Coming Home

Cameron called this summer. “Mom, we’re moving back home! Jay has accepted a position with a church in Madison Alabama!”

It has been almost eight years since we hugged our daughter and son-in law and their baby girl good-bye. I remember standing at the airport hardly able to breathe as we watched our treasures roll down the runway and take off for Poland….and in many ways the unknown. I wanted to run after them, drag them back home and never let them even think about missions again but …well…you can’t easily do that with grown children. Ok, then why couldn’t they just leave the baby? That would help.

The unknown ended up being a year in Poland and then seven years of ministry (and three more babies) in L’Viv Ukraine. But now their work was completed. They were coming HOME. And we anxiously awaited their arrival, just to see their faces cross the threshold of home.

There have been many times in my life that I have waited with great anticipation the arrival of a family member: my husband from business trips, the kids from college, from other parts of the country and then from overseas. And every time there is a flurry of preparation. I cook. I clean. I prepare. And I am excited. And then I wait, frequently looking out the window until the car drives up the drive way. Home, My loved one has arrived and all is well.

Scripture states plainly that Jesus left His heavenly home and ventured to our world on a mission. He left everything behind and “making Himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8) And so this Christmas we celebrate His arrival on earth. But thirty three years later there was another “arrival” and he returned HOME to His home and our REAL home where we will arrive someday.

There are three arrivals I want to celebrate this Christmas. First, that our Savior “left to come” to our home so that He could teach us the way to live.

Secondly He conquered death and left our home to go back to His home with the promise that His blood covered our sin giving us access to Heaven, to God. And there now He is preparing a home for us..

Thirdly He will come back to our home for the last battle and then we all will be home together with our Savior. Something to celebrate this Christmas Season!

John 14:2

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself;

that where I am there you may be also.

HOME

I was amused recently when I read an article stating that radical feminist were intrigued by some of the Mommy-Blogs because they painted pictures of home life that was beautiful, creative, happy, fulfilling all run by intelligent women who had made the decision that HOME was important. They were intrigued because they had never felt such a thing was possible, they had never experienced it themselves and so considered it only fantasy.

And yet now some bloggers are saying it really is possible and it is worth it! It simply requires a vision for a higher good, very hard work, unselfish ambition, skill development, unwavering commitment and the ability to stand firm before the massive artillery of the culture. And that is where the rub comes in. Did you read those words? VISION! WORK! UNSELFISHNESS! SKILLS! COMMITMENT! ARMOR of STEEL!

So as we look at the home, lets for just the rest of this article put aside the worldly agenda that screams that married women with children deserve to be in the work force, developing their career and that doing so is the highest good, Let’s instead for just a few paragraphs pretend that HOME IS the highest calling and can indeed produce the greatest good for humans, society and a nation.

Statistics prove that a large percentage of criminals had terrible home lives. The same holds true for drug addicts, alcoholics, prostitutes, and kids who drop out of school. Most all of the ills of our society can be traced back to the home life as a child. Divorce, once touted as being “benign” as far as children are concerned, is now showing up as a great cancer that humans who have suffered from have to endure in silence. Homes are frazzled with the constant racing from one place to another and the one word that describes two income homes is “overworked”. And probably one of the main things that has been lost with all this rushing and grabbing for significance is that true healthy significance can be found right at home with the family.

Devi Titus wrote an excellent book called The Home Experience. In it she builds a solid argument for dinner around the table. In fact she even goes so far as to say that there is a spiritual environment that is established when people eat a meal around a table together. Indeed I agree. In fact recent statistics prove that children who eat with the family around the table regularly are far less likely to get involved in addictions. But few families take the time, nor do many mothers have the skills to put a good meal on the table in the evening.

The flip side is that the home has the power to affect others for great goodness. It truly boggles the mind to think that the home can be a nursery for heaven. The Bible says a home can be filled with kindness and wisdom. It can be and should be well organized and secure, warm and inviting. And the Bible gives the responsibility of the home to the woman. In fact in Timothy she is referred to as the “OIKA DESPOTA”, the “CEO” of the corporation, the corporation of HOME.

So what can a home do? And by the way I am not talking about the home as simply a house that one stops by on their way to other things, one that is “lifeless”, full of stuff that is in total disarray, cereal for supper, clothes that have been abused and contention that pervades. I am talking about HOME as in well organized, comfortable, good food, clean beds and clothes, happy inhabitants, art and literature, culture and intellect, which displays calmness and beauty. In other words HOME is a refuge, a place of spiritual, emotional and physical restoration. Simply put, it can be and is the foundation of a nation. Home-working is not for the faint of heart if done right. It is certainly not for the lazy. It is the work of building a healthy family, a healthy society, indeed a healthy nation.

There are many people who have provided examples for me to follow and those examples have made a huge an impact on my life. My mom was certainly one of those homemakers. As I got older Betty Cannon served as another example. I remember the first time I went to her home. She truly introduced me to the concept of “comfortable beauty”. Scented candles that once seemed frivolous to my practical side, became a warm welcome in her home. A pile of magazines in a basket by an easy chair that was draped with an afghan would not have excited my intellectual mentality (small as it is) until I experienced it in her home. Then I was able to see it added to a sense of well being and comfort. A pot of homemade soup served up on a well set table filled my soul with calmness and good cheer and provided an environment for deeper conversation.

But Mrs. Cannon had something else. She LOVED home and LOVED those who entered. I loved every part of my time in her house. It always was wrapped around good simple food and a listening ear. She made a home. She was home and so much of that was built on the environment she created because she chose to make the effort.

So what did she gain? Well for starters she raised four fabulous kids who have now raised fabulous children of their own. Her husband loved and adored her until his last breath and a gazillion people had the privilege of knowing her and being refreshed and restored in the refuge she created. She left a legacy that could never have been created in the competition of career. She did it through those words we started with; VISION, WORK, UNSELFISHNESS, SKILLS, COMMITMENT, ARMOUR OF STEEL.

As I look around at the flailing culture that struggles for peace it makes me think that maybe there is an answer that perhaps we as women should give some consideration. Perhaps we might consider that it lies under our own roofs. Perhaps we should just go home …. and create a society changing environment, indeed a nursery for heaven.

Titus 2:4-5

Encourage the young women to love their husbands, love their children, to be sensible pure WORKERS AT HOME, kind being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored.

Threads of Life

Donna picked me up from the airport in Chicago last week and continued to be my “chauffer” for the next 24 hours. She was lovely, bright, dressed impeccably and obviously loved the Lord. After meeting her I was now looking forward with great anticipation to my speaking engagement at her church, Oak Community Church!

As we were driving to my hotel she asked me where I was from and I told her, Roswell, Georgia. She was surprised and said she had actually lived there herself for almost a year many years ago.

Then she went on to tell me about her time there. She had a wonderful neighbor who had invested greatly in her life. The neighbor had also taken her to a large Bible study at a church nearby where she had made a recommitment to Jesus Christ.

She then told me the neighbor’s name. Barb E-. I was blown away. I know Barb well and in fact had lived not too far from her at the same time Donna lived there. We had almost been neighbors! And the Bible Study? It was the very one I directed for almost twenty years.

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In September I taught a retreat in Dallas for Grace Community Church. The church was doing the Amazing Collection and was obviously enjoying it very much and “learning for life” about every book in God’s Word. One of the attendees told me that she had been so surprised and delighted when she was watching the First Thessalonians DVD. The testimony was Gaye-Lynn Smith; Gaye-Lynn had given her story literally from her death bed and had passed away shortly after filming. What makes this so remarkable is that Gaye-Lynn had been a missionary in Papua, New Guinea with her years before. After she left the mission field she had lost track of Gaye-Lynn and was so ministered to when she saw the testimony.

Gaye-Lynn’s was probably one of our most miraculous testimonies. We had actually come across Gaye-Lynn’s story through Discipleship Journal Magazine and had been able to contact the church who had filmed her. We then contacted her husband who was living in New Guinea to get permission to include it in our study. And now God was using it to encourage a woman who had served along side Gaye-Lynn in New Guinea years before! Amazing!

When I look at the many times threads of lives have woven together it really is something only God could do. Several years ago, Donna had lived in this area for only a few months, but was saved through a woman who brought her to our Bible Study. Twenty years later she was able to tell me, the speaker she had brought in to minister to the womens’ ministry she was now directing!

Gaye-Lynn passed away years ago but was still touching the life of a friend long after she had gone home to be with the Lord.

God is writing a story. We seldom see all that He is doing with the threads but when occasions like these arrive I am reminded that He is weaving something beautiful.

Corrie Ten Boom wrote the following

My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not til the loom is silent, and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas, and explain the reasons why.
The dark threads are as needful, in the Weavers skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Job 7:6
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle

Apple of His Eye

It had been a packed week of meetings and work and house guests so there had been little time to prepare for the talk I was to give to the women of the First Presbyterian Church in Orlando. As I drove to the airport I prayed fervently that God would somehow give me the time I needed to put the finishing touches on the speech.

When I got to the airport the Delta official announced that there was a full plane so we were to board as quickly as possible in order to stay on time. As I handed him my boarding pass he said, “Mrs. Harley we have upgraded you to first class.” I couldn’t believe my ears but sure enough, there was “my seat”, large and comfortable with the amenities that go with First Class!

The man next to me was quiet, engrossed in his own work and so for nearly two hours I had all the time I needed to fully prepare. No other passenger was as thankful as I was! I praised God all the way down to Orlando for His great kindness to me.

Two days later I was returning to Atlanta. As I again boarded the plane I realized that this time my seat was in the VERY back and I was squeezed between two rather large men. As I fastened my seat belt I had to laugh! “Lord, I see that when I am going to do your work, you give me the best seat but when I am all done, here I am in the very back!”

A few minutes later the stewardess came to the back of the plane and announced that there was a seat up front and wanted someone to move up there. No one raised their hand and she left.

“That is weird”, I thought. I would have assumed that EVERYONE would have wanted to move to first class.

Again she returned and asked the same question. No one moved and again I wondered why no one raised their hand. This was all so strange!

The third time she returned and with firmness stated that the plane could not take off until SOMEONE took that seat! I raised my hand and was ushered to First Class and there had not only had ONE seat but TWO large seats to spread out in!

As I slid my body into those wonderful leather, comfortable seats I started laughing out loud! “Lord, you are just beyond WONDERFUL and I now can see that you can do and will do ANYTHING for your children! I am spoiled beyond belief!”

Does our God have a sense of humor? I think so, in fact I think that day proved not only His sense of humor but His omnipresence, omnipotence and above al His personal love for and delight in His children. And in those moments I think He is calling from heaven, “I know YOU and I love YOU! You really are the apple of My eye!”

I have flown many times since then and never again have I received an upgrade. But on that day I received a special gift, a personal love gift from a personal God.

We have experienced this often in Big Dream Ministries. There have been many times that we have heard a shout from Heaven as God does something BIG for the ministry such as a large financial gift from one of our generous donors. But there are other times when He does small things that take our breath away such as providing a copier at no cost from a company who doesn’t even know much about the ministry. These overwhelm us because He shows Himself so very personal, so intimate in His love, so aware of even our smallest needs. And in both times we are thankful.

Psalm 17:8
Keep me as the apple of Your eye.

Not So Cheap

It was the picture by the recipe in the cookbook that caught my eye! It showed a lovely rustic pottery bowl filled with the most delicious looking pasta and vegetables. The recipe called for pasta, fresh vegetables and two different kinds of cheeses.

Pasta! A cheap meal! It would fit right into the steam-lined budget Beloved and I had come up with the night before after finding that our budget for two months had been maligned. So we went over every penny we had spent and found the culprit and not surprisingly it was “groceries”. July had been a particularly celebratory month with much company at the cottage and many meals enjoyed with friends and family. And it was there that the budget went out the window and our food allowance went through the roof.

But once the problem had been identified I felt confident that I could quickly get it under control and we would be back in great financial shape within a month or two. After all, I KNOW HOW TO COOK CHEAP! So the pasta with vegetables looked like the perfect recipe…cheap and delicious! So off to Kroger I went with my small grocery list in hand.

Every few weeks I buy a gift card and pay for groceries with that. It makes checking out fast and also saves me from writing twenty checks to Kroger every month! So at check out I swiped my card, never looking at the price and went my merry way.

The pasta was boiling in the pot when I glanced at the receipt. $21.95! I had just spent $21.95 for a pot of “cheap” pasta! In fact it was not cheap because the specialty cheeses and pasta had cost a fortune! I was shocked…and mad at myself for not paying close attention. And the verse came to mind .. “For which one of you when he wants to build a tower (or cook dinner!) does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?”

Considering the costs….Christ was not talking about dinner but far more important things. He basically asks us to see nothing as important, nothing that can even begin to compare with the great joy of following Him. But that is not a cheap decision just as it is not cheap grace. . It is very costly. It literally costs everything.

But like me and the pasta dish we all want something cheap. Instead of fellowship with God we will substitute just about anything else yet in the long run the cheap costs us far more than we were ever wanted to spend. It catches us off guard, deceives us into believing we really are getting a deal. But Christ offers us the greatest treasure of all and then turns around and reminds us that it comes with a cost.
Consider…consider…consider.

It is all worth it. In the end it is worth everything.

Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
John 14: 27

In the Garden

The beauty of the garden caught me off guard. After all this was a small town in the Midwest North Country where the growing season is short and the opportunities for prosperity limited. I had lunched with my friend Betsy in a small café right on the main street and then she gave me a tour of the town, all of which could be accomplished in less than five minutes. That was when “the garden” caught my eye. It was so beautiful and in many ways a bit out of place as it stood in a residential area and took up one lot….a lot where a home should be.

In the center of the garden was a lovely stone pavilion, circular in shape and held up by four stone pillars. Pathways entered from three sides and around the park were six benches. These were not your average park benches, but ones made by a true craftsman, unique in design and sturdy in form.

And then there were the flowers and shrubs, all planted with an eye for peace and serenity and there were occasional large boulders also expertly placed for design and beauty. Truly it looked a little bit like heaven on earth.

Betsy parked the car and we began to walk around. On each bench was a plaque dedicated to a different young person whose name, date of birth and death were solemnly engraved. When I entered the pavilion the whole story came into focus as there on the wall was the story of the event that happened on that very spot.

Four years earlier a house stood right where I was standing. It was graduation night and seven kids gathered there to celebrate with pizza and fun. One of the girls had broken up with her boyfriend just days before and on this night, filled with jealous anger, he arrived at the party with an assault rifle. Moments later six young people lay dead, the seventh critically injured. Days later he himself would be hunted down and shot dead.

In the twinkling of an eye, daily life in this small town was changed forever. Everyone knew all of the victims, in fact most everyone was related to at least one of them. In that small town probably the biggest crime ever committed was kids throwing eggs at passing cars. But on this night hell and all its evil made a visit and seven young promising lives were gone forever. What was left was shock, disbelief, sorrow and despair.

So what does one do with such devastation? Build a garden. The house was torn down and with it the constant reminder of the horror that took place that night. And in its place, a Garden. New birth. Beauty. Peace. Comfort. Hope.

I was reminded once again of the deep longing within us to return to the Garden…to that safe place where sin is not allowed to enter, that place where there are no tears or sorrow. That place where God is. But this earth is not heaven, for the present it belongs to Satan and will until Christ comes back. That Garden is a reminder of both…the battle on earth with pure evil and the hope of heaven and pure joy. In the meantime God occasionally gives us small glimpses …a garden….a reminder…this is not our home.

And the Lord sent him out from the Garden of Eden…
Genesis 3:23

The World of Idiots

When I was a child I was never allowed to call anyone an idiot. Webster says the word means a “mentally deficient person who is permanently incapable of rational conduct or a very stupid person.” It seems to me there are a growing number of such people. In fact a couple of years ago I was involved in an incident that convinced me the world is full of them.

I was on an entrance ramp coming onto an eight lane highway. As I neared the top, the traffic came to a complete stop. I waited and nothing happened. Soon I heard a police car roaring down the shoulder of the highway, turned onto the left lane and came to a stop behind a cranberry colored Ford Explorer. And there I waited for many minutes as the car refused to move and the police lights kept flashing.

“Idiot”, I said under my breath. This guy would not budge even though those lights kept going. I waited a bit longer growing more and more frustrated with this guy in the Explorer reviewing in my mind the sin of man and how this guy was the worst of the worst. He had no compassion. Perhaps there were people lying wounded and dying in the road just ahead desperately needing an officer and yet Mr. Explorer refused to move his car.

I was ready to jump out and drag him out of his car myself, so enraged at the gall, the inconsiderateness, the unwillingness to consider there was a CRISIS up ahead, when all of a sudden I heard the policeman take serious steps to get him to move.

A loudspeaker bellowed. “Please move to the right!” “There…that should get him!” I thought, but still he didn’t budge. Again the loudspeaker came on, with greater firmness and urgency. “Please move to the right! Please move your car to the right!!” Everyone within hearing distance would have moved to the right but our IDIOT would not!

“Please move your Four Runner to the right!” The voice came again. I thought the policeman must not know his cars very well because THAT car was an Explorer.

Again, and this time the color of the car was added to the command. “PLEASE MOVE YOUR TAN FOUR RUNNER TO THE RIGHT!!!!” Tan Forerunner? The idiot was driving a cranberry Explorer. How could the police make such a horrible mistake. And then I glanced in the rear view mirror only to see an ambulance right behind me and my tan Four Runner directing ME to MOVE my car to the right!!!

As it turns out, there was only ONE idiot on the scene and that was me. The police was stopped behind the guy in the Explorer because that car and several others had been involved in an accident. I was the person incapable of rational behavior .

I moved my car to the right.

And I looked in the mirror. And there I saw a profound truth.

Do not judge others who might have a splinter in their eye until you have taken the huge jumbo log out of your own eye. Those words are Jesus’ idea because He created us and knows full well that at any given moment we are all capable of being idiots… totally incapable of rational thought