Monthly Archives: May 2010

Telling a story from “With Two Hands”

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I have to say, this is one of my favorite things to do. I love telling stories. I love telling true stories. I love telling true stories that bring glory to God. This is what I got to do yesterday for the children of my church.

The book is called "With Two Hands" because when the Ethiopians would come to Christ, they would cry, "With this hand I renounce the devil and all his works! With this hand I embrace my Savior Jesus Christ! All I am and all I have! Two hands!"

The wicked communist general came to kill the missionary.

Mr. McLellan prepared to die, whispering "Jesus, Jesus, Lord Jesus."

The Lord gave a great deliverance!

An attentive audience.

Children pore over the book.

Lean hard

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My daughter Katy was sick, really sick.  It was four days before her wedding.

We were in the middle of all kinds of wedding preparations, and Katy lay on the couch moaning in disbelief that she was about to get married. And her eyes were turning yellow.

So I took her to the doctor to confirm the diagnosis that we strongly suspected: hepatitis, in addition to her mononucleosis. Then he slapped a really large bill on us. And we didn’t have insurance.

I sent her out to the car. And I leaned against the outside wall of the doctor’s office, and I cried.

We got home, and three wonderful ladies were cleaning my house for me, but I just needed to find a place to go and cry. “Oh, God,” I said. “I don’t think I’m trusting You any less. I’m just so sad!”

But maybe I really was trusting Him less. The wedding. Her sickness. The money. Even though I wrote a book about George Mueller, I was falling prey to the temptation to turn my eyes away from Jesus Christ and His great provision, to fail to remember His constant care.

The elders prayed over Katy. She revived enough to look glowing on her Christ-honoring wedding day.

Then a sacrificial gift from a surprising source brought tears to my eyes and reminded me of what I already knew: that the Lord is always caring for us.

This week, when I was praying for a friend in crisis, the Lord brought to mind a piece, probably over a hundred years old, that my mother used to send to me in tract form occasionally through the years.

Oh, it’s true. So true. My soul, don’t lean against the wall at the doctor’s office. Lean against the Savior.

Lean Hard

Child of My love, lean hard,
And let Me feel the pressure of thy care;
I know thy burden, child,
I shaped it;
Poised it in My own hand,
made no proportion
in its weight to thine unaided strength;
For even as I laid it on, I said
“I shall be near, and while she leans on Me,
This burden shall be Mine, not hers.
So shall I keep My child within the circling
arms of My own love.”
Here lay it down,
nor fear to impose it
on a shoulder which upholds the government of worlds.
Yet closer come;
thou art not near enough;
I would embrace thy care
so I might feel My child reposing on My breast.
Thou lovest Me? I know it.
Doubt not then;
But, loving Me,
Lean Hard.



Facing anxiety attacks

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What do you do when your daughter who’s getting married in a week is sick with mononucleosis?

Well . . . for me . . . default reaction.

Worry.

Yes, okay, I’m subject to anxiety attacks. Probably not the clinically diagnosable kind: I don’t think I would ever be hospitalized for mine. But they’ve been able to keep me awake at night. Even when times are relatively peaceful, but especially when things are rocky. After all, you’ve got to do something, and worry is at least something.

But in the past few years I’ve been growing in my understanding about who Jesus is to me. That He is everything. My all in all. Words that I used to say, and really believed, but have been learning more to understand.

I think that the first time I tackled an anxiety attack through Jesus Christ was only as recently as the summer of 2008. Instead of my usual method of trying to reason with myself to say, “Look here, you, we’ll list all the things you’re worried about and go through them one by one and see why it is that you really don’t need to worry about them.” Which in the past had given me a modicum of success, so that I could at least function in society.

Instead of that, I saw it as a spiritual battle. And I fought it on a spiritual level. “Lord Jesus, You are my rest and peace. You are my hope and joy. All my anxieties, all my worries, I can thrust on You, because You are the Great Deliverer.” And instead of trying to reason myself through my anxieties, I turned my thoughts to Jesus. Since I had been learning to know and love Him more, I had plenty to think about. He is an ocean of love, beauty, peace, joy, power.

So, as should have always been as obvious as breathing, my Deliverer, who has already come victorious through the worst of temptations, was strong enough to tackle this battle all by Himself. I slept well.

Anyway, it happens every once in a while, and it’s been happening the last few days. So I have the privilege of reminding myself again why I can “count it all joy” when I’m attacked by temptations (James 1). It’s because the attack reminds me to turn all my heart, all my racing thoughts, to the Mighty One, who delights to deliver me. Now I can say, “Look here, you, are you going to worry, or are you going to trust your Savior?”

Once again I turn my thoughts to Christ. Once again, because He has all our circumstances completely under His control, and He is completely trustworthy, I can focus on Him.

And because of who He is, and because of the work He has accomplished, and because of the work He is doing now and will continue to do, I can rejoice, and I can rest.