THE THUMB OF GOD

All the trees were turning brown, 

With their branches drooping down. 

Tomatoes in the garden 

Were looking sad and doleful. 

The summer sky was hardened,  

Clear, cloudless and unhopeful. 

But I had a water-well 

For just such a desert spell. 

So I began, hose in hand,

With the garden’s first demand, 

From the faucet stretching out, 

Wetting all methodically. 

As I lavished round about 

They soaked it up immodestly.

Dead branches began to rise 

Taking life before my eyes.   

Then I reached the hose’s end, 

Where all further hope suspends. 

Cracking soil held its breath

In this dire emergency; 

Drought or plenty—life or death,  

In its final urgency. 

All would die beyond this place

Without the water’s saving grace.

I knew how to reach them all;

Make the water rise and fall.

Pressing down instinctively

I hold my thumb upon the spout.

Squeezing off relentlessly

Where the water’s coming out.

As the stream is in distress

Then the distant soil is blessed.

Water coughed and choked and screamed 

In an undulating stream, 

But it sprayed out to the end 

Flooding all the distant reach.

Touching plants beyond the bend

Bubbling down into the breach,

Taking water to the roots

In the field beyond my boots.

When our Father would increase

The sphere of those whom you would reach,

He tightens His thumb upon you.

Pain intensifies your worth

And expands your purpose too,

Reaching out to all the earth.

So that under your duress

The ends of the earth are blessed.

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FEAR AND FELLOWSHIP

 

I have been blessed recently by the words of Acts 9:31 where we are told that after the conversion of Saul, their fiercest enemy, the church prospered, "Walking in the Fear of The Lord, and in The Comfort of The Holy Spirit."

In these two characteristics we see a perfect balance for the church and the Christian life.

Of course we do not fear the Lord in the same way we feared the class bully in the 7th grade or the street gang threatening the neighborhood. God is holy and loving. There are a number of holy aspects to fear of the Lord. One is certainly trembling in His Majesty. Suppose you see something wrong, even sinful, in the church. You may be called by God to confront it in the spirit of Elijah. You need to do this with the humility of one who stands in the presence of the only One who is qualified to judge. You will recognize that your sins may be as serious before a holy God as those you see in others. You will not dare gossip about it. You would be terrified to make a joke about it. And you will realize that only God can bring about repentance.

The fear of the Lord is balanced by the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Jesus used the same word when He referred to the Holy Spirit as the Comforter in John 14:16.

Let me point out 4 aspects of this word. 

The Holy Spirit continually calls us to the assurance of Forgiveness in the grace of God. This is not careless indulgence but the grace of forgiveness.

This is a word for Encouragement. You may have noticed that the church walked in the comfort of the Spirit as well as the fear of God. The Holy Spirit encourages us to go in God's direction.

By the Spirit we have intimate and continual Fellowship with God.

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COSTLY FORMATION

 

Twisting, folding, slapping, scolding, pounding with His hands,

  Every hardness softened, every weakness pressed,

Feeling, minding, pressing, finding the offending grain of sand,

  Slippery through His fingers the wetted clay is dressed.

He must know its every facet feeling every part,

Lest the shaping vessel be ruined from the start.

  With His insistent pressing, the precious clay is blessed.

Paddling, hurling, bobbing, whirling with increasing pace 

  Carefully He shapes it as delicately He feels,

Touching, holding, smoothing, molding with the fingertips of grace.

  It rises to His vision on the dizzying, spinning wheel.

With tender touch and tiny blade perfect lines He traces,

Carving out the form in a dozen glistening places.

  Now the hidden beauty in the earthen crock's revealed.

Shaving, plying, pressing, trying to save the now listing form.

 He stands for just a moment as the disc begins to slow, 

Then beating, dashing, crushing,  smashing what He so carefully had born.

 With unrelenting blows His hopes He sacrifices.

 Now all of it is lost in one devastating crisis.

 His hopeful dreams in shapeless clay are left to mourn.

Renewing, returning, repeating, restoring the remnants that He smote,

  It rises again without resisting the Artists shaping skill,

Spinning, turning, growing, learning each line and grade and slope.

  All that He imagines the vessel now fulfills,

  The chastened clay conforming to His visionary will.

 So elegant, so graceful, it rises to His hopes.

Crowning, glowing, blessing, adorning the place where it is shown,
  It has not forgotten its humiliating days.

Revealing, collecting, including, reflecting the costly past it owns.

  Its priceless pain was baked beneath the shining glaze,

  All that He invested in its pristine form displayed.

In the splendor of its image eternal truth is known.

This poem was published in the book Take Me To The Garden.

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WHAT WERE THEY CALLED?

The Bible tells us that Believers were first called Christians in Antioch. But that was some time after the church spread across Judea, Galilee and Samaria. Have you ever wondered what Christians were called before the church sprung up in Antioch? I think it is worth our seeing how people who first followed Christ were recognized in those early days. Look with me in Acts 9 where we have the exciting story of the conversion of Saul who became The Apostle Paul.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 

10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized.

DISCIPLES

The first word used for Christians here is disciple. In verse 1 and verse 10 this word is used by Luke who is telling the story. Luke did not write this until long after people had begun calling us Christians. But it is important that he calls us disciples, those who learn from Jesus.

Belonging to THE WAY

When Paul went to the Chief Priest asking letters of authority to arrest believers in Damascus, he called them those belonging to The Way. I assume Paul and the High Priests recognized that Christianity is a completely new way of life.

SAINTS

When the Lord told Ananias to go lay hands upon Saul, Ananias objected because he had heard that Saul was doing evil to the Lord’s saints. Now it is important to understand that Ananias was not calling Christians super pharisees. The word saint does not imply any holiness of our own. It means we have been sanctified. We have been made holy before God by the forgiveness of Jesus who died for us.

Those who CALL ON HIS NAME

Ananias also calls believers, those who call on His Name. We are known by our prayers. We are to be known by whom we turn to in prayer. We cry out to God in crises and for every need in our lives.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS

Finally, it is crucial to see that the first thing Ananias said to Saul as he put his hands on him was, “Brother Saul.”

 Paul had not been baptized. He was still blind from his encounter with the Lord. But he was already seen as a brother to those who had been given the right to call themselves, “Children of God,” John 1:12.

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