Aurora, Colorado

I grew up in Aurora, Colorado, about a mile and a half from the now infamous Century 16 Theater.  I remember the Aurora Mall, home to the theater, the area where I usually parked, the door where I usually entered, the stores where I usually shopped.  My hometown, Aurora, Colorado, once an obscure suburb of the city of Denver, now stands in the national news as the place of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.  When I first heard the news and saw video footage, I was stunned.  How could this horrible shooting have taken place in my city, a city ranked among the ten safest cities just two years ago?

Living now hundreds of miles away from Aurora, people question me.  “Aren’t you glad your husband saved you from that horrible place?”  “What is wrong with the people from Colorado?”  “There should be gun controls!”  My first instinct is to defend Aurora and its people.  My thoughts stray to other recent shootings.  I contemplate the shooter’s original home.  I wonder who is really responsible for this abhorrent act.  And then I am reminded that this world is filled with evil.  Men have turned their hearts and minds away from the Creator of the universe and as a result creation has been subjected to ruin, futility and corruption.

But we are not without hope.  Jesus told His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  The evil and tribulation of this world cause us to look eagerly for the hope of His return, for redemption, for our adoption as sons.  That will be a glorious day!

And while we wait for that day, we have the hope and knowledge that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”  These are hard words, especially for someone who lost a loved one in the shooting and yet they are true words, words in which we can place our hope.  We can also trust that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

The stories of those in the theater that early morning of July 20 trickle out.  They renew our faith and hope.  Four men were killed as they shielded their girlfriends.  A thirteen year-old girl tried to resuscitate a six year-old victim.  A young woman stayed with her friend, applying pressure to a gunshot wound in her friend’s neck.  When the shooting stopped, she carried her friend to an ambulance across the parking lot.  Another young woman, hit four times, once in the head, was saved and protected from brain damage by an unknown birth defect.  A tiny vein of fluid extended through her skull and miraculously the bullet traveled through that vein.  Her mother stated, “I believe she was not only protected by God, but that she was actually prepared for it.”    

More stories of heroism will emerge in the coming days.  And let us not forget the police officers who responded quickly and decisively.  Hope remains.  God’s love abides.  As one victim writes, “God is always good.  Man is not.  Don’t get the two confused.  We will continue to praise and worship our mighty God, anticipating that He will bring beauty from ashes, as only He can do.”

Faulty Foundations

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Sweeter than honey and the honeycomb,

Moreover by them Your servant is warned,

And in keeping them there is great reward.

-Psalm 19:7-11

Recently I discussed the subject of grace with a “liberal christian.”  His understanding of the grace of God contrasted my own throughout our discourse.  We lacked common ground.  Our definitions differed and our foundations conflicted.  Our discussion left me with a question.  Can one fully understand God’s amazing grace outside the bounds of God’s Word?   God’s grace is first defined in God’s Word.  Can it then be defined differently outside the confines of the Bible?  In other words, if something is first introduced in one place with one foundation, can someone change that definition into something completely different based on the foundation of man’s limited understanding?

This changing of definitions is happening with more concepts than God’s grace alone.  Many Biblical truths have been given explanations that fall outside the descriptions given in God’s Word.  Changing a definition makes it easier to shape concepts into what we want them to be rather than what they are as revealed by Scripture.  However, we cannot base God’s truths on our own understanding because these truths did not originate with us.  They originated with God.  Therefore He has the privilege of defining them.

I am reminded of a point made by Ravi Zacharias.  When King Josiah ordered that repairs to the temple begin, the priests found something that had been lost, the Book of Law.  Imagine, the Book of Law was lost in the very place that it was to be kept, read and remembered.  Is this happening in our churches today?  Have we “lost” God’s Word in an attempt to make His truths more palatable to our tastes?  In an effort to change beliefs into our image of what is right, we place ourselves on a faulty foundation of miry clay from which we must be rescued.

When King Josiah heard the Words of the Law read, he tore his clothes; “for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”  This is our standard.  We must “find” God’s Word again.  We must read it with renewed interest and grieve for our failure to follow it completely.  We must cry out to God for a correct understanding of the truths He has given us in His Word.  Only then can He set our feet upon a rock and establish our steps in the right direction.  Only then can we truly rejoice and be glad. 

Jesus Alone

Not long ago a friend told me that abortion was the most important issue.  I do agree that abortion is an important issue, one that needs to be addressed.  However, I do not agree that it is the most important issue.  The most important issue remains Jesus.  What will you do with Jesus?  The writer to the Hebrews tells us to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus.” 

Consider Him, for in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son, this same Jesus, who is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person.  If you want to know the Father, consider His Son.  If you want to know what the Father has to say, consider His Son.  Consider this One who is “counted worthy of more glory than Moses” for He not only built the house, “whose house we are,” but He also built all things.

Later in Hebrews, we are told to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,” and to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  The most important part of this admonition found in Hebrews 12 is our focus.  We are to look “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Look unto Jesus.  He authored our faith and He finished our faith.  Nothing needs to be added.  We are not admonished to look to anything else.  We are admonished to focus on Him.  Consider Him.  What happens when a runner takes his focus off the finish line, when he glances, even for a second, on others in the race?  When we take our eyes off Jesus, we are slowed up and sometimes even driven off course.   

Paul tells us to run in such a way that you may obtain the prize.  Do not run with uncertainty.  Discipline your body and bring it into subjection, lest you become disqualified.  (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)  How does one run with certainty?  How does one obtain the prize?  Simply look to Jesus.  “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”  (Proverbs 3:6)  Consider Him alone and obtain the prize of an imperishable crown.  He is our reward.  Jesus alone.   

Birds and Prayer

I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,

Always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy,

For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,

Being confident of this very thing,

That He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

-Philippians 1:3-6

Birds present a beautiful picture of a parent’s life.  Before the little birds come into the world, the parent birds prepare the nest with diligence, carefully choosing their building materials so that their nest provides an optimal home for the new birds.  When the baby birds hatch from their eggs, the parent birds nurture and provide for them.  Their activity centers on the growth and protection of these helpless birds in their care.  As the baby birds grow, the parents lead them further afield and train them to find their own worms and berries.  They teach them to fly and the babies grow in their knowledge and skill.  The day arrives when the parent birds have done all they can for their charges.  The babies have grown into adult birds ready to experience the world on their own.  They fly away while the parent birds watch from the nest.

In the same way, human parents diligently prepare their homes and lives for the new baby.  They carefully plan the details of the baby’s arrival and provide all that’s needed for an ideal home life.  When the baby is born, the parents wrap him in soft blankets and nurture him with love and protection.  Their lives now center on this helpless baby who needs their constant care.  They teach him about the world and train him to use the gifts that God has given him.  They instruct him in the knowledge that he will need to take his place in society.  Before long he has grown into a young man ready to experience life on his own.  The parents watch as he steps away with strength and vitality.  Their role of gathering him beneath their wings is finished.

However, unlike birds, human parenthood never really stops.  A parent’s role changes but it continues.  The departure of our children presents us with new opportunity and responsibility, the opportunity to counsel and the responsibility to pray.  Both require wisdom and discipline.  Both require daily guidance from the Lord.  Our children are no longer in our direct care.  No longer can we gather and protect them under our wings.  But we can earnestly and intensely lift them in prayer to their Father in heaven.  R.A. Torrey illustrates this type of prayer with a pictorial word, “stretched-out-ed-ly.”  He writes, “The prayer that prevails with God is the prayer into which we put our whole soul, stretching out toward God in intense and agonizing desire.”

That’s the type of prayer I strive to pray for my children, stretched-out-ed-ly.  I yearn to stretch out toward God intensely desiring Him to work in the lives of my children who are far from my wings.  I earnestly cry out for Him to gather them beneath His wings and to love and guide them in His ways.  I pray that their love would abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that they would approve the things that are excellent, and that they would be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ.  (Philippians 1:9-11)  I pray confidently that He would continue His work in their lives.  That is my new parental responsibility and I fulfill it gladly.

Together Again, Naturally

I am struck by an essay entitled Alone Again, Naturally.  Dennis Prager read and discussed it on his show yesterday afternoon.  The author of the piece sings the praises of being alone.  “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle,” she quotes with conviction.  As I listened to and later read her thoughts, I felt that I couldn’t disagree more.  I do need my man and I like having him around.  Yes, there are times when I want my own space, my independence.  I want to “spend my own money on a 10^th pair of black boots or a painting or a wood stove” without asking for permission.  I don’t want to worry about cooking if I don’t want to.  And yet, when I think of the loneliness that misguided freedom means, I shrink from the thought.

Single women “love doing whatever we want to do, when we want to do it.”  I suppose we all think that we would love to do whatever, whenever.  In fact the society around us gives us the feeling that we have a right to feel that way.  We are told to “have it your way” and “if it feels good, do it.”  Yet even a life of singleness presents its responsibilities.  I was single until I was twenty-six and there were few times when I ate breakfast at 11 and lunch at 3.  I usually had a class to attend or a job to do.  Being single and alone does not take away the responsibilities of life.  It only adds to the loneliness one feels when she comes home from work to an empty place where no one waits for her arrival.

As a single person we come to realize “that there is no reason to curl up on ‘our’ side of the bed while we sleep.  We no longer have to take sides.  We can sprawl across the expansive middle.”  Ten years ago I was given the lonely privilege of sprawling across the expansive middle of ‘our’ bed.  My husband had just been diagnosed with cancer and he was in the hospital awaiting treatment.  I found this ‘privilege’ bleak and cold.  The long night seemed to drag on forever.  I missed a companion to keep me warm both physically and emotionally.

She ends her essay by stating, “We love our nests.”  I love my nest as well.  I love those that are a part of my nest, my husband and my children.  They are the ones that make my nest worth tending and they are the ones that make my nest snug, warm, serene, and safe.  I don’t understand the feeling that a woman doesn’t need anyone, especially a man who makes life “a lot of work.”  Having a companion to share the load and to pick one up when she is down, makes life worth the struggle.  It makes life safe and serene.  It makes life warm and friendly.

God reminds us in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 that “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.  For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.”  I do not see it as a weakness to have someone there to lift me when I have fallen.  I see it as a reward.  “But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up.  Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.”  Those of us who are blessed with a special bed-warmer will not dispute this.  A warm bed is much more inviting than a cold one.  “But how can one be warm alone?  Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.  And a three-fold cord is not quickly broken.”  I am thankful for my husband and I am thankful for the Lord God who offers the third strand to our cord.  Together we can withstand the struggles this world offers.  Together we can enjoy the warmth and help of a constant companion.  I choose to be together.