Jacobs Thoughts and Doings

I have a soft spot in my heart for hummingbirds.  So does Anna Ruth.  Here is one of my favorites – a female at the sugar water.  The more I study it, the more beautiful and delicate it becomes.  Our lives are brightened by these lovely creatures.

In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them.  In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Isaiah 63:9

I see this wonderful vision – me being carried as a needy one for all my days.  I never become self-sufficient.  I live my entire lifetime in the knowledge that I need daily help!

In Isaiah 63 we see the situation as it actually is: God’s people are in distress.  Where is God?  Behold, He too was distressed.  God is no stranger to distress. There are times when I feel like I must bear my stress alone – forgetting the most important thing, God is right there with me in my distress.

I think it would be nice if I never experience distress, but that is not the ways of the Lord.  He was distressed more that I can possibly know, to work out my salvation.

The Bible is full of God meeting his people in their distress.  This did not come to an end when Jesus appeared.  God’s people experience distress, that we know.  The difference is that now Jesus, the distressed one, is there with us.

So the sacred writer paints a picture – God in his love and mercy redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.  This is pure love, undeserved but poured out for us. Is this me?  Is it you?  Do I see myself carried as a child?  If so, I am living by the grace of God the way that is prepared for me.  I rest on that eternal reality.  Praise God.

He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,  but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

2 Timothy 1:9, 10

Good morning, reader, beloved in the faith.  What is our calling?  Timothy was clear on that – we are called to live holy lives.  Not to earn our salvation, or any such thing, but we are called because God calls us.  We did not earn this, we are called!  Why we are called is to be found in the grace of God.

That grace is a free gift of God.  It was there even before time began but has shone in all its brightness in Jesus Christ who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.  All of us believers rejoice in this unbelievably wonderful work of God.  Since He did it, it is perfect.  When He offers it, it is surely true.

My Lord Jesus, settle me completely on this knowledge that exceeds worldly knowledge.  May I cling to your salvation all my days and beyond!

One sign of Fall is the apple sauce that is the result of wonderful Fall apples and the loving hands of Anna Ruth who makes such wonderful things.  She freezes what we do not eat!

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

We all have bodies, mine is now 91 years old!   All of us believers have bodies, a blessed thing, indeed.

So, what does that mean?   We believers came to God as whole persons, body, mind and spirit.  God cleansed us top to bottom in all areas of our being.

I gave up the right to rule my body but have turned that rule over to Jesus Christ!   I am eternally grateful that God led me to relinquish control of my life all these years.  Now and again I do feel inclined to take back at least some of that rule.  None of that!  God is able!  I want all of me to be God’s.   Every day I lay down my will and choose God’s will.

In this way I honor God, by placing all my life into His hands.  I am convinced that I honor God with the body he gave me.

Wayne Lawton and his daughter Ruth participated in the annual British Revival meeting, here with our dear sister of many years, Joan Hall of Britain, who gave much of her life to living with the brothers and sisters in Uganda.

The meetings were held in a tent in Wales, their usual spot to meet.

So then, all things are yours and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

! Corinthians 3:21, 23

In my mind’s eye, I am there in Corinthian, a Roman citizen with a few Jewish friends.  I heard the Word of the Lord through them, offering me salvation, fullness of the Spirit and an inheritance in heaven along with all the saints of God, no matter our tribe, language or ideology.  It is all a miracle of grace, whether we have a long history of walking with God, or a new walk in the Salvation that Jesus bought us with his own shed blood.

What is the promise?  That “all things are yours.”  The Corinthian church was a mixture of peoples, including Jews and Gentiles, a Roman city in Asia Minor.  Paul was not a native of Corinth!  Yet he spoke the Word of the Lord into their fellowships.  Jews and Gentiles all need salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ.  As each person stands before that wonderful reality, all things grow dim as the light of the Gospel speaks to and through all.

I was not brought up to think that full salvation is for all.  I never gave that a thought.  How my life was changed as I found my wife and me in Tanzania living with people who are so different from us that is seems like a miracle that we can communicate at all.  Yet this set the stage for us to live the life of Christ with them and they with us.  I cannot begin to describe how this went, pain and joy, but with the firm realization that Jesus saves all who call on Him, always and everywhere!

I cannot begin to describe those days – the turmoil, the searching, the living hope and feelings that I cannot even begin to describe.  Those days reoriented my life completely.  I was once again in the lowest grade in life’s school!   I was rebuilt – so to speak.  And have not been the same since.  It was a rough road for me, and for others in both cultures who were called to follow Christ.  Why God chose me to experience this I do not know, but I know it happened.  Praise his Holy Name, now and forever.

The Father of lights, with whom is no variableness neither shadow of turning.

James 1:17

I think it is only James who used this description of the Father of Jesus Christ, He is the Father of lights.  He is the true light.   I think this means that the light of Christ that enlightens all believers, even today, is the true light that does not change – it just keeps shining!

In God there is no variableness neither shadow of turning. God is pure light, in all ways from all angles.  He is the true light.  His light shone on Abraham, on the apostles, and on us!  I stand in amazement and praise!

God alone is the Father of lights – the source of all light. That light shined through Jesus Christ.

There is only one Jesus.  He is the light as his Father is the light!  He invites us to share in that one and only divine light.  Why should we seek another?  It is Jesus!

Here I stand with a person who helped to shape my life, Chirangi!  He was struggling with some health issues when I taught him at Katoke Teachers College.  I tried to walk with him in his discomfort.   He was born and bred in a dry climate, Katoke was in a semi-rain forest area west of Lake Victoria.  I do believe his struggles were authentic.  Others thought otherwise!  With diligence he worked hard to stay in training and so was not dismissed as a trainee but qualified to be a school teacher, his career.  We loved and admired one another and that was that!  Here I stand with him as the Secretary of the Tanzania Mennonite Church.  In his patience and love he walked with me as I tried to find my way in that culture.  He must have wondered now and again who this was that he was to call “brother.”  It was me!

Chirangi’s son is now the Doctor in Charge of the Shirati Hospital, one of the best private hospitals in Tanzania.  He is the one who sent me this precious picture a few days ago.    As the years pass all this fits into patterns – God’s call to change us all!

Chirangi and others loved me with all my faults and together we revealed to all what God can do with people so different yet so much the same!  May his name be praised. Thank you, Dr. Chirangi for this wonderful picture and even more precious memories.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

I Peter 2:8 – 10

The churches Paul was involved in bringing to life were in five regions of Asia Minor.  It must have been a very mixed group of believers because much of the ministry of Peter was to both Jews and Gentiles, and the formation of Christian fellowships that resulted.  The believers, no matter what their background, were urged to rise above tribal or national demands.  The believers to whom he wrote were suffering not only because of their faith in Jesus but because they loved all those in the fellowships, regardless of cultural obligations.  This inclusion presented for Christians huge challenges, for their native cultures gave high regard to racial and tribal belonging.

Peter obviously did not even consider breaking the church into cultural groups.  In a way the fact that Jesus was himself a Jew did not matter at all.  In addition, he is now in heaven walking with us. The Body of Jesus Christ is a demonstration of the radically new Christian communities.  It was a blend of cultures, so to speak, not one culture swallowing all.  This was all very radical.  Much of the New Testament was written reflecting this constant challenge, to follow Christ in fellowship, disregarding culture differences all bring and following Jesus together.

As I look across the world today I am stuck by the cultural influences that prevail.  My own little congregation located near Lancaster is basically white, mostly Germanic in background, middle class and comparatively wealthy.   We are really much alike!  Sometimes that blinds us to the fact that we are an important part of the great Body of Christ that exists in the world today.

So our Monday meditation pulls us into the heart of God where we all live and love.  May we be faithful.