The True Identity Crisis

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3

The incessant push to “determine one’s identity” reveals a society which has lost its moorings.  God is a God of order. The devil hates this order, this stability; and with his truth-twisting daggers of doubt and lies, he wages continual warfare against the created order of God. More and more, people are being pulled into the devil’s identity-tornado of lies. And the sucking winds of this dirt devil is drawing in not only the unchurched, but also the churched.

This gender-identity crises is the extreme manifestation of the person who has determined that his/her identity can be determined by who they say they are or what they do. It is a false method of identification. A man cannot be a woman just because he says he is, and a woman cannot be a man just because she says she is.

Self-identifying without the moorings of God’s truth is dangerous and a soul-killer.  However, the devil is not satisfied with creating and feeding the confusion and rebellion that is more obviously wicked and that makes the biggest splash. Some of his “best” work is performed subtly and strikes more at the heart of what and who he hates. He hates the gospel, and he hates the God of the gospel, and he hates the people of the God of the gospel.  Remember his subtlety toward Eve: “Did God really say…., God is holding out on you…, You could be God…., God must have something wrong…., You can make a better decision….”

What did the devil want Eve to believe? He wanted her to believe that she could make her life holy without God, that she could determine what holy was, and that she could be God (It would be perfectly reasonable, therefore, that she should worship herself.). God would no longer be relevant or needed. God might even admire her for her God-ness (And certainly, there would be at least equal footing.). Eve would find her identity in herself, apart from God. She would make her own identity, and it would be sufficient for her spiritual well-being….

Believer, do you see yourself in this mirror? I know I do. I have fallen prey to the subtle temptation of finding my identity apart from God, apart from my Savior. I have sought to clothe myself in the fig leaves of who I am and what I get done or what I do not get done.  I have sat with Eve for years and believed the lie of the great deceiver. This is probably why I experienced the roller coaster ride of satisfaction, dissatisfaction, satisfaction, dissatisfaction regarding the work and responsibilities God has given me to do throughout the decades of being His child. If I get the work done, I am happy. If I can’t get it all done, I fret. I have allowed my “successes” and “failures” to subtly identify me as being either “successful” or a “failure”. How long has the evil one and my own sin-nature darkened the truth of who I really am?

The Lord was gracious to shine a great light into this darkness.  He caused me to meditate on this verse: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3. What is it to be poor in spirit, I asked myself. It can’t be someone who works at being poor in spirit. It is someone who is poor in spirit. It is who they are. It is someone who realizes he has nothing in himself. Nothing to offer to God - no fig leaves of any kind. It is someone who finds his identity not in who he is or what he can do (or can’t do), but in the Lord Jesus Christ who saved him and clothed him in His righteousness. How this truth shined upon me like a massive beam of light! I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20. Oh, the joy of being poor in spirit. Oh, the joy of truly knowing my identity and in Whom my identity is.

Dear friend, if you are in confusion or darkness in any way regarding your identity, I pray that you cry out to the living God for truth, for mercy, and for light to see and know that God is all-loving and all-sufficient. When He says come to Him as a little child, it at least means coming to Him recognizing that you have nothing to offer to Him, but that you need something from Him. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Discovering what God has for you in this kingdom will be a lifelong joy.

Mrs. Mary Brown, Principal

Meditating on Exhaustion

Meditating on Exhaustion

The weary mom of young children, the fatigued father working long hours to provide for his family, the strained student faced with constant deadlines, the worn-out nurse on a 24+ hour shift, the tired farmer up all night with a sick animal, the young person with daily physical or mental challenges, the older person whose body is worn out but who has to keep going somehow.

Does it all seem relentless and meaningless? Days are endless with work.  Nights may not always render refreshment, and then we awake to meet the same demands and exhaustion.

Remembering that all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), what is so good about exhaustion? Today I read a devotional about exhaustion from Teri Ong’s Prayer Therapy Book, Chambers College Press. She references the Israelites’ exhausting burdens caused by the demands of Pharaoh, “Do more, do more, do more!! And I will also force you to do more all on your own!  You will not have resources to help you fill your quota of bricks!! Work, work, work!!”  What cruelty!! How utterly impossible to meet this extreme demand!! What unmitigated exhaustion!! What a hopeless situation!! Well did the Israelites cry out for relief!!

My friend, this is exactly the hopeless situation we are in when we try to meet the exhausting demands of the Law. The Law, rightly so, says “Do more, do more!! You are required to fulfill every aspect of my demands!! Though you do not have the resources to fulfill my commands, you must still satisfy my every word, or else you will die!!” How exhausting. How hopeless. How impossible. Well do we to cry out for relief!!

Believer, your physical exhaustion may be there to remind you that Jesus has fulfilled the demands of the law for you. In His 33 years of life on this earth, Jesus exhausted Himself in perfectly obeying the law. He sweated out his labor of love in the hot streets of Jerusalem and in the cool garden of Gethsemane. He toiled for you on the splintered cross of agony and shame. All this so He could say to you, “Come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Praise God for our own exhaustion if it reminds us of Jesus’ great exhausting work for us and for our salvation!

Unbeliever, if you are weary and heavy laden in trying to make things right with God through your own works and efforts to fulfill the law of God, you are like the Israelites seeking to serve the cruel taskmaster who demanded that they make thousands of bricks but who did not provide a way for them to do that. The Israelites were truly stuck in a hopeless situation, and so are you. You absolutely cannot fulfill the demands of the law. But Jesus absolutely can and absolutely did. He is the way. Seek Him. Seek His saving work and His forgiving mercy.

Once we understand that Jesus has done the truly, and agonizingly exhaustive work for us, then what?

Live for Him in thankfulness. This means seeking to obey His Word, not to earn salvation, but to show thankfulness.

But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; Titus 3:5

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians 2:16

May each of you rejoice and rest in the saving work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and then live for Him, with thankful obedience.

Mrs. Mary Brown, Principal

Raising a Family in a Fear-Drenched Society

When I was a young girl growing up in a city a few miles north of Washington, DC, my siblings and I would spend hours at the playground of a nearby park. This playground was located across the street from our home, behind the neighbors’ houses, through some woods and out of sight of my Mom. We soared on swings that had the very longest chains; the heights we reached were impressive. In the fall, we would pile up mountains of pungent smelling leaves and merrily sail off our swings through the crisp air to land with a satisfying “whump” in the mound of crunchy, colorful leaves. The merry go ‘round, like the rest of the play equipment, was made of hard metal, and if you fell off from the G-force of a particularly strong and determined spinner, you hit bare dirt and little rocks, and you also might be subjected to being trampled on by the spinner who could not stop in time to avoid the kid who literally bit the dust. I couldn’t take being spun around with such vigor. It made me sick. So my fun was lying on my belly, opposite of some other kid lying on his belly - our heads stuck out over slowly spinning dirt (which was right under our noses), our arm stretched out to grab the allusive stick as we played “pick up sticks”.

The sliding board was at least twice my height, (And I was, from forever, a tall person.). The stairs rose straight up, with barely a slope. We gripped the railings with our determined little hands as we made our anticipatory ascent, watching for the tall trunks of the park trees to come back into view as we reached the top. At the top there was a platform, bordered by a simple pole railing with an open space big enough for an elephant to fall through. The platform was just big enough for the eager child to sit on as he valiantly set his face toward the gray metal of the very steep slope that would send him speeding down to the dirt below. And when the slide had been freshly waxed with Mom’s waxed paper from the kitchen, you knew it would be one wild ride. Lined up behind you on the stairs were other eager adventurers.

The park had some fantastic, tall pine trees. Some of us climbed to their very tops. Sap dripping from the bark and branches stuck to our hands, clothing, and hair and gave us a very natural and spicy aroma. It was thrilling to sway in the tops of these softwood trees, and at the same time know that the thickly needled branches hid you from view. One time, an upper branch gave way as I straddled it, and I came riding down the tree backwards on my green steed. Each needle-laden branch smoothly broke my fairly speedy descent, and I landed with a soft thud. It was thrilling.

My siblings and I spent many fun days in that park as well as at the park down the street from our house. The attraction of the park down the street was the creek that ran through it. This creek gave us adventures that a regular park could not. Like the time we found an old cement mixture trough that someone had dumped on the bank of the creek. We didn’t see a trough. We saw a boat. And soon we were sailing in it down the creek, dumping once because we tried to grab some roots to pull ourselves to shore and proceeded to tip over. This creek had a path that followed it for miles. My sister and I used to bike down our busy road to the park and then over the creek bridge to the path where we pedaled to a store a couple of miles away to buy grape pop and then bike back home with our sweet treasure.

No cell phones, no fears of being in danger. We would be gone for hours. Our parents had instilled safety-wisdom into us without really saying much. We weren’t told to fear things. We knew what risks were not acceptable. It was how we lived. We lived without hearing a lot about the “responsibility to be afraid”. Ladders did not have warnings on them that told you you would fall off if you stepped on the very top. Car sun visors did not remind you of the dangers of rolling over, or of exploding airbags. (And you probably would guess that we did not have airbags “way back then”.) There were no such things as outlet covers; and medicine bottles did not have safety caps and were kept out of reach; but if they were in reach, we knew not to get into them. We played with non-orange cap guns. Toy cars and trucks and play construction sets were made out of, yes, sharp metal. If you didn’t have a second family car, which we did not, you walked the one or two miles to school. In our case, our journey to grade school led us up one very busy road (no sidewalk), through a park, through a neighborhood, across a fairly busy intersection (A crossing guard from the school was posted there. Her name was Mrs. Seibert, so we called the intersection “Seibert’s Corner”), through another neighborhood then onto a sidewalk of another busy street where we continued our trek until finally reaching our school. My eldest sister was put in charge of the rest of the four of us as we trudged in all kinds of weather to school, carrying our satchels and lunch boxes. As we got older, it was not unusual for us, depending on our schedule, to walk separately to and from school.

Today, as we know, we think twice about letting our children go. There are often good reasons for this hesitation, and yet it is imperative that our children become wise as serpents and gentle as doves in this world that shouts out Fear! whether it is warranted or not. A couple of years ago, a second or third grade student told me that she would die if she touched cleanser. It broke my heart to know that her little world involved dealing with such heavy issues as life and death because of fear of cleansers.

Today, the big fears that are dominating the world are COVID, fear of loss of law and order, and fear of saying and believing things that are not socially acceptable. And when I say “dominating”, I think a better word would be “gripping”. Yet “dominating” is not a totally inaccurate word as it indicates subjection. We have been told that we must be subjected to fear, and we are tempted to be subjected by fear. This fear is not restricted to adults who can process it a little better, but also to children, who truly are not able to fully process it. For instance, I heard a government COVID radio ad (our tax dollars at work) directed to our children. The ad said that the child could be a superhero if he wore a mask because he could then protect someone from dying. Process that with me as a little child would, with his child-like logic: “If I wear a mask, I will save someone’s life. Ok, that sound good. And if I don’t wear a mask, I could kill someone.” Now, that is a heavy burden to lay on a child. What if the child forgets to wear a mask, and someone he was around dies from COVID or a dies from a condition complicated by COVID? Is that child going to be able to process what the true and complete realities are in this situation? No.

How to react/respond to the fears of the health concerns of today is and should be an individual choice. To wear a mask or not to wear a mask, etc. is a choice that no one can or should make for another person or for another family. However, if our decision regarding any of the current issues of this world is guided by fear, it would behoove us to examine fear.

What is fear? And why are we afraid? Fear can be good. Fear can be bad. Should fear ever be our guide? God gave us the “fight or flight” reaction that is invaluable for certain situations, usually involving an immediate threat to our life. But we are not meant to live in a steady state of “fight or flight”. I love the book by Ben Carson called “Take the Risk”. In his book, Dr. Carson evaluates risk-taking by asking these types of questions: What is the worst thing that can happen if I do this? What is the worst thing that can happen if I don’t do this? What is the best thing that could happen if I do this? What is the best thing that could happen if I don’t do this? Obviously to answer these questions, a person needs accurate data. When one analyzes life’s decisions in this way, fear is not a main consideration.

The Scriptures talk about fear. Ecclesiastes 5:9 says: “For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.” Psalm 111:10 says: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.” Luke 12:42 says: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Matthew 10:8 says: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

As always, God give us the right perspective on guiding the emotions He has given us, including the emotion of fear. We are to fear God, as He is holy and high and lifted up and we are simply base sinners. But this fear of God leads us to seek his Mercy and Grace. And He tells us He will never turn away those who seek Him and His salvation. This type of fear leads to peace. When we have natural fears about our life or about the world, we are told by our loving Heavenly Father to not fear, that He is our shield and protector, and that He will never leave us nor forsake. Praise God that we belong to Him, and that He is our great protector in life and in death.

Believer, life is very different and difficult right now in our country and around the world. When our hearts start to beat hard with fear, fear of what might happen to us or to our children, remember that God says to cast all our cares upon Him because He cares for us. Remember to be still before Him, to be in awe of Who He is and Who He promises to be for you. Let not man or the world tell you what to fear. Fear God and put your confidence in Him.

In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? Psalm 111:1

The Lord bless you all,

Mrs. Mary Brown, Principal

Thou Art Worthy

Image: Wunderland2, a star cluster in the Constellation of Corina.  

Sometimes we need to see something so amazing and so breathtaking in order for us to gain perspective. Today, the picture on my laptop screen featured a star cluster similar to the photo above. Every time I saw this display of stars pulsing with unearthly beauty 20,000 light years away, my thoughts were arrested. Here was something so beyond, so other. And yes, my breath was taken away. Every former thought would leave my mind, and I was left in the wonder of God, of this Holy Being Who calls Himself: I Am.  My soul was flooded with thoughts of His Greatness, of His Majesty, and of His Power.  Pandemic concerns, daily demands and responsibilities of life, and even the sense of the presence of my family with me in my living room vanished. To put it another way, the image of this mind-blowing creation forced me to worship the Creator and to focus exclusively on Him.

Life is about seeing things and circumstances through the eyes of God.  “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev 4:11)  

COVID-19 pandemic. These words have become quite comfortable house guests in our minds. They tempt us to succumb to fear, worry, and sometimes anger. We experience confusion and uncertainty as the news outlets continually churn out story after story about statistics, data, projections, health orders, and guidelines. Some of us have relatives or friends with COVID-19 or have had a loved one die because of COVID-19. All of us hope that our loved ones and friends do not get COVID-19. And we hope we don’t get it. Precautions are taken, and we find ourselves living our lives in ways that are so foreign to us.

Then we see Wunderland2. And our thoughts about ourselves vanish in awe of this God Who is so absolutely other. This God who has showed us that the “spacious heavens declare” His glory, and the “firmament displays His handiwork abroad.” (Psalm 19)

Here is God, breaking into our thoughts that are saturated with pandemics, family problems, health concerns, school challenges. Here is God saying, “I am, and there is no other.” Here is God saying that He is powerful, that He is to be worshipped, and that He is in control. Here is God, not a distant being, but One who speaks to us through His creation and through His Word. Here is God who dazzles us with his unfathomable greatness, but who comforts us in our spirits, reminding us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. And here is God who moved heaven and earth to save us from the condition that would have eventually killed us, body and soul.

Friends, in these days of uncertainties, fears, and worry, remember God. Remember His greatness, His power, and His great saving mercy for His children, displayed on the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. No matter what your circumstances are, stand in awe of Him and worship Him.

Mrs. Mary Brown, Principal

Stand Still and See the Salvation of the Lord

Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord.  Do you remember when Moses said that? In front of him to the east was the Red Sea, shimmering in the sun, over one hundred miles wide, thousands of feet deep. Behind Moses to the west were thousands of Israelites, as far as the eye could see, - weary mothers clinging to their young children’s hands, older children watching for direction from their fathers, fathers keeping an eye on their family and flocks, the elderly leaning on their walking sticks – all stopped dead in their dusty, desperate escape from the tyranny and cruelty of Egypt by this vast, deep, unyielding expanse of water.  And behind this group of refugees, galloping closer and closer, Pharaoh and his thousands of horses and chariots, with a cruel and confident thirst to reconquer. What were the hounded, tired, and now trapped Israelites to do? There indeed seemed to be no escape, no way out. Where was the Lord? Had they come this far in their trust of Him only to find Him no-where, and perhaps not even true?

Do you ever feel that way? How often have we and other believers over the ages wondered where God was in our trials? Or worse yet, how often has our heart told us that maybe He is not trustworthy after all? In some way or another, these feelings and thoughts of ours are determined to falsely dictate God’s character to us daily as we experience either the small irritations of life or the intensity of the trials that buffet and threaten to, and sometimes do, overwhelm us.

Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Our faith in God needs to be revived by the One Who gave us that faith. We don’t have faith in and of ourselves.  It is a gift of God. It is supernatural. How is it that we believe that God created the world in 6 days? How is it that we believe the virgin birth? How is it we believe that Jesus rose from the dead? Yes, we have the Word of God that tells us these truths, and yet, there are some who have read the Bible and have heard these things, and still don’t believe. God gives to his children a living faith to believe. And though we can falter in our faith and even sometimes not believe that God can help -  just like the Israelites who let their eyes determine the situation (walking by sight, not by faith) - we can also ask God to give us faith, to renew our faith, to strengthen our faith to believe that what He says is true and to believe that He will never leave us nor forsake us. God does not turn a deaf ear to the cries of His children who are seeking to be strengthened in their faith.

When your faith falters, or is dim, cry out to your faithful Heavenly Father. Be bold to believe in Him. And then...

Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!

Mrs. Mary Brown, Principal