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Soul Lifting

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 27, 2021
 
Today is an example of “lifting my soul to God” during a team conflict that occurred several years ago. Lifting our souls is an effective way to get things out, to give ourselves perspective, to remember who our God is, who the real enemy is and to seek God’s help through surrendering to Him.
“Had trouble getting to sleep, then was awake often, struggling with negative thoughts about the team’s conflicts. Praise you, Lord Jesus, that in the midst of this turmoil, you led me to think about you and how incredibly powerful, wise and faithful you are.
“You are the star Breather, the galaxy Arranger, the sun Maker who put our solar system in just the right place under one arm of the Milky Way–in a position so we can observe the universe and see the works of your hands.
“You hung the earth on nothing, put it in just the right orbit at the perfect speed, tilted its axis exactly and spun it perfectly, so each day and night are of optimal length. You set each condition of the solar system precisely so that carbon-based life could exist on earth. Praise be to you for you great wisdom and power displayed in that.
“So it is with our lives: in your mighty power, your deep wisdom, your gracious love, you bring or allow what you will use for good. This present painful situation, these messy and hurtful circumstances have all come with your permission and you are using them to develop us as leaders and give opportunity to develop our followers.
“Lord, help us to let go of our feelings of failure and frustration, and instead to stand firm in Truth, such as, ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various trials, knowing this, that the trying of our faith works patience. And let patience have its perfect work that we may be perfect and mature’ (James 1:2,3).
“Help us to swim in the current of your Truth, Lord, letting you carry us along in the right direction. Help us to reject despair, feeling sorry for ourselves, and the embarrassment of failure along with our weariness. Help us instead to embrace what you bring by offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving, so that we may thereby honor you and open the way so that you can show us the salvation of the Lord.
“I thank you now for what you will do with this mess, for how you will work in and through it to bring growth, transformation and deepening for us as leaders so that you can bring the same thing to all involved in the midst of this situation.
“I praise you in faith, Lord God, our Great Shepherd, our Glorious Transformer, our Wonderful King. As you used the sins of Joseph’s brothers to provide a way of salvation for the Jews and many others, so you can use the sins in this situation to bring about good and grace for us all.
“Do that Lord, move in your might, defeat the plans of the enemy, bring glory to yourself. Answer us out of your faithfulness, your righteousness, your goodness and your power. Answer to bring glory to your name, honor through your might and maturity to your children. I praise you now for the answers you will send. Amen.”
Epilogue: God did not resolve the situation as I desired, but He did answer to deepen and mature most of us through it.
Picture: God can make what seems ugly into a thing of stark beauty.
May be an image of tree and nature
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Chapter 40

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 26, 2021
Last night I failed to post–was exhausted from a busy day, I went to bed at 8 pm and slept the night away! Well, here we are for tonight, more from my autobio.
 
Chapter 40 Next Step Towards Missions
Through that winter as we grew in our parenting skills, we also made preparations for our short term trip with Operation Mobilization in the summer, filling out the applications and doing the required reading. Our monthly prayer meetings continued, and we were becoming more and more burdened for the Muslim world.
 
After one of these meetings, the thought came, “Are you willing to be part of the answer to your prayers for Muslims to come to Christ?” Our response was a strong, “Yes!”
 
In June we left for Germany, two weeks before the OM training session in Belgium, so we could spend some time with Barbara’s parents. Josh was now nine months old and his grandfather, “Opi,” had not yet seen him, so he was very happy to have us come.
 
The weather in Europe was very hot and without a car it was difficult to go anywhere, so we sweltered at Barbara’s parent’s home.
 
Near the end of our visit Josh got sick with an ear infection. We prayed that he would get well in time to go to Belgium, but there was no improvement.
 
Several people in Barbara’s village had asked us what we were doing after our visit there and we told them about our plans for going with OM to Austria to do an outreach. Through this the Lord gave us the idea to write a letter explaining about our trip, including a brief presentation of the gospel, and deliver a copy to every home in the village.
 
I made eighty photocopies and walked through the village, putting them into all the mailboxes. When I came to the last street in the last section where the rich newcomers lived, I found that I was two letters short. I gave my last letter to the man who came to the first door on the street.
 
It turned out that he was a businessman who knew Barbara well because she had worked for the Chamber of Commerce. He asked me a number of questions and noticed that I didn’t have any more letters.
 
“I’ll make some more photocopies for you and give them to these last two houses,” he said. That offer may seem like a small thing, but as I walked home, I marveled at it. My last letter went to the man who noticed the lack and made the offer to help. That was a God sighting! God arranged things so everyone would get a letter, even though I didn’t have enough to cover every home.
 
Then the Holy Spirit led me to another conclusion: if God can fill this need for extra letters in such a way, He could choose to heal Josh, if that were His best for us; or He could choose to not heal him resulting in my going alone to the conference. This turned out to be a prophetic thought.
 
Since Barbara had been with OM twice before, at her request she was granted an exemption from repeating the orientation week; this allowed her to stay at home with Josh until he was better. I went on alone to Belgium by train and was put into the men’s dorm.
 
As I chatted with my roommates, it turned out that two of them were going to the country on our heart. They told me stories of the great spiritual needs there: less than fifty known born-again believers out of Islam among fifty-five million inhabitants.
 
As I was taking this in, I saw in my mind a picture of a log. At one end was a crowd of people helping to lift it; this represented all the Christian workers in the West. At the other end were just a couple of people, struggling ineffectually to lift their portion of the log; this represented the evangelization of the Muslim world.
I thought, “If I were going to help, I would certainly go to the end of the log where there are very few workers.” Looking back, I believe this was another thought from God.
 
Since we were going to be sharing the gospel in German while in Austria, I hung out with the German speakers, which helped my comprehension some. I learned how to say basic things like, “We’re selling Christian books. Would you like to buy one?” But my German ability to share would need some help in order to be effective and the Lord had something planned.

Picture: Barbara’s parents

May be an image of 2 people, child, people sitting, people standing and outdoors

 
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The Rock

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 24, 2021
I praise you, Lord God,
for your great Love,
your persistent Faithfulness,
your mighty Power,
your wide Wisdom,
your deep Knowledge,
your pure Righteousness
and your perpetual Perfection.
You are the One I can trust today, the One who rules every day, who rights what is wrong, who redeems what is lost, who restores what is broken, who reigns in every circumstance. You are God, you are Great, you are Glorious and you are Gracious.
I commit myself today to praise you with all my heart, with all my being, all the time. I choose to embrace what you bring, what you reveal, what you allow. I thank you for my failures which point me away from myself to you, breaking me of self-reliance, of pride, of independence, of selfishness.
Thank you for your very specific working in my life, your personal, careful, exact plan to fashion me more into the image of Christ. While I do not like it when this includes breaking, I do love the outcome of seeing you more, of worshiping you more deeply by faith, of growing in trust, of seeing your great power at work.
In thinking about my inability to bring a good resolution to the group conflict mentioned earlier, you used my failure to reveal my unhealthy desire for success and praise, my pride, my selfishness, my wanting a specific timetable.
Well, all that cannot be changed now, but I can repent, change and grow through it all. To you be glory in it, Lord. I see right now that this failure is a blotch on your name, but you can turn it into a positive as you desire.
Thank you for helping me to recognize my weakness, my smallness, and to see more clearly your greatness and power. It is such a wonderful thing to be your child, to be your servant, Lord, to join you in what you are doing, to rest in the fact that you are my Rock, my Fortress, my Redeemer. Help me, help all of us to be humble, to discern what you are doing and to join you in it so we can bring you glory and honor.
May be an image of tree and nature
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Psalm 35:28

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 23, 2021
David, envisioning God protecting him and exonerating him before his foes, finishes his psalm with this commitment:
Psalm 35:28 “My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long.”
[At this point God had not yet delivered David, but since he had appealed to the goodness and love of God, to the power and the faithfulness of his Lord, he was confident of help coming. So, David promises to be a man of praise, continually exalting his Savior.
This must be my practice, too, whether things work out according my desires or not.
Praise be to you, Lord, that you are in control, that I awake each morning to your safeness, to your surrounding love, to your eternal faithfulness, to your indwelling, unceasing presence. You are always here, patiently unfolding the intricate plan you have for my life, giving me wisdom, direction, endurance, grace, love and joy.
It is only in you that we can have joy, for without you this world is meaningless, empty of purpose, randomly dangerous and utterly pointless. You, however, are here, being our rock, our foundation, our fortress, our shield, our high tower and our deliverer.
In you there is order, meaning and purpose. In you there is protection, power and provision. In you there is love, light and life. In you there is goodness, grace and greatness. In you there is caring, compassion and completeness. In you there is healing, help and hope. In you there are answers, reasons and wisdom.
To live without you is death in delayed degrees, ever spiraling downward towards eternal destruction. With you there is life with ever increasing light, love and joy, ever spiraling upwards towards our eternal home.
 
So, in you I can rest–for in you I am chosen, loved and cherished, in you there is rightness, beauty and clarity, even in the most difficult of situations. I thank you for the great privilege of being your child and praise you now for the outcome of the present challenges in my life, for whatever you will do in our situation with my wife’s illness and other challenges. You, O Lord, are trustworthy.
No photo description available.
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The Great Move

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 22, 2021
More from the Add-on Eskimo
 
Within two years a much bigger change would come into their lives. In 1912 Okfagit decided that he would move his family to the island of Sivukuk.
 
The reindeer herders now lived in the new village of Savoonga, as it was nearer the herd than the village of Sivukuk. Okfagit knew the camp from his times of hunting there and liked the location, it being halfway down the island. Along with plenty of game, it had a small bay with a sandy beach and several of those living there were Christians.
 
Okfagit’s six children and their families doubled the size of the village when they arrived in the spring after the whaling season. Two of Okfagit’s sons had their own boats now, so they only had to make three trips from Eastern Russia together to bring all they needed, including their dogs and sleds.
They immediately set about building three houses. First, they dug into the tundra as far as they could, making the floor of the house below ground level thereby providing some insulation. If they couldn’t make it deep enough, they would build fires over the frozen parts melting them enough to dig further down.
 
Then they used whale ribs and driftwood to build a framework which rested on a central pole. The sides of the house were made with driftwood and the roof from walrus skins. Inside, of course, were tents for living space. Since two families would be living in each house, each had their own inner tent.
Okfagit, as the eldest man in the village and a respected hunter, became the village leader and also functioned as pastor, gathering the families in his house for church on Sundays. He and Ayit shared the teaching.
 
In winter they would sometimes go 100 miles by dogsled up through the mountains to the village of Sivukuk to spend time there with the other Christians. They always had a service on such visits, even if it weren’t Sunday. Time move on and Okfagit and his family moved onward and upward in their faith.
 
Picture: An Eskimo family the size of Okfagit’s in front of their house.
May be an image of standing and outdoors
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Marvelous beyond words

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 21, 2021
“The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” Psalm 103:19
 
Praise be to you, O Mighty King, for you are the Ultimate Power, the Greatest Authority, the Final Judge, the Eternal Sovereign, the Lamb upon the throne.
 
Your power is beyond comprehension, extending from pre-time to post-time, stretching from one side of the universe to the other—and beyond.
 
You hold sway over all, from the magnificent clusters of galaxies filling the great expanse of the universe, stretching billions of light years across, right down to the sub-atomic parts of your creation, dealing with every detail, while at the same time allowing us to make real ethical and moral choices.
 
Being completely different from every part of your creation, you tower over every other being in wisdom, might, ability, character, accomplishment and authority. No other power, strength or force can ever overcome you. “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord” (Pro. 21:30).
 
You deserve praise, O Lord God; you deserve worship from all. “Praise the LORD, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts.
 
When your awesome angels appear in their glory before men, humans are struck with fear, awe, panic and quaking in their hearts; men fall to the ground, unable to stand in the presence of these mighty beings. So impressive are the angels that John, who knew Jesus intimately, was moved to worship one and was stopped only by the angel himself, who worshiped the only One truly worthy of worship: You.
 
These members of the heavenly host are far greater, far more glorious, far more powerful than we are, but they, too, bow before and praise the Most High One: You, the Lord God, King of Heaven and earth, Ruler of all. You, O Yahweh-Elohim are worthy of their worship—and ours. Help us to worship in word, work and in wonder at your marvelous acts in our lives.
May be an image of nature and cloud
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Psalm 35:24-27

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 20, 2021
Psalm 35:24, 25 “Vindicate me in your righteousness, O LORD my God; do not let them gloat over me. Do not let them think, ‘Aha, just what we wanted!’ or say, ‘We have swallowed him up.’”
[A number of years ago, when I first wrote these comments on Psalm 35, I was involved in helping a group resolve a serious conflict. The leader, who had been confronted by his teammates on abusive leadership, maintained that he was blameless and all the rest of us, including those he asked to come in from the outside and help him, were wrong. He thought he’d “swallowed us up” as he steamrolled us with his logical arguments, not realizing that he was demonstrating exactly what his teammates objected to!
Lord, protect us from having such pride, such self-righteousness, selfish ambition and self-deception. Expose the sins of ours to us quickly so we can, unlike this leader, immediately repent, be wise and kind and avoid bringing dishonor to your name. I thank you, Lord God, for how you will help us in your wisdom which is much higher than ours: you are always firm and clear in what is best. I give you glory and honor now for what you are doing in all our lives.]
Psalm 35:26 “May all who gloat over my distress be put to shame and confusion; may all who exalt themselves over me be clothed with shame and disgrace.”
[Lord, may Satan and his hordes all be brought to shame in their attempts to bring disunity and distress. Even years later this leader I mentioned has not accepted his fault and continues to hold a bitter grudge against those who tried to help him; may he come to a true and deep repentance and thereby to a greater usefulness for you, Lord.
Thank you for leading us to forgive him as you have forgiven us. In faith I give you praise now for what you are doing through the turmoil this man has caused and what you are doing in him, for you, Lord, are good, gracious and loving.]
Psalm 35:27 “May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, ‘The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.’”
[Yes, may YOU win, Lord, vindicating your servants in the way you know is best; may you be exalted as we obey you in humility; may you be the One who is lifted up in our joy and gladness at your goodness. We can trust you in all things, knowing that you will periodically lead us through the dark valleys, down snowy paths so that you can eventually bring us out into wider, greener pastures.]
May be an image of nature, snow and tree
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(Untitled)

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 19, 2021
 
More from my autobio
 
They kept Barbara and Joshua in the hospital for three days, and I was very glad when I could finally bring them home. That evening Barbara nursed Josh and then put him into his little bed next to ours.
 
“There,” she said, “he’ll sleep for four hours now, so he’ll be up again at 1 am. We should be able to get some good sleep before the next feeding.”
 
We went to bed and quickly fell asleep. However, we were soon awakened by Josh’s crying. I looked at the clock: 11 pm. “I thought he was supposed to sleep for four hours!” I grumped. “Why is he awake so early?”
 
“I don’t know,” said Barbara.
 
“You don’t know?!!!” I said emphatically, feeling some panic. “But you’re the mother!! You’re supposed to know!”
 
“This is my first time to be a mother,” Barbara replied calmly, “I don’t know everything yet!” She got up, took Josh from his little bed and brought him into ours. As she snuggled with him, he stopped crying and was soon asleep.
 
“He was cold,” she said, “the hospital was much warmer than our bedroom is.” So she did know what to do after all! I was relieved.
 
And so we began our apprenticeship as parents, with our new son as our teacher. Barbara’s mother came the next week and spent three weeks giving us advice, some of which was useful.
 
Josh’s arrival brought out in the open a quiet conflict that had developed shortly after our wedding: arriving places on time. When getting ready for church or some other meeting, Barbara would slowly prepare herself, and as part of this would also straighten things up, puttering about taking care of household details. This often resulted in us arriving a bit late.
 
This really aggravated me; I liked to be on time, or better yet early so I could visit with some with people before the meeting started.
Now with a child added to the mix, this timing thing got worse. Since there was no margin in Barbara’s preparation, if something went wrong, like Josh filling his diaper just as we were going out of the door, there was no avoiding us being definitely late.
 
I tried everything to remedy this situation, especially on Sunday mornings. I made breakfast, I got Josh ready, I cleaned the kitchen, I got everything necessary prepared, taken out and into the car. And still we were late!
 
Finally in one of our discussions about this, a discovery came to light: we each had a different idea of what it meant to be on time! For Barbara being on time meant that we were driving into the parking lot when the second hand on the clock swept up to 12, arriving at the time the meeting was to start.
 
For me, being on time meant we arrived about 10 minutes before the scheduled start, got our coats hung up, greeted people and were in our seats when the second hand swept up to 12. And now with a child to deliver to the nursery, according to my schedule, we needed to be there at least 15 minutes before the start.
 
In the end we made an agreement: she would work to be on time by my definition if I would keep my desk more orderly. She had a point there: orderliness was not one of my strong traits. In fact her ability to organize was one of the qualities I appreciated most about her. When she approached a scene of mild chaos, things almost jumped into place by themselves! Or so it seemed.
 
I will say that over the years, Barbara has done a better job at keeping our agreement than I have. But our conflict was not yet over, because the root causes had not yet been uncovered. The Lord would reveal them in his own time.
Picture: My sister Marcia with Barbara and little Josh
May be a black-and-white image of 2 people, child, people standing and outdoors
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Rock, Salvation, High Tower

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 18, 2021
 
“Find rest my soul in God alone; my hope comes from him.”
Psalm 62:5
 
Psalm 61:1b says, “From you comes my salvation,” so why should I look elsewhere? Yet in my sinful independence, my first reaction is to look to “Egypt,” that is to other sources of help. Just as I read last night in Isaiah 30:1-2: “Woe to the obstinate children…who go down to Egypt without consulting me, who look for hope in Pharaoh’s protection, to Egypt’s shade for refuge.”
 
You, Lord God, tower over, dwarf and eclipse the micro-power of any help we can find on earth. You are the One who deserves praise, trust and obedience. My hope comes from you and you alone. Forgive me for looking elsewhere.
 
Psalm 62:2 has a trio of your qualities. You “only are my rock:” unshakable, unyielding to any force, firm, solid, enduring and trustable. When I stand in you, no tremor, no problem, no earthquake, no tragedy, no seismic shifting can shake me, for all is in your hand, all is under your power, and you never change, never alter.
 
“You only are my salvation”: no one else can save me from death, from sin, from hell, from sickness, from accidents, from eternal suffering–only you. As you stand beside me, with your great sword in your hand, no evil can come near me, no difficulty can approach without your permission, no harm can waylay me. Every weakness, hardship, insult, persecution and difficulty are a privilege, a blessing from your hand, a chance to praise, to trust, to give you glory.
 
“You only are my high tower”: you stand there, immensely tall, strong and good; you reach down, lift me up and set me up on your shoulder. There I am close to you, can hear you, can speak to you, and can see from your perspective: wider, longer, higher. No one can shake me there in this intimate, high level relationship with you–my God, my Savior, my Protector, my Brother, my King.
 
Truly, I will not be shaken when I am in Jesus, on my rock, surrounded by my salvation, up in my high tower. You, Lord Jesus, in your powerful love are worthy of worship, of glory, of unending honor for you are the Mighty Rock and Secure Refuge of the universe.
 
Prayer: “To you, Lord Jesus, be exaltation, majesty, strength, glory and praise throughout today and for all eternity. I pray today that you will help me rest in your greatness, to gaze upon your beauty, to bow before you in obedience in each choice that comes up today. May you be exalted in my heart, in my thoughts, in my actions and words. Amen.”
May be an image of nature, sky, twilight, lake and tree
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Hope

Published by S.M. Wibberley on June 17, 2021
“…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
Hebrews 12:1
 
Growth involves motives. Knowing our motives is a significant and integral aspect of our walk with God, for then we can reject the negative and neutral motives, while affirming the positive ones. And one of our positive motives should be wanting to trust and please God.
 
This past week Romans 15:13 was my general prayer for all. It says,
“May the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in him
so that your life may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
 
This verse emphasizes that our responsibility is to trust this God of goodness, wisdom, power, mercy and justice. He will then give us the joy and peace He has prepared for us, plus cause an overflowing abundance of hope in our lives.
 
Such hope, of course, is not just airy, wishful thinking, but a certainty of what was accomplished at the cross and of what God will bring to pass—protection, provision, power, patience and His presence, to name a few. These promises are guaranteed with the Holy Spirit’s indwelling in our lives.
 
While meditating on hope, other passages came up in my reading that show further how important it is. Colossians 1:5 speaks of the “faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven….”
 
I’d never noticed so clearly that faith and love flow from our hope. Our faith is based on the certainty of God’s character and on what God has in store for us; then as we focus on our certain hope rather than on earthly things, His love flows from God through us to others.
 
In a further insight, 1 Thessalonians 1:3 shows how this trinity of faith, hope and love should be foundational motives in all we do, especially in our service of obedience to God’s leading. It says, “We continually remember…your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” All we do should flow out of these three.
 
I’m sorry to say that faith, hope and love are many times not the motives I have; mine are more often the desire to feel good, the desire for significance, the desire for the approval and adulation of others. These verses, however, have clarified things as never before and have given a standard to measure my motives.
 
Contrary to the world’s message, the bottom line is not our performance; instead the bottom line is our hope in God, our solid trust in His powerfully faithful, gracious character—all else will flow from that.
 
Prayer: “Lord, help me to pray this verse regularly for myself and for others. Help me to live it out, trusting you by obeying what I know to be true out of the motives of faith, hope and love. Help me to do this so that hope will overflow from my life to all those around me, bringing you more glory and them more grace. Amen.”
May be an image of African daisy and nature
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