Looking up!

Although our former home in Motherwell is now the legal property of someone else, I pass it on a regular basis as I travel between that town and our current (Scottish) home.  My feelings are mixed!   As I pass, I can see some of the changes that are already being made to what was my home for twenty years.

There are, however, at least three things that I doubt will be changed - the three Velux windows that I installed many years ago.  This was all part of a major project to convert the loft area into two bedrooms - one for each of my daughters - and a 'common area' for use by both.   I still recall having fitted the first Velux, and lying down on the newly-installed bed, admiring my handiwork!   As I did so, even the Tower Block of flats across the road disappeared from view.  All that I could see was the sky, with the clouds drifting by.

It was the sort of view that dear old Noah had from the ark!  He had been instructed, by God, to make only one window in that massive, box-shaped, structure - and that was to be in the roof.  There was only one direction in which to look, and it was UP.  In fact, the opening was nothing more, or les, than a skylight towards heaven!

If there had been windows in the sides of that strange, multi-storied, craft then the righteous old patriarch would have been tempted to gaze on the devastation and destruction that was all around him as the flood waters rose.  The sight would certainly have filled him with sorrow and, later, as the ark floated on the surface of the heaving waters, with no landmark to be seen, might also have filled him with alarm.  The Lord knew this and so, in order to guard His obedient servant from such distressing thoughts, He endsured that he could only gaze heavenward.

We, too, are surrounded by despair; by political and economic chaos (in spite of the Chancellor's fine words!); by ever-decreasing moral standards; by violence and depravity that causes us to wonder if things can get any worse (they can - and probably will!); by exploitation, and greed - a stormy world of sin and death.  In all of this, we need to constantly 'look up', rather than let our hearts be troubled by external circumstances (cf.John 14:1ff).  The grace that is needed will come from above - as will our Saviour,Whose return is clearly predicted and, many of us believe, gloriously imminent.

"Looking Up" helps us to keep everything else in the perspective of eternity, and enables us to carry on with joy and assurance.  In a 'one-liner' that I picked up many years ago: "When the outlook is dark, try the uplook!"

Baggage, or blessing?

Baggage has been on my mind quite a bit, over recent months.   First of all, as we prepared our Motherwell house to go on the market, I had to explain to the Estate Agent that the loft, while having provided two bedrooms for my daughters while they lived with their mum and me, the house could not be advertised as having those two bedrooms.  This was the instruction given by the architect when I wanted to convert the loft, almost twenty years ago.  He explained that the space that I wanted to use as a stairwell would not allow for a stairway that met all of the current regulations.  It would be either too steep, or too narrow.  Accordingly, I was advised, I could only advertise a "floored loft with permanent access", and call it "baggage storage space"!  Needless to say, my daughters were not amused to discover that they were merely baggage!

Earlier this week, we travelled back to France.  With the house on the market, we had to empty everything that we were not prepared to leave.  We had borrowed a friend's baggage trailer, and anyone familiar with the song "Granny Fraser's flitting, fae Aboyne tae Aberdeen" would understand why that song was going through my mind! 

Today, I managed to get almost all of the items that we had brought across, and that hadn't already been stored in the static, into the garden shed that we built two years ago.  It was quite a job - and I already know that, when I start work on completing the balustrade around the terrasse, next week, there will be at least one tool that I will require that will be at the back of the shed!  Such is the well-known 'Murphy's Law'!

However, I started to think of all of the baggage that I carry around in my life.  The regrets; the hurts; the complaints.  They are things that do nothing for me except weigh me down, and hold me back.  The writer of the Letter to Hebrew disciples of Jesus wrote: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Heb 12:1-2). 

And, of course, there is no need for me to bear that burden.  That same Jesus said, "Come to Me, all who labour 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. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." (Matt 11:28-30).

Are you burdened as you read this post?  Are you weary, and bowed down under the weight of your own sinfulness, and sin?  Then why don't you come to the Saviour Who, alone, can provide cleansing and salvation.  John writes: "... if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin." (I John 1:7 - worth reading the full context!).   That's an amazing statement!   In the context of this post, it means, quite simply, that all of my baggage was dealt with at the cross - as long as I don't keep lifting it up again!

John Bunyan, in Pilgrim's Progress, writes: "So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up to the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the tomb, where it fell in, and I saw it no more. Then said Christian with a happy heart, 'He hath given me rest by His sorrow, and life by His death.' Then he stood still awhile to look and wonder; for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden. He looked, therefore, and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the water down his cheeks.

Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three Shining Ones came to him, and saluted him, with 'Peace be to thee.' So the first said to him, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee'; the second stripped him of his rags, and clothed him with a change of garments; the third also set a mark on his forehead, and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bade him look on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the heavenly gate; so they went their way." 

Baggage, or blessing - the choice is yours!

Being in God's will.

Selling a house can be quite a stressful experience!  It can be an opportunity to learn to be patient in the Lord.  It can bring back memories of earlier years living in that home.

One of the memories that I have been revisiting over recent weeks is of the conversion of the loft area to provide bedrooms for my two (then) teenage daughters.  When I was planning that major project, I employed the services of an architect in order to ensure that all would be both sound, and legal.  It wasn't really a complaint, but he quickly made clear to me that, although I was asking him to design the conversion in a way that would satisfy all of the regulations, I had already made the plans in my own mind - and nothing that he might say say was going to change them!  What I really wanted was for him to give the O.K. to my own ideas!

Many of us, who would claim to be disciples of Jesus, seem to proceed in the same way when we ask God to plan our lives.  The words that we pray ask for wisdom, and guidance but, in our hearts, we have already decided what we will do with our lives.  Often, those plans are good, and seek to honour the Lord.  Often there is great effort put into areas of Christian service.  Somehow, however, we seem to have missed the message of Romans 12:1-2, "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."  We gladly trust Christ for salvation, but we are less willing to make the full surrender of our very bodies which ios necessary of we are to "... prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

One of my favourite stories concerns Miriam Booth, a daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army (which, by the way, celebrates its 150th anniversary, next year).  She was, by all accounts, a beautiful and cultured lady who was used wonderfully by God as she sought to serve Him.  Suddenly, and unexpectedly, she contracted a disease that brought her close to death.  A friend who was visiting her commented that it was a great pity that a person with her capabilities should be thus hindered from doing the Lord's work.

Miriam's reply was, surely, classic.  "It is a great thing," she said, "to do God's work; but greater still to be in God's will."

If you are a disciple of Jesus, it's a thought worth pondering.  Whatever our work for Him, let us be certain that we are in His will for us!