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- Written by: Don Goulding
But our citizenship is in heaven - and we also await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ… (Philippians 3:20)
I’m a patriot. I love my country with passion, though I’ve never been there. I was born in a foreign land, where my father came from. Mother and Father met when she visited his country, but she made sure I received citizenship in her homeland.
When Dad saw how things were going in his land, he changed his citizenship to the same as ours.
I’m amazed by the patriotism of those I live among. They love their country. More accurately, they love what their country was, or what they hope it will be. They complain about what it is. Still, they wave flags and sing anthems, and I grow quiet. When they brag about the landmark sites of their despoiled land, it’s hard for me to keep silent about my home.
I understand patriots. I also get crazy mad defending my people and my government. Let anyone speak against our heritage and my adrenalin runs. I catch snatches of my mother’s songs, hear our accent spoken, or read about the coming reunion, and my mind flies home.
A dialysis connection binds me to the capital of my country. My blood flows to that radiant city where it’s purified, then returned to my vagabond body.
Others consider me crazy to be a flaming patriot of a land I’ve never been to. But the place is so amazing that you don’t have to see it to be a loyalist of heaven.
Prayer: King of Paradise, I’m ready to immigrate whenever you say, “Come home.”
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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.