with Hagar.  History amply tells the story of how Ishmael and his descendants have hindered the work of the Lord.  Likewise Moses, in his attempts to hurry God’s timing, led to his herding sheep for another forty years before he was of use to the Lord.

     To hurry the work of God in our lives and others is to be out of step with God.  When we try to “help Him out” we are taking over God’s work from Him.  Hurry is wanting our agenda, not His.  It is wanting to be in charge ourselves.  It is wanting control.  Hurry reflects our impatience with God.  It results in impatience with others as well.  Hurry accuses God of mismanagement.  It is an affront to His character.  Hurry looks to ourselves and is a reliance on self.  When we live a hurried lifestyle, self is asserting its own authority.  Hurry must die, because self must die. 

     It is the Lord’s work to prepare us for eternity, not our own work.  He works from eternity for eternity.  He is never in a hurry.  Our hurry focuses on events, situations, and circumstances.  His work focuses on character.  Only He knows how far we have to go, what is needed, how long it will take, and how to get there.  We will never get rid of hurry by trying to get rid of hurry.  We must get at the root cause.  Hurry is but a symptom, a symptom of lack of trust in God, which comes from a lack of knowledge of God.  To know Him is to trust Him.  Jesus is the only person who was never in a hurry.  Why was this?  He was the only person who knew God perfectly.  To know Him perfectly is to trust Him perfectly.  We are given by virtue of the resurrection, the life of the One who never needed to hurry.  This is because He had perfect trust in God to control each aspect of His life.  It is through immersion of our life with His that we are willing to surrender to His love and turn over the control of our lives to Him.  There is no longer any need for hurry for those who trust Him fully.    

                                The Harvest is Plentiful, The Workers are Few.

                                                                                   Matthew 9:37

     The harvest is plentiful.  Do we believe this?  More specifically, do I believe this?  Am I optimistic about meeting new people, convinced that in time, as we build our relationship, they will have an interest in the Gospel?   Have I despaired of others after no interest has been shown for years?  Have I consigned a number of others to a “they probably won’t be interested anyway so why bother troubling myself by getting to know them” category?  Jesus goes on record on three separate occasions saying that the harvest is plentiful.   He said this in Samaria regarding those considered as half breeds, (John 4:35) in Galilee to those who were despised, (Mathew 9:36-38) and in Perea regarding foreigners. (Luke 10:2)  The crowds are no different today than they were then.  What is it about our Lord that makes His viewpoint different from mine?  In the passage in Matthew 9:36-38 there are three items mentioned that make the difference!  1)  He opened His eyes. (When He saw the crowds)  2)  He opened His heart.  (He had compassion on them.)  3)  He commanded us to open our mouth.  (Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.)  

     Do I really see people in my daily routine of activities, or are they faceless, nameless persons that are there to assist me with my needs?  Do I only see neighbors and acquaintances as those to whom I need to make an obligatory comment while coming and going?  Do I see people as getting in my way when I am in a line at the store or drive through? If so, then I need to see them as Jesus saw them.  He saw each one as a unique creation in God’s image and created for His glory.  He saw the worth of each individual as the reason for His cross.  He saw the potential and possibilities of that life when governed and led by the Holy Spirit.  He saw them as a member of an entirely new race, part of His bride to be in the new heavens and new earth.  

     The opening of the heart and the pouring forth of compassion is seen most clearly in the accounts where it is said that He wept.  The first of these is in John 11:35.  The word for wept here is in contrast to that of Mary and her friends.  The word describing their weeping referred to loud wailing.  The word used of Jesus in this passage refers to tears flooding down His face.  Here, in the face of the tragedy of death as a result of original sin and subsequent fall and misery in the human race, He wept.   Uncontrollable tears fell down His face.  The emotion triggered by His compassion for our condition produced those tears.  Sometime later, it is said that as He approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it. (Luke 19:41)   G. Campbell Morgan states that “The word for weeping there does not mean merely that tears forced themselves up and down his face.  It suggests rather the heaving of the bosom, and the sob and cry of a soul in agony.”  The Gospel according to Luke, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1931, page 221.  Has my soul ever been in agony like this?   Have tears ever streamed down my face?  It is His heart of compassion that I must seek if I would see that the harvest is plentiful. 

     Finally, He commanded us to open our mouths and ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field.  Asking precedes and is directly linked to our availability as workers.  Immediately after Matthew 9:36-38 He sends out the twelve disciples into the villages to preach the message that “The kingdom of heaven is near.”  I have noticed in my life for many years that faithful prayer for others leads to opportunities for relationships and conversations.  Neglect of prayer leads to neglect of others.     

     The workers are few.  No one disagrees with this statement.  The reasons the workers are few are due to the enemies of our Christian walk, namely the world, the flesh and the devil.  The world presents many opportunities for us to invest our time.  Our many interests and responsibilities decrease our availability to the Lord and others.  The scriptures say, however, that “No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs- he wants to please his commanding officer. (II Timothy 2:4)  The world also would have us be a slave to our occupation, despite the fact that the Lord tells us that He is responsible to meet our needs.  (Philippians 4:19)  In addition the world wants us to place our treasure here which is in contrast to our Lord’s direction in Matthew 6:21. (to lay up treasure in heaven)   The world desires to consume our heart.  It is successful by appealing to self purpose.  Where there is purpose outside the will of God for my life, the world will appeal to it.  Self wants the prestige and possessions that the world offers.    

     In John 12:42-43 we see an example of how the flesh attacks us by causing us to fear others.  In II Timothy 1:7, however, we are told that we are not given a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind.  The flesh says to us that we may be disliked, ostracized, and that our reputation may suffer as result of identifying with Christ.  Why do we let the flesh have power over us?  We have a subtle desire for self glory.  We want to be liked, to be respected and to look good.    

     The evil one uses not only the world and the flesh to attack us.  He attacks us directly by planting the following thoughts in our minds.  “You do not know the gospel truths well enough to be a witness.” “Your life is too messed up!  How would anyone believe you?”  You need to wait to develop a  better relationship before you tell others about Christ.”   “You have waited too long.  They are too close a friend now and you might lose them as a friend.”   Why does the evil one stop us with these suggested thoughts?  We have a problem with self sufficiency.  We try to find answers and adequacy for our uncertainties within ourselves instead of looking to the Lord.  He says that we walk by faith, not by sight.   (II Corinthians 5:7)  

     The workers are few due to the world influencing us in the area of self purpose, the flesh involving us in self glory, and the evil one inducing us to do battle in the realm of self sufficiency.  The problem in the last analysis, then, is self.  We pray, “Lord, do something about the harvest!”.  His answer to us is “Do something about the self!”  “And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”  (LuKe 9:23)  

     May the Lord enable you to see with His eyes, embrace the compassion that comes from His heart, and be faithful in praying for workers for His harvest.  May He then empower you with His presence and manifest Himself as salt and light through you as you labor in the harvest field.  

In Christ, Richard Spann                       

 

                                                       

     

                                      Embraced by the Infinite Love of God

     It was nearly twenty years ago that the Lord miraculously demonstrated His infinite love in a manner I will never forget.  I remember it daily and it is a constant reminder of who He is as El Roi,, El Elyon, and El Shaddai.  Every Friday morning that Spring began with a six AM meeting for Bible study and prayer with a close friend, followed by a men’s study at 7 AM that we led together.  At 8AM I would meet my wife Bev for breakfast at McDonalds and go to the Hospital for rounds and then to the office at 10 AM.  My friend did not come that morning, which had never happened before.  I went into the church library and “happened” to pick up a book entitled “To Know Him by Name” written by Kay Arthur.  I was deeply moved by her description of the Lord through these three names, El Roi,(The God who Sees) El ELyon, (God Most High (Who is in control of each aspect of my life) and El Shaddai, (the All-Sufficient One).  7 AM came and went and the four men who were regular attendees were also absent that day.  This also was most unusual!  I read and prayed through those pages until time to meet Bev at 8AM.    Following hospital rounds I went to my office where I found an envelope on my desk.  After opening and reading the letter enclosed, I immediately understood, not only the unusual events of the day but of the entire week.  Four days earlier I had a strong impression as I sat down to breakfast that I should not eat, but rather get some lab tests.  (It had been two-three years since any routine test had been done.)  I dismissed the mental impression I had been given that morning and had my usual McDonald egg and biscuit.  The next day, as I was entering McDonalds, the same impression was implanted in my mind but only much stronger than before.  As a result, I had water only and ate following the lab test drawn in the office.  Until I opened the letter, I had forgotten all about the tests!  Enclosed with the normal results was a slightly elevated PSA, indicative of a possibility of prostate cancer.  Subsequent biopsies confirmed its presence.  At surgery it was found to be plastered against the outer lining of the prostate poised to break through and spread through the body at any moment.  El Roi saw all this, El Elyon impressed me strongly to get a test, and prepared me the morning I saw the lab test by canceling my morning activities, leading me to Kay Arthur’s book and revealing Himself to me as El Roi, El Elyon and El Shaddai.  The significance of that day in retrospect is largely in the revelation gained of God’s infinite love and secondarily of the healing from prostate cancer.  It was a day given to me by His loving hand to reveal who He is, the depth of His knowledge concerning me, and His unlimited ability to pour forth His healing and blessing in my life. 

     He has also given other days.  One of these “other days” was just last week.  I awoke at 6 AM, prepared to drive to Eugene, Oregon for a 9 AM flight, drop off my rental car and return to Wichita in the early afternoon.  There was a message on my phone saying that the flight was canceled and I was rescheduled to leave at 5 AM the following day!  I called United Airlines, hoping to make arrangements to leave that day, rather than to wait another day.  I finally reached a person who spoke with a heavy non understandable accent.  After multiple pauses, he said that he could get me to Denver.  I couldn’t make him understand I wanted to go to Wichita!  After a half hour, he finally wished me well and hung up!  Being stuck in Oregon another day meant another $97 for car rental.  My daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren all  had to go back to work.  That meant that I had to spend the day with various cats, chickens and the family dog by the name of Curdie.  He and I have a similar relationship with one another.  We accept that each of us has a right to exist somewhere on the planet.  We don’t bite or bark at one another, but we don’t relish any affection either.  After only three hours sleep I awakened at 2:30 and drove in the night to the Eugene Airport, praying that perhaps the Airlines would be partially repentant and upgrade my economy plus ticket to first class.  When I checked in at the desk I was delighted to see that I was upgraded to seat A3!  My prayers were answered!  God was so awesome to see I was transferred to first class!  I was rejoicing all the way through security and up to the gate assigned to the flight.  It was then that I noticed that the A3 referred to the gate number, not my seat assignment!  My seat was B38.   I didn’t know there were that many aisles on airplanes!  As I entered the plane I kept walking until, you guessed it, i reached the last aisle, and, of course, I had the middle seat.  An oversized man was already in seat A, lopping over into the B space and leaving little room.  That seat, of course, being at the back, would not recline.  A similar sized individual then sat down in C38, compressing me even further.  At 6 feet 6 inches of height, there was no room for my legs either.  There was hardly room to breathe.  I began to be a little claustrophobic.  I don’t mean to imply that the seat itself was defective.  It would have been perfect, say, for a horse jockey weighing 106 pounds, or perhaps someone in the end stages of severe malnutrition.  My thoughts turned to the Apostle Paul, who described himself as being in a similar position to mine. (Although in an entirely different context!)   In II Corinthians 4:8, he refers to himself as being “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.”  That was the way I felt!  The noise from the rear engine had an unbearable whine broken only by the sound of the toilet flushing behind my seat every few minutes.  I had paid extra for economy plus on this flight and ended up with economy minus!  

     Having safely returned to Wichita, I was reading the Bible and praying the next morning.  I began to thank the Lord for various things he had done in the past for me and my family.  As I remembered the previous day, I hesitated and asked Him what significance there was in that day for me.  Was there a message there for me?  I had just been thanking Him for His deliverance from cancer twenty years earlier.  As I waited I had the distinct impression that He wanted me to know that He was the same God yesterday that I had experienced twenty years earlier.  He is the One who is too loving to be unkind and too wise to ever make a mistake.  He was the One who prepared a day for me with the animals and woke me up in the middle of the night.  He was in charge of the Airlines and had picked out my seat personally along with my two seat mates.  In fact, because of who He is, it is impossible to escape the center of His love.  Because He is infinite love, He cannot help but to do the most loving thing continually in my life.  He calls me to trust hIm, not to understand Him.  Some things I will later understand, and some I will never understand.  As I contemplated these recent events I wondered if I had begun to drift toward worshipping and praising God for outcomes rather than for who He is.  If I were to do this, then I would begin to doubt His love when things were not what I wished them to be.  

     I can recall a time when the Lord revealed to me what doubting His love does to Him.  A friend and I had agreed on how to manage a certain situation that occurred in their life.  The next day, they said to me in a conversation “If you had cared for me at all you would not have agreed to handling the situation that way”!  I was deeply hurt.  This was a dear friend, whom I cared for deeply.  To be accused of not caring about them, and in effect not loving them, was a deep wound to me.  I awakened in the middle of the next night and I remember asking the Lord about this in the night.  As I waited for Him to supply some comfort or wisdom, He impressed me with the realization that this is what people do to Him continually.  They doubt His love.  The more you love and care for a person the greater they may wound you by doubting or denying your love for them. The greater the love you have for them, the greater is the pain you may suffer.  He who loves us with infinite love suffers immeasurable pain when His love is doubted.   

     How, then, do we come to a place in our lives where His love in not doubted?   David Benner has the following comments in answer to that question.  “What we need is a knowing that is deeper than belief.  It must be based on experience.  Only knowing love is sufficiently strong to cast out fear.  Only knowing love is sufficiently strong to resist doubt.  It comes from sitting at the feet of Jesus, gazing into his face and listening to his assurances of love for me.  It comes from letting God’s love wash over me, not simply trying to believe it.  It comes from soaking in the scriptural assurances of such love, not simply reading them and trying to remember or believe them.  It comes from spending time with God, observing how he looks at me.  It comes from watching his watchfulness over me and listening to his protestations of love for me.”

     “Because such knowing is beyond faith it is more immune to doubt.  Just as the child who regularly meets her mother’s love in the core of her being knows that love without any effort to believe it to be true, so we may know God’s love in a way that is deeper and more durable than knowing based on belief.  Contemplative or existential knowing may be supported by belief, but it is never reducible to it.  It is based in experience, the direct personal encounter with divine love.  The goal is, as stated by Paul, that we might know the love of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, and so be filled with the utter fullness of God.”  (Ephesians 3:16-19) 

     “The point of God’s love is to remake us in his image of love.  God wants to make his life ours, his heart ours, his love ours.  He wants us to be -like him- characterized by love.”    Surrender to Love-Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality  Intervarsity Press, Expanded Edition 2015, Pages 76-77, 85.  

     This, then, is the purpose for which we are embraced by the infinite love of our Lord, to be remade in His image of love.  He wants to make his life ours, his heart ours, and his love ours.    May the Lord progressively fulfill this purpose in your lives as you follow Him.  

In Christ, Richard Spann