Eric E. Wright's Blog, page 9

Lesson From A Fly

I was sitting in my recliner enjoying my first cup of coffee, when the fly that has pestered me for a week shattered my tranquility. With nothing to use and the danger of dumping my coffee, I couldn’t swat it. So I sat and watched it wander back and forth over the table beside my chair. Then it performed a gymnastic feat, I’d never seen a human do. It explored the underside of the table upside down. What! Then it flew off with apparently no effort. What kind of designer built this miniature—but pesky—aeronautical marvel?

I glanced out the window. No, not at the neighbours walking their dogs. It thought of the goldfinch that explores the bush outside my window then without a by-your-leave flits away. The robins cavorting on the lawn across the way. The squirrel that buries peanuts in my flowerpots.

Speaking of flowers, what an artist’s envy of shape and colour they are. And what of the earthworms that burrow through the soil, conditioning it for more vibrant life. What about the bustling ant colonies beneath the sidewalk and under the lawn. Whole megalopolises! Who designed all this?

I ponder the tree reaching to the sky in the park across from my condo. How will it pump water from deep in the soil thirty or sixty feet into the air to its farthest branches? And where will it get the nutrients it needs? How will its factories be designed to convert the nutrients and water into useable food to feed its hunger? For one year. For two. For fifty? Oh, no problem you say. The roots deep in the soil connect to the tiny tubes raising the water and nutrients through capillary action to the farthest twig, and to supply the leaf factories. Oh? And who designed all this?

Following the branches into the sky, I spot a hawk soaring over head. I shade my eyes from the brilliant orb of the sun. And I remember the moon at night. And an uncounted galaxy of stars. Who made all this?

Oh, no one you say. It just happened. It evolved. Sure, tell me another bedtime story.

Sorry my friend. I prefer to hear what the designer himself has said. “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man…Where were you when I laid the foundation?…Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?…Does the rain have a father?…Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades?…Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom?” (Selections from Job 38,39).

“How awesome are your works, O God!” “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1). But even more amazing, that Creator sent His Son, the agent of his creation, to come down here to save us from our arrogance, pride, and imagined self-reliance—our sin. And to enlighten us by driving away the darkness that hides the evident truth write large all around us.

John, the apostle who knew and loved Jesus wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.…Through him all things were made, without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:1-5, 14). This is Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Interested in finding out about the creator of that fly, the one who holds your life in his hand? Pick up a Bible and read John’s gospel for a start. Life, your eternal life, is found in that book!

(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at:  Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)

The Spearhead of God’s Rescue Operation – Essential Beliefs, #39

Is there anyone who will be our advocate against “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” as Shakespeare describes human existence? We all need someone on our side. Our mother or father, a big brother, a friend, a spouse. A Saviour. A Mediator. Is there anyone?

In our rather irregular series of meditations on essential of the faith, I come today to the most essential truth of all, the historic reality of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only mediator between men and God. Seeking to describe this astonishing person with words is almost impossible. But we must try, because belief in His person defines our destiny.

But lest we belittle our need of his salvation or hide our need behind a smokescreen of imagined independence and self-reliance, let’s first diagnose our plight. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear”—when you complain or cry for help. (Isaiah 59:2) Just look around at the moral chaos we’ve introduced into our world. Consider the grim history of the twentieth century. Or, more to the point, let us allow our consciences to probe deep into our own psyches. We are duplicitous. We hide our selfishness beneath a cloud of self-righteousness. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God,” [The divinely designed human flourishing that ought to reflect God’s glorious beauty.] (Romans 3:23). We are a mess!

Fortunately, in the counsels of the godhead, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit determined to mount a restoration operation. The Son of God was chosen as the spearhead of this rescue. Although he was the creator and sustainer of the whole universe, and eternally God the Son, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit, he voluntarily agreed to become our Saviour. “He is the image of the invisible God…For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible…all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:15-17).

As God, the Son, he is omnipresent, so in what sense did he come? He came setting aside something and embracing something else. He voluntarily set aside the independent exercise of his divine prerogatives, took on human form with all its limitations, and was born of the virgin Mary. Mary was frightened when the angel announced his birth, but he said to her; “Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David…the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:30-32, 35).

Imagine this; the eternal creator of time who exists beyond time, came into time; the immaterial God took on a material body; the almighty God came as a helpless babe. God and man; the God-man. No avatar. No figment of someone’s superheated imagination. “In this way it came about that the two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the divine and the human, were inseparably joined together in one Person, without the conversion of the one nature into the other, and without the mixing, as it were of one nature with the other; in other words, without confusion. Thus the Son of God is now both true God and true man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man” (The 1689 Confession, chapter 8, 2.) Our mediator is one Person with two distinct natures.

In some mysterious way which is beyond our experience or understanding, the infinite, eternally existing Son of God came as Jesus, our Shepherd, Friend, Saviour and Mediator. We’ll consider further aspects of his person and role in subsequent posts, but surely this is enough to engage our minds for years to come.

(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at:  Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)

Finding Christian Joy Through Dealing With Guilt

Having the joy of the Lord depends upon clearing out the debris that defiles an organ we seldom consider.

Our physical health—other factors being equal—depends on a balance of nutritious food, exercise, and a healthy mental attitude. Doctors monitor our hearts, lungs, and other organs to maintain health. For deficiencies they prescribe medicines or perform operations. But there is an organ in the body that they don’t treat—indeed many have no idea it exists. And yet it is an organ that powerfully affects our mental attitudes. The conscience.

Paul explains that even those who have no conscious commitment to God’s law, “do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their conscience also now accusing, now even defending them” (Romans 2:14,15).

This organ innately knows that gossip, lying, stealing, murder, and adultery, for example, are wrong. And when we act and think contrary to what is good and true, our conscience plagues us. Joy disappears. If we would know joy, we must get rid of those guilty feelings that trouble our psyche.

Once we are aware of this problem, we can try to stop the nagging of conscience in several ways. Many religions teach us that if we do good, or bring offerings to our god, or keep the month of fast and say our prayers, the voice of the conscience will be stilled. Converted Muslims know this doesn’t work as do converted Hindus. Even a professing Christian like Martin Luther found out that going up a series of stairs on his knees while reciting the rosary didn’t work. Hebrews explains that worship that involves, “gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper” (Hebrews 9:9). No religious ritual can still the conscience’s cry, “guilty, guilty!”

Others seek to smother the voice of the conscience by doing evil until the guilty whispers are silenced. Paul talks of this often. “To those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, their minds and consciences are corrupted [even though they claim to know God]. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good” (Titus 1:15). He writes of some teachers having “consciences as seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:2). In another place, Paul talks about consciences being defiled through a repetitious commitment to idolatry or religious rituals. (1 Cor., 8:7) Still others have shipwrecked their conscience through rejecting the offer of the gospel. (1 Tim. 1:19)

What then can we do to clear the conscience and open the door to a life of joy? One thing only. Confession of our sins and faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. “The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God [will] cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God!” (Heb. 9:14).

The whole purpose of Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter—the incarnation of Christ—is to cleanse our consciences so we can live joyful lives of service to our living God! The blood of Christ alone atones for guilt. Jesus came and died for you and me that we might flourish, joyfully! He alone can silence the conscience.

If we would know joy, we need to continually celebrate what Christ has done. “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1,2). (See also Rom 8:1,2)

Through faith in the blood of Christ, we are justified, forgiven, and headed for heaven! Joy doesn’t come from what we have done but only from what Christ has done. Don’t look anywhere else. Celebrate Him and know joy. No wonder John Newton, buried under guilt as a slave trader wrote, Amazing Grace.

But what about when we stumble and sin again? We will sin again; we still have a fallen nature in us. When we sin, our conscience becomes defiled again. Paul writes, “I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man” (Acts. 24:16). How do we keep it clear? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). As soon as we are aware of our sin, we should immediately confess it to God. And marvel of marvels, he gives us immediate and complete forgiveness based on the blood he shed for us! Our joy is restored. A joyful life is a forgiven life. A joyful life is a life that celebrates grace, amazing grace. A joyful life is a growing life.

(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at:  Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)

The Rest of the Story–Or At Least, The Next Chapter

In Ohio, Phyliss, a widowed worker having returned from Pakistan and the Persian Gulf, was immersed in a variety of ministries in her church and beyond. Her chaplaincy, prayer, and discipleship ministries had proven very fruitful. But she was praying for God’s guidance as she looked into the future.

Meanwhile in Ontario, Eric, a cross-cultural worker and pastor was slowly climbing out of a valley of deep grief over the home-going of his wife, Mary Helen. He had attained a plateau where God’s sunshine promised an ongoing measure of stability, joy, and contentment in ministry. But he was praying for God to somehow restore what he had lost in relationships with Mary Helen’s female friends. He thought platonic relationships might be possible, but he was too old for romance.

Behind the scenes, God was moving. In His loving and astounding way, He brought Phyliss and Eric together to receive from His hand more than they ever dreamed. Through comments made about Eric’s posts on grieving the two connected. They soon discovered a plenitude of commonalities; not only their connection to Pakistan but a history that went back to a church in Pontiac Michigan where Eric and Mary Helen had interned! Their chats on FB soon led to texts and phone calls and love, deep pervasive love!

Both of them ask themselves how this could have possibly happened. It is all too unlikely. Too amazing. But isn’t that the way God works?

Hi, I’m Eric. This week I asked Phyliss Hammerstrom to marry me, and she accepted! We bought the rings! We will be married on September 2nd at the Grace Bible Church in Stow, Ohio. We covet your prayers that God would sort through the challenges of an international marriage and use us in His service. May His kingdom come! May His name be glorified. Yes, love is a many splendored thing!

Mankind’s Relentless Search for Eden – Essential Beliefs, #38, the Covenant of Grace

We all live east of Eden, but with a longing to return to Paradise. In that pursuit we try to construct our own version. We pursue money in the hopes that we can construct some blissful environment free from worries and fears of impending disaster. We pursue romance in hopes that the promise of poetry and literature will be fulfilled in the passion and companionship of our perfect love affair. We travel to some exotic destination thinking that there we will at least catch a glimpse of paradise for a week or two. Or we embrace alcohol or drugs thinking that, at the very least they will give us a few hours of relief from the purgatory of our disappointing lives. Or perhaps we dive into reading about romance to lose ourselves in an imaginary Eden for an hour or two. Or we pursue esoteric studies to gain multiplied PhD’s through researching the frontiers of knowledge—perhaps there we will find Eden. Or rich foods. Or multiplied affairs. Or exercise programs. Or changing our sexual orientation. Or tarot cards. Or transcendental meditation. We pursue the pot at the end of the rainbow by buying endless lottery tickets. Or…or…or…

But in every Eden we try to construct, we find the ancient serpent already there. He makes easy sport with us, for we drag into all our attempts; “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). We are fallen creatures. Adam’s nature is within us to corrupt every attempt at bliss. “The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked who can know it” (Jer. 17:9)? “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jer. 13:23).  “All of us also lived among them [in the world], gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Eph. 2:3).

Wrath? Is there no escape? Is there no way back to paradise? While we could never bridge the gap between us and God to seek again his love and favour, God himself took steps to deliver us from ourselves. God took the initiative. He did that by means of a covenant sealed with blood.

There in the Garden, before He banished Adam and Eve, he clothed their nakedness with skins of animals he had sacrificed, a picture of the cross to come. God promised that through “the seed of the woman,” Eve’s offspring [Christ], God would crush the serpent. (Gen. 3:15)

This promise is the initiation of the Covenant of Grace which God established with all mankind. Step by step throughout Old Testament history—through Noah, through Abraham, through David—God prefigured the Gospel as the fulfillment of that covenant. Through God’s undeserved grace expressed in a covenant sealed by blood, we have hope. By faith in that covenant ratified by the atoning death of Christ for our sins, God promises to restore Eden, first by forgiving our sins and planting a new Edenic nature in our hearts so that although our bodies deteriorate our souls may soar. Then he takes us to heaven as a joyful preparation for ultimately returning with Him to “a new heaven and a new earth” that will far exceed paradise. (See Rev. 21,22)

Every hope we have of bliss, of joy, of peace, of deliverance from addiction to sin is dependent upon the covenant of grace. And only the promised one, the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfills the covenant. We joyfully believe in the historical fulfillment of that covenant by putting our faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation. All praise to our Covenant God! Hallelujah for the cross!

(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at:  Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)

Meditations on Christian Joy, Part One

I remember a preacher once saying that we all looked like we had swallowed a pickle. Instead of joy on our faces, we evidently looked glum. Clearly, God wants redeemed sinners to know joy, but can we just change the expression of our faces and have joy? Hardly.

A cursory read through the Psalms, for example, reveals that genuine God-fearers may occasionally look like they have swallowed a pickle. Many of the Psalms are laments. David, and others, frequently express “disquiet of soul,” a downcast countenance, sorrow and grief. In Ecclesiastes we are reminded that; “there is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” (Eccl. 3:4). Christian joy is not a denial of reality. It is not a grit your teeth and bear it attitude that we force ourselves to adopt to paper over pain, grief, or tragedy.

Happiness, on the other hand, normally depends on circumstances. Healthy…then happy. In a harmonious marriage…happy. Money in the bank…happy. Sunshine…happy. Normally, we don’t expect people who don’t have enough money to pay their bills to be happy. Or those in abusive relationships. We don’t expect people struggling through sleet on their way to work to be happy while cold drizzle runs down their back. In fact, if they pretend to be happy, we think them strange. Generally, pleasant circumstances make us happy.

Fifteen months ago, God called my wife of 61 years home to heaven. Fortunately, most of my family and peers didn’t expect me to get over my grief quickly. Yet some Christian writers who have gone through grief write as if “the joy of the Lord” will quickly triumph over tears. So, this subject is very personal to me.

I am not alone in dealing with grief. All around us there are a multitude of those who have been abandoned, abused, widowed, or struggle with cancer, the loss of a child, or a mental illness of some kind. What do we expect God to do for them? Should we expect them in a reasonable length of time to break into joyful song? Paul and Silas did while in prison. Clearly, we need to look deeper.

After the exiles returned from Babylon and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem, Ezra read “from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.” When they saw how far short of God’s moral standards they had acted, they began mourning and weeping. However, Nehemiah and the leaders urged them; “This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). They found joy in God’s covenant love which had led to their return from captivity and the restoration of their city and land.

The prelude to joy is an acknowledgement of our sinfulness and need of forgiveness. We cannot expect joy to pervade our beings if we are self-righteous and judgmental of others, if we harbour unconfessed sin or lust, if we pilfer from our boss or spread gossip. Joy comes when there is nothing but a sense of God’s forgiving love between us and our Saviour. Joy comes from a source outside of ourselves.

Isaiah writes that we will joyfully draw water from the wells of salvation. (12:3) Wells of salvation? We can’t obtain water unless we have a source, in this case, a well. To get a well we first have to dig it. In the case of Christian joy, we’re fortunate that God steps in and metaphorically digs a well in our hearts that bubbles up with joy. How does he do that? By calling us to faith in Christ. We become born again. He takes away our stony hearts and gives us new hearts, tender, and sensitive to his love.

Clearly then, the prerequisite to know joy is to be saved through faith in Jesus Christ who bore our sins upon the cross. In a biblical sense if we do not have salvation, we have no well from which to draw up draughts of joy. But being saved means we have an inexhaustible source of joy through meditation on our forgiveness, adoption, reconciliation, justification, and many other facets of redemption.

Of those who know his salvation, God declares that he has made known to them, “the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand (Psalm 16:11). That might indicate that this joy is not fully known until we go to heaven. But no, joy is offered along “the path of life” as we walk with a sense of God’s presence. Having that sense is crucial.

Do we know God is near? Do we believe that “underneath are the everlasting arms?” With David do we realize that God is beside us, ahead of us, behind us, beneath us? (See Psalm 139.)

Jesus makes it clear that the impact of his message on his disciples is “that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). His joy. Gospel joy. Christian joy. This joy cannot be experienced outside of his message. Ignorance of his teaching muddies the well and rusts out the bucket. Are we daily drawing water from the descriptive well of Scripture?

There is much more to consider about this delightful subject.

(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at:  Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)

Blossoms Along Our Country Roads

As spring clashes with the approaching summer, suddenly bushes and trees up and down our country roads burst into bloom. The flowers that festoon the roadsides seem to have been arranged to welcome the procession of a King. Perhaps it is a dress rehearsal for the return of King Jesus and a foretaste of the New Earth. These are what I found in Ontario, but in your area I’m sure you’ll find an abundance of beauty too.

Early on the lilacs flower and spread their scent. They were planted by our pioneers and have escaped along the verges on every hand.

Then come the hawthorn, considered by many to be a weed tree. “Clear the hedgerows,” they say. But why should we deprive those who have eyes to see God’s beautiful things of a sight, or the birds who want to feast on the berries?

Here and there throughout the countryside are several varieties of dogwood. Not the showy dogwood of the Smokies, but others such as the red osier dogwood and alternate-leaved dogwood.

The black locusts stand tall and showy with their pendants of flowers.

Scattered here and there, where some homeward bound schoolboy tossed his apple, wild apple trees have sprouted and grown into another source of sustenance for animal life. Apple orchards may also be found throughout Northumberland.

More rare, and often near dwellings, we find the horse chestnut. How I loved their hard nuts—not to eat—but to string and use for contests with other kids in school.

As the season progresses, other blossoming trees and bushes will grace our country roads. Why not take a rural ramble down one of those near you. You’ll find that no matter how messed up our world is, God has spread enough beauty to lift our spirits–and prepare us for the New Earth which will be beyond our wildest dreams.

(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at:  Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)

Where Did All This Creativity Come From?

My family once left me behind staring at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Such creativity entrances me. Painters. Musicians. Writers. Architects. Cabinet makers. Welders. Poets. Inventors. And yes, even app designers. Whenever we wander the corridors of history, we discover astounding creativity. And in our day—if we look—we discover creativity bursting out all over even in a good restaurant, an occasional TV show, or a phone app. Where did all this creativity come from?

We wander down a country road. We discover trilliums and hepaticas, ferns and buttercups, giant pines and ancient maples. We park along a dark road and gaze up at a billion stars before the rising moon hides their shimmer. We pause, astonished on a beach, as we gaze down at the variety of shells. We climb a hill, sit on a rock, and our mouths fall open at the sight of hill after gauzy hill receding into the distance in a living Constable. We snorkel beneath the ocean’s surface and discover another world of amazing beauty. Or we lie on our tummies and part the grass beneath our eyes to find a tiny world of spiders and ants and who knows what. Where did all these created things come from?

The Creator smiles at our question. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.…God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day” (Gen. 1:1,31). “So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). God, the Creator of a universe full of beauty and order and wonder, created you and me in his image to think and reason—and create. We are men and women of worth and dignity because we bear the stamp of our origin within us. We are creative creatures because we take after our Father. And it was all good and fascinating because God is good and holy and pure and, yes, creative.

And within us he implanted principles (divine law) to guide us in how to keep everything good. He also gave us the ability to choose our way. (Rom. 2:14,15)

Of course, that was before the fall, but that’s another episode in this exploration of essential beliefs. So, let’s all go out and create: beautiful music and art, poems and pottery, beautiful lives and rich happy relationships. And when we find our creations marred, let’s return to the one who made us so he can help us remake them.

(Let me know your thoughts on this subject. If you appreciate this blog, please pass it on. If I can help you spiritually, let me know. Further articles, books, and stories at:  Facebook: Eric E Wright Twitter: @EricEWright1 LinkedIn: Eric Wright ; Eric’s books are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Eric-E.-Wright/e/B00355HPKK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share)

Lotteries, Luck and Providence – Essential Beliefs, #35

“Buy a lottery ticket and win a mansion…or a million!” The media is flooded with ads about buying lottery cards, playing games of chance on our phones, and even raising money for charities like hospitals by buying a lottery ticket.

“Dream bigger! The pot is now 150 million! Buy a ticket. This may be your destiny!” “Just take a chance, your luck may turn.” As if out there somewhere among the galaxies our lucky star exists. Oh?

But does luck really exist? Is our fine-tuned universe a wheel of chance, in which our lives unfold according to long odds? Or is luck another fanciful concept dreamed up by people determined to reject a Creator, but rooting around to find some way to explain life?

Solomon, wisest man on earth, didn’t think luck existed. He wrote, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD” (Proverbs 16:33). Now why would he say that?

Well…for one thing, the universe isn’t a giant wheel of chance. It was created, fine-tuned, set in motion, and is governed by the Creator’s power, wisdom, and omnipotence. In Athens philosophers met to debate and proclaim their views of truth. Paul stood up in their midst and said; “what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, is the Lord of heaven and earth…he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth, and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 1723-28). Chance? No. God. And the word that describes his interaction with us is not luck but providence.

Determined times and places! How can that be? Remember, we’re talking about God and that means we are touching the very edges of infinite mystery. To enter deeper into that mystery and find peace in celebrating—not luck—but God’s providential care we must seek out the astonishing Son of God, “by whom all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16,17).

It is in coming to know this one, Jesus, the Christ, that mystery recedes and hope rises. We read, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). When we cast off the veil of self-righteousness that has hidden our selfish, law-breaking, sinful hearts and bow to the searchlight of his love and ask him to save us from our sins, what then? He washes us clean and gives us a new heart, open to learning. A new day dawns. Instead of luck, we have a caring Father.

We quickly learn; “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matt. 10:29,30). But? But what about troubles and suffering? Ah, another big, big subject for another time. But the place to start is at the feet of Jesus where we learn to lean on his providence. Remember he cares for sparrows. He counts the hairs on our head even as they come out on our hair brush.

God cares. He created us in his image to live a life of fulfillment and joy as his children; as we demonstrate in our choices and actions his very image in us. As we learn, forget, re-learn, stumble, get up—his providence watches over us.

Providence is a word seldom known or expressed these days. It sounds like an old-fashioned word. It isn’t! It’s so modern! So real! So comforting to the believer! Wouldn’t we rather trust in providence [God’s loving care] than take a million and a half chance on the roll of dice?  

When we begin to trust in his providence, we glorify our Father by saying; “In his providence, this or that happened.” “Isn’t it amazing how I providentially met my sweetheart?” “I wasn’t planning to live here but God through providential circumstances guided me to this place.”

Oh, friend, it is wonderful to rest in his providential care.

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Danger, Seniors Crossing!

Why did the senior cross the road? Following the chicken, to get to the other side, but once there he couldn’t remember why he crossed over. As you all know, that happens much closer to home between one room and another.

Ants! Where did they come from. I rushed into the storeroom and grabbed a can of spray and doused them good. While I was at it, I doused the edges of the room, and especially around the door and even in the kitchen. Taking the can back to the storeroom, I noticed too late that it was a can of furniture polish! Since then, I’ve had to be careful not to rush…to walk gingerly around the condo and especially when I open the door to be careful lest I slide right out the front door. Sigh.

I’m really prone to losing stuff. One day I was in a panic because I couldn’t find my wallet. Later that day I found it where I had hidden it in my car while I went for a walk. It was almost the next day that I lost the regulator for my hearing aid. I searched the whole house while I calculated how much dough I would have to spent to get a new one. A couple of days later the one I had hired to clean the house—cleaning as a single man is another story—, she found it under my lounge chair.

Dealing with the mystery of the washing machine and dryer is a crucial skill to learn. Especially to check pockets for tissues. Today I forgot. Shreds of tissues everywhere. You can imagine.

But the good thing about being a senior is that you always have an excuse. So next time you see me, be patient, while I try to remember what excuse to use in this situation.