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- Written by: Don Goulding
Many will be purified, made clean, and refined, but the wicked will go on being wicked. None of the wicked will understand, though the wise will understand. (Daniel 12:10)
When I flush the toilet, befouled water is swept through pipes until it shows up at the sewage plant. After sticks and debris are screened off, the “waste liquor” is sprayed over a bed of jagged stones. Each drop percolates down the gauntlet of rough surfaces, is collected at the bottom, and returned to the top for repeated buffeting. This process forces life-giving oxygen into the droplets so invisible microbes can consume the waste.
The removal of sewage from water is disgusting business, but then, so is the removal of sin from a heart.
Daniel says the wise understand what happens when they encounter rocky trials. Understanding allows them to embrace the process. Everybody, wise and unwise alike, has the brown sludge of self-rule in their hearts. Everybody is strained through the rocks of life. But only the wise use the buffeting for purification.
The unwise simply bounce from one trial to another, never seeking God’s strength or perspective. They come out at the bottom as soiled with attachments to earthly life as when they went in. What a pity they endure suffering for nothing. How grieved is the heart of God over the unwise.
There is much to be gained in trials. Each rock forces me against the life-giving Spirit, begging for his comfort and direction. With an invisible process, the awe of Christ consumes my contaminated agenda. The waste liquor of self-rule is removed, and I’m left with nothing but a sparkling trust in God.
Prayer: Lord, help me accept purification.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. (Colossians 3:15) (NIV)
Through the seasons, I sat on the veranda in Africa and admired the lake’s stability. Summer grassfires ravaged the land, only to run into the shoreline and lie down simpering. In winter, gusty blasts moaned and dug, and, for all their efforts, merely scratched at the surface. The lake was immovable.
The lake was an elegant diamond necklace on the throat of bare land. As I stared into its twilight reflection, it whispered to my soul.
“I’m not troubled by events around me. I don’t wander, or follow trends. My only occupation, indeed my truest joy, is to mirror the light from above.”
Then the lake went silent. From its surface shown a periwinkle sky of peace.
Peace is not the absence of trouble. It’s the sure knowledge that I’m reflecting the light of Jesus in every circumstance. Even in the midst of turmoil, I’m meant to enjoy voluminous peace. Peace is my born-again birthright. To peace I’m called, and by peace I’m ruled.
Peace is a simple governor. While I’m obedient to Christ, peace comes. When I’m disobedient, it leaves. This rule, and therefore peace itself, transcends every circumstance, pleasant or painful. Obedience, and not my situation, makes for true peace.
One cannot live near a lake without learning something of the ways of peace. What I learned was that a deep and liquid stillness flows over those who’s sole ambition is to reflect the light of Jesus.
Prayer: Jehovah Shalom (The Lord Our Peace), rule in my heart.
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- Written by: Don Goulding
For indeed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, assembled together in this city against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do as much as your power and your plan had decided beforehand would happen. (Acts 4:27, 28)
“Ready or not, here I come,” I said.
Five-year-old Emily hid behind a door watching me through the hinge gap. I pretended to look elsewhere.
“Hmm, I wonder where she is. Let’s see, nope, not in the bathtub.”
Emily giggled. I knew her hideouts and how long her attention lasted. At the right time, I jumped behind her door, and we burst into a fit of laughing and tickling.
I sometimes feel the powers of evil play hide-and-seek from God’s justice. I was dismayed when I saw gypsies hatefully forced out of a store in Eastern Europe, and distraught when refugees in Africa lost a baby to starvation. And if my own rights are trampled, I suffer truly massive indignation.
The reality I miss is God’s sovereignty in every situation. It is not like the Devil catches him unaware every now and then. It was God’s sovereignty at work when Jesus was decimated on the cross. God saw through the ploys of those who thought they were winning against his Christ.
God is infinitely more sovereign over life than I was over hide-and-seek with Emily. She thought she was invisible, even though I saw her peek out and heard her titter. I chose to draw the game out for a more explosive reunion.
Father God does the same for me. Evil can’t hide from him, not my evil or the world’s. He’s waiting for the perfect time in history, then in an explosive moment, he’ll jump out from behind life and swoop me into his arms. He’ll finally remove all sin from my heart and the world, and welcome me home. Then maybe we’ll tickle each other.
Prayer: Holy Father, help me rest in your sovereignty.