Psalm 18:25,26 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure,”

[This is an encouragement to develop these qualities in our walk with Jesus. For we can only have these qualities, Lord Jesus, as your Holy Spirit produces them in us. As we cooperate with you in the process of transformation, willfully wanting to be faithful, blameless and pure, you reveal your marvelous qualities to us more and more, giving us greater ground for surrender, worship and wonder–which then bring more transformation.

As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, who with unveiled faces, contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” This is a gracious cycle of your goodness poured out more and more on those who are willing to look at your glory and join you in what you are doing.]

The most foundational part of being transformed is being in the Word: “Add  to your virtue [surrender], knowledge…” 2 Peter 1:5. “Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2. “ as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:26-27.

It is so easy to forget the Word, to think naturally rather than supernaturally instead of letting the Word wash away the thoughts, goals and values of the world. Therefore, I believe it is important, critical to memorize significant portions of Scripture so we can internalize them and stimulate inner transformation. Then we can better walk as faithful, blameless and pure.

Psalm 18:22,23 “All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin.”

[Again, I cannot say any of this for myself; I continue to be blameworthy, struggling with the sinful, selfish ways of my old nature—but you, Holy Spirit, also continue in transforming me in love and grace. So, I stand before you, Lord Jesus, blameless in your love, a new creature, dearly loved, doted on and deeply cared for. Praise be to you!

You are our hope, our holiness, our purity, our power. In you is goodness, grace and glory, all of which you generously, whole-heartedly share with us, continually, unconditionally, contra-conditionally. Praise be to you!]

Psalm 18:24 “The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.”

[It is wonderful that you have rewarded me, Lord, not according to my righteousness, but according to the righteousness of Christ, according to the cleanness of His hands, for in your sight I am in Christ, I am cleansed, claimed and commissioned as your dearly beloved child.

Praise you, Lord Jesus, for your great and, humanly speaking, impossible, unspeakable love–far beyond what any created being could do. You reward your enemies! You pour out on your foes who come to you, eternal life, eternal relationship, eternal love and eternal goodness–when we deserve the opposite! Praise be to you.

Help us to revel in your love, to bask in your grace, to rejoice in your forgiveness—and to forgive and accept ourselves as you have us. May we each day grasp more of the greatness of your love, which surpasses knowledge, so that we might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19)

Praise you, Lord, that with you, every day is filled with Sonshine, for your light of love and life shines continually on us and in us, giving encouragement, perspective, purpose, power and joy: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you,” said Jesus, and then “These thing I have spoken to you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full” (John 15:9,11).

There is a condition to receiving this joy: trust. As it says in Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace AS YOU TRUST IN HIM, so that your lives may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Trusting God involves submitting to Him, to His description of reality, to His Word, to His leadership, to His purpose and meaning.

We can’t walk in the light while keeping our eyes closed, living just in the tiny world in our head. We have to open our eyes wide to the wonderful, awesome, expansive and beautiful reality of God’s Kingdom.

Here we own nothing, but are given everything we need to steward. We are called to hold all with an open hand, telling our gracious and kind, good and wise Heavenly Father, “Take what you want, leave what you want, give what you will. I trust you to do what is best.”

Holding all with an open hand is, on one side, scary at first, because there are plenty of things we don’t want to give up (health, relationships, income, security, savings, etc.).

But as we come to know more and more of God’s beautiful and wise character, our fear lessens (perfect love casts out fear), and is replaced by a sense of security (safety is not the absence of danger, but the presence of Jesus), and a sense of adventure (every day is a battle with spiritual enemies who use people against us; but as we keep on the armor and fight the right enemies, there is a continual string of victories). We begin to understand what it means to be more than conquerors in the midst of challenges (Romans 8:37) .

What a God we have, what a life He gives us, what a future He’s prepared! To live in the wonder of getting the opposite of what we deserve, to revel in His unconditional love, to bask in His unending goodness (instead of thinking all the natural negative thoughts the devil throws at us)–this is part of the joy He desires for us. Let us continually embrace these truths while rejecting the lies that contradict them, living instead in the Light of His Love.

Picture: Niagara Falls, a demonstration of God’s power and love of beauty He shares with us.

After my open-heart surgery I woke up in the recovery room. My mouth was painfully dry, and there was a big tube in it. When the orderly noticed that I was awake, he came over and removed the tube, which evidently went right down into my windpipe, forcing oxygen into my lungs.

When they had cut through my sternum and then pulled my rib cage open to access my heart for surgery, I was unable to breathe on my own, so a machine had taken over. Now with my sternum wired back together, I was able to breath again without assistance.

The orderly lifted me up a bit and said, “Cough!” I tried to but a searing pain shot through my chest.

“I need some water!” I said. He brought me a little cup which I drank very slowly, then another one, after which the orderly left the room. Suddenly I realized I was going to throw up all over my incision because there was no one to help me!

I looked to the side of the bed where there was a large trash can; there I saw what looked like an empty plastic ice cream container. I could just reach it, and got it up to my mouth in time for all the water I’d drunk to come back out!

That was just like the Lord to have that container right there so I reach it and not throw up all over my new stitches! Another gracious God sighting.

The care in the hospital was excellent and after three days they sent me home. I assumed that among the medicines I was given to take home, they had included a painkiller. But I was wrong. My pain grew worse and worse and finally, Barbara called the surgeon.

“Oh, you’d like some painkiller?” She asked, “Well, just go down to the pharmacy and get some of this…”

That little conversation brought out two other things I like about the medical process in this country. You can just call up and talk directly with your doctor and you can buy whatever medicine they tell you to from the pharmacy without any prescription! Barbara went out and got me the pain medicine.

I had to sleep in the living room on the foldout couch because our bed was too low for me to get up easily. With my chest still healing, I couldn’t raise myself to a normal sitting position, so Josh tied a rope around the arm of the couch by my feet; holding this rope in my hands, I could pull myself up without help. it was effective but a little strange looking; one of my friends chuckled as he asked if I were trying to use my couch as a horse wagon.

One night I was awakened by the couch shaking from side to side. It was actually my chest pain caused by this motion that woke me up. I was disoriented and looked around to see who was shaking me, but quickly realized that it was a mild earthquake. We have them from time to time in our city. After it subsided I was able to sleep again.

A few days later I was again jarred out of sleep, this time by my heart beating rapidly and erratically. I turned on the light and looked at my watch; it was 11 pm. And it was nine days after my open-heart surgery. I took some medicine to try to stop the pounding, but it had no effect. I prayed for the Lord to do something, but my heart just kept thrashing around in my chest.

The Lord gave me the determination to get myself to the hospital, so about 1:30 am I got up and went to the bedroom to tell Barbara that I was going. She helped me to get dressed, called a taxi and with her help I made my way up the two flights of stairs to street level.

Although it was only the end of October, we were surprised to find it snowing heavily. Barbara went out to the road to see if the taxi was coming. I took a few steps towards the road and suddenly inexplicably found myself sitting in several inches of wet snow. I’d blacked out and sat down without realizing it!

I praised God that I hadn’t fallen forward or to the side where I would have hit my head on railings or the wall. I was able to pull myself up by holding onto the “burglar bars” of the window next to the walkway, and staggered out to the road just as the taxi arrived.

This snowstorm was so early and unexpected that the taxis did not yet have snow tires on, so it was a slippery ride down the hill.

To get to the hospital faster, I had the driver turn down a one way street the wrong way as a shortcut. We met a police car coming from the other direction, but since it was now 2 am, they didn’t bother to stop us.

Barbara called Josh, who lived near the hospital, and he met me there. The doctor on duty immediately got me into a bed and began administering medication to slow down and stabilize my heartbeat.

As it began to take effect, I began to sob.
“I don’t know why I’m crying,” I gasped to the doctor, “Everything is going fine!”

“Don’t worry, your emotional state is just a side effect of your heart racing!” he assured me.

It took several hours to get my heart stabilized before they transferred me to a room in the post-op recovery area. When I woke up later I wondered why my bed was so damp, and then realized I was still wearing the clothes that were wet from my falling in the snow!

The doctors kept me in the hospital for three days to make sure my heart was fully stabilized. During this time I was able to talk and pray with a number of other patients, some of whom were about to have open-heart surgery; others were having complications in their recovery. The Lord often has multiple reasons for allowing unexpected things to happen in our lives, placing us into situations to serve Him.

The rest of my recovery went well and within a few weeks I was able to take an active role again in planting and leadership.

Psalm 18:9-15 “He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet.
He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—the dark rain clouds of the sky.
Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.
He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them.
The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.”

[What a display of powerful, righteous and compassionate anger! Far bigger than any star wars episode! You, Lord God, Breather of the stars, Spinner of the earth and Bringer of the Dawn, bent the elements to your will and acted in passion, bringing a storm at the right time to protect your own.

You are the God of wisdom and power, passion and might, mercy and action.

As David said in the beginning of this Psalm, you are our Rock, our Fortress and our Deliverer. In you we can trust, no matter how terrible things look. You have a plan to rescue us, and as we cry out to you, you will work it out at the right time and carry us forward along with you. (Picture from the internet)

Help us to demonstrate our belief in you today by turning to you first in our needs, offering the sacrifice of thanksgiving in all and praising you for your answers before they come.]