Shining for Jesus

No man dies before his time.

~ Yiddish Proverb

This is not the occasion I anticipated for returning for a post. I write to ask for prayers for the family of one of the brightest lights for Jesus I've had the privilege to know—my sister-in-law Stephanie.

Stephanie met my brother Michael at a rehabilitation center for the blind. Michael lost his sight through degenerative disease, Stephanie through a traumatic accident. They fell in love and got married. They had the courage to have three children in a society that often values neither children nor those called handicapped.

Michael and Stephanie have endured numerous hardships, which would have challenged the best of us. The latest one was Stephanie's battle with cancer. When I spoke with her last month just after she played the keyboard for worship service, she didn't voice concern for herself, or even her family. As the cancer ravaged her, she said she just wanted to make sure she was shining for Jesus.

She was still uncomplaining yesterday—unless you count the fact that the pain brought her to tears, and to request, "Can somebody please do something for me?" God answered that prayer, and finally called her home.

Some might say that she died too soon, before she fulfilled the purpose of raising her children.

She heard a call to a purpose higher yet, of shining for Jesus. She well fulfilled that purpose in the time on earth appointed to her.

I ask that you please keep her husband and three children in your prayers, and ask the Lord to comfort them with the knowledge that Stephanie did not die before her time.

:  :  :

I appreciate your understanding for no replies to comments. I remain on vacation from blogging while I return to Colorado this week to be with family.
~ Anne

Saying Good-bye to Turn Home

This will be my last post for a while. A season has come to take time from blogging to turn my heart home, in more than one way.

I'll turn my heart home as our family finishes planning and hosting a graduation open house for my oldest daughter. She is a pride and joy and deserves my best attention.

My husband John is my home. Our marriage has survived a turbulent couple of years. A new door has opened for our relationship. I'll turn my heart home as John and I reconnect in vital ways.

My heart will turn for home when I visit family this summer. The day has not yet arrived when I've resided more years in Michigan than the 27 I had in Colorado. I understand that whether my address is Michigan or Colorado, my citizenship is of Heaven, and that's my real home. But my people and our mountains? They'll never stop being home.

The blogsphere is one of my homes, where I connect with like minds. I've hesitated to pause blogging, because this haven builds up my own spirit at least as much as I intend for it to build yours. But I'm pained by the inability to read your blogs more often. I will genuinely have my heart turned toward home if less writing means more time to actually visit you at your places.

I make no promises or plans right now for a return date on posts. I'd expect to be gone for at least a month, but not past summer's end. I may be inclined to share a worship song on weekends here and there. Comments on existing posts will receive replies.

You can plan on this: sooner or later, I'll have my heart turned toward home here at Building His Body, with plenty to share about the Lord—for Whom we provide a home.

Thus says the LORD:
"Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,"
Says the LORD.
"But on this one will I look:
On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word."
~ Isaiah 66:1-2 (NKJV)

: : :

This post is part of a blog carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. You're invited to visit his site and see what others are saying about today's theme: HOME.

Your comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are most appreciated. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Favor

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
~ Psalms 136:1 (NKJV)

In the above passage, the Hebrew word translated "mercy" is chêsêd. Scholars readily agree that its literal meaning is difficult to capture in a single word. Various translations render it with words such as love, steadfast love, faithful love, lovingkindness, kindness, mercy. Though I have represented chêsêd with the word "favor" in the above image, it rarely receives that translation. Chêsêd is "favor" magnified and intensified beyond any word's meaning.

We have those family members or friends whom we honestly love because of our relationship with them—but we don't really like them. We also associate with plenty of nice people whom we genuinely "like," and whom we could say we "love" in the generic way we love all of humanity.

Then there are those favorite people we love from the heart, to whom we give another level of "like" which exceeds love. These are those closest to us—family members or friends to whom we'd deny nothing we own, for whom we'd do anything of which we're capable. They have a level of favor in our souls which propels us to find a way to do what is good for them and will bring pleasure to them.

Biblical Hebrew has no word for "like" in the sense that we look upon someone as pleasant and think, "I like you." The Bible offers only the intensified version of "I don't just love you—I like you" captured by chêsêd.

If you are one of God's people, remember this always:

As intense and sacrificial and overarching as God's love for you is, He doesn't simply love you. He really, genuinely likes you. You are one of His favor-ites.

I promise.

Lord, we have no way to fully grasp the depth of Your chêsêd for us in this world. But today, would You please give to us a deeper comprehension and appreciation for it? Would You allow us to understand it as fully as we can right now? Please? Thank You, Lord.

Your comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are most appreciated. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Everlasting

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
~ Psalms 136:1 (NKJV)

In the above passage, the original Hebrew of the last line is reverse order of the English—"everlasting [forever] is His chêsêd." The words are repeated 26 times in this psalm and at least 30 other times in the Old Testament.

The Hebrew word translated "forever" is ‛ôlâm, often rendered "everlasting." Its literal meaning is "out of sight." Infinity is not a Hebrew concept. Time and distance simply go on until they pass from sight, like the horizon on our planet's sphere.

My personal suspicion is that eternity is somewhat like a sphere, an eternal circle without end in all directions—4-D rather than 3-D. I can't prove that from Scripture or science or even the Holy Spirit. It's just the feeling I get when I read the Bible and think about God. I see eternity as the perfect union of end and beginning, rather than passage of time. I see Heaven as a place where we can go as far as we want and never put distance between ourselves and God.

(And then again, I could be totally nuts.)

What's important isn't how time and distance work in the realm of everlasting, but that El Olam—Everlasting God—is a name of God more than it is about either time or distance. Olam is His character, and it is the unchanging nature of His every attribute.

Everlasting God, You are unchanging and worthy of our full confidence. We are unstable children of clay. Without You, our Rock, we cannot stand for even a fleeting moment.

Your comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are most appreciated. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.

Good

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
~ Psalms 136:1 (NKJV)

The Hebrew word ṭôb (or tov) from the above passage means "good" in the very broadest sense of the word. Tôb is beautiful, righteous, kind, loving, wise, valuable, glad, strong, gracious, joyful, well-pleasing, profitable, precious.

We hear that God is good. We sing it. We accept it.

And then we suspect otherwise.

Like the child who is must learn the disciplines of life with correction and sometimes thinks the whole affair unpleasant, we catch ourselves thinking that maybe God isn't really good.

He seems mad at us when we don't deserve it. We see His discipline as too harsh. We judge that He isn't fair with us, and it isn't right for Him to not explain things we think we have a right to know. We'd bet that He's not as forgiving as He says and is just waiting for us to mess up so He can get back at us for all the other stuff. We may think He's simply toying with us, that He's mean and ugly. (Maybe He's not good?)

The Bible is filled with countless testimonies from real people who endured all that we endure—and worse. They saw God's goodness at work and tell us to remember ~

God is good.

If we are smarting from our Father's discipline or having a tantrum because we didn't get our way, perhaps we simply need to read some of those testimonies and then go talk to our Father. If we are willing to get as close to Him as we know how and listen to Him, He has loving words of comfort for us—good words.

Our Father in Heaven, You are good above all goodness we know. You are all good, only good, all the time. Please increase our faith to believe that even when we're too small to comprehend Your goodness.

Your comments, questions, and respectful disagreement are most appreciated. Reply to BuildingHisBody.com comments, or e-mail buildingHisbody [plus] @gmail.com
Copyright 2011, Anne Lang Bundy, all rights reserved.