Pit Stop Pity and Prayer

By Brenda Black

I hesitated to pull into the gas station. No one was at the pump and it didn't look like this particular convenience store was frequented often. I wondered how clean or how safe it would be. But I was desperate. I needed a pit stop!

No one was at the counter and the place appeared empty. I hesitated just for a second and considered retreating back to the parking lot. Then a young woman peeked through a door frame from the far corner of the store, with a wadded towel compressed against her forehead. She dutifully welcomed me with a weary “Hello, Welcome to Casey's.” As I processed her appearance, I pressed my reason for entering and she pointed to a hallway that led to my destination.

When I returned to the main room, I was alone again, but headed to the refrigerator section to select a drink for the rest of my journey. Then, she emerged once more with said towel still pressed to said head. I asked, “Are you alright?” and she replied, “I have a terrible headache.” Though she was in pain, I was a bit relieved that she wasn't being held at gunpoint at the back of the store and had not been rapped on the noggin by some thug.

She briefly shared how often she suffers from migraines and I listened knowingly. Sometimes those awful things can be right down debilitating. I felt sorry that she had to plug on through the day in such discomfort. When I asked her name, she looked at me with wonder? I repeated my query and she answered, “Lisa.”

I called her by name and then told Lisa I was going to pray for her the entire stretch of the road through this town, at least three or four miles and that many stoplights would give me time to plead her case before the Lord. As I prayed, I began to cry, filled with empathy for a stranger I'd known for a mere minute. Not only did I beg for relief from her suffering, but I prayed that she would feel the fiery touch of God and would know it was a direct result of prayer. I asked God to soften her heart and if she knew Him, that this would bolster her faith; if she didn't, it would awaken her hunger!

I'll never know this side of heaven if Lisa's headache disappeared, but I prayed believing! And when I had poured out all of my petition and reached the edge of the city limits, I surmised that the reason for my need to pull off the main road was more about Lisa than about me.

The Apostle Paul instructed Titus in chapter 3, verse 14: “Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.”

I could have been insensitive and diminished her trouble or demanded better service and expected her to buck up and do her job regardless. But I didn't. I had compassion on a total stranger who was doing her best to serve me under the worst of her own circumstances. Though I couldn't take her pain away, I could pray to the One who is able and I could practice patience and kindness.

How simple, how easy it was to do good and provide for Lisa's immediate need. And how thankful I am that I learned again so much of life is not about me. It's about being God's hands and feet and providing daily necessities in unexpected ways to those in need.

Preps to be a Pillar

By Brenda Black

“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it.” (Revelation 3:11-12b)

As a graduate of the University of Missouri, I know the significance of the six iconic columns that tower over MU's campus. The Columns once supported the portico of Academic Hall, the first building erected on campus sometime between 1840 and 1843. Hinkson Creek Valley furnished the timeless limestone, hauled to the construction site by ox-drawn carts. When the brick building burned in January 1892, only those charred white Columns remained, and their standing was threatened with removal when the Board of Curators voted to tear them down. After inspection revealed the Columns stood on solid foundations, the Board reversed their decision and agreed to leave them standing.

Pil·lar (plr) n. 1. a. A slender, freestanding, vertical support; a column. b. Such a structure or one similar to it used for decoration. 2. One who occupies a central or responsible position: a pillar of the state. tr.v. pil·lared, pil·lar·ing, pil·lars

The word jumped off the page at me when I read Revelation chapter 3. The imagery painted a picture of God constructing His church with tremendous and ornate detail. I was reminded of the highly specific and intricate blueprints Moses shared with the Israelites for building the Tabernacle. My mind raced from one end of history to the history yet to be challenging me to envision the New Jerusalem, the Holy City, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” (Rev. 21:2) God has particular plans. He has had them from the foundations of the world and He will have them for all eternity. He likes His house in order and He has space for every precious piece. Specifically, He is waiting for pillars, the saints of all ages joined together by and in Christ, to take their place in this spiritual temple so that a great banquet can begin.

The called, the elect, the children of God, the church, the bride! Call her what you must, but here in Revelation, God calls her pillars. Not windows to see through nor a door through which to greet. Not drapes that warm a room. Not walls or floors or ceiling tiles. Pillars. Rock solid, integral support. And like the church in Philadelphia, one of only two not rebuked, we pillars of this time period need to “hold on to what [we] have” so we'll be fit for the task.

That's going to take some quality construction. Safety cautions from AllenHousing.org for forging brick pillars may be applicable advice for building stable spiritual pillars as well.

“One of the most important things you should consider during the construction is the weight that the brick pillars will support. They have to be strong enough to prevent the building from collapsing.”

God may be holding the weight of the world, but He only has one plan for winning the world – faithful followers who will pillar in Holy Spirit power and hold up the truth of God's Word. The task is impossible without prayer support. “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.” (Colossians 1:10-12) Since pillars have to be strong enough to prevent the building from collapsing, pray for the strength to stand firm. Pray for other pillars as well.

Caution 2: “The raw materials that you are going to use for the construction should be used according to the specifications. When you are making mortar to use in the brick pillars, make sure you utilize coarse sand. The bricks have to be perfectly burnt and the corners should be faultless.

“When mixing the sand and cement to make the mortar, the ration has to be 4:1. The bricks should also be properly soaked when using them. After you have constructed the brick pillars, they have to be cured for at least ten days to make sure they set well.”

It takes the right ingredients, a little heat, some washing and time to make us fit to stand in heaven and hold up our part of the temple. God isn't looking for ornate decorations though He does see as beautiful. He is looking for obedient disciples. Get into the Word. Get to know the Master Builder who drafted a design for your life. Get ready to be tested. The more you withstand the heat of a brick-layer's oven, the more pure you will become. Be cleansed. “...'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.'” (Acts. 2:38) Be patient. The Lord is at work in your life even when you feel like you are just standing still.

May we as the people of Christ, be willing to pray: Lord, forge us into pillars, established on strong foundations so that we might be fit to stand together for you in heaven. Teach us to pray for those still needed to build the Holy City and keep us pure in mind and heart and willing to endure to the end.

Huck Finn Apologetics

By Brenda Black

“Well, I got a good going-over in the morning, from old Miss Watson, on account of my clothes; but the widow she didn't scold, but only cleaned off the grease and clay and looked so sorry that I thought I would behave a while if I could. Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By-and-by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way.

“I set down, one time, back in the woods, and had a long think about it. I says to myself, if a body can get anything they pray for, why don't Deacon Winn get back the money he lost on pork? Why can't the widow get back her silver snuff-box that was stole? Why can't Miss Watson fat up? No, says I to myself, there ain't nothing in it. I went and told the widow about it, and she said the thing a body could get by prayin' for it was 'spiritual gifts.' This was too many for me, but she told me what she meant – I must help other people, and do everything I could for other people, and look out for them all the time, and never think about myself. This was including Miss Watson, as I took it. I went out in the woods and turned it over in my mind a long time, but I couldn't see no advantage about it – except for the other people – so at last I reckoned I wouldn't worry about it any more, but just let it go.” (from the
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1961)

Contemporary dialects may have changed, but attitudes remain much the same among those searching for truth. Infernal selfishness continues to rant: If it doesn't benefit me directly and get me what I want, when I want it, then I want nothing to do with it. It saddens me like it did the widow who took Huck in and clothed him and loved him in spite of his sins. The selfish motives of modern man and the total disregard for all that the Lord has done reveals a spiritual ignorance that's lingered for decades.

Huck feared spooks and spirits, but did not fear the living God. His resolve to “just let it go” seems to be the same problem today among many folk, both young and naïve and old and worldly. An attitude of indifference excuses accountability for the present. But a day of reckoning is drawing near and like Huck contemplated, there is either the devil to pay or glory and grace.

There's no time like the here and now to define such providential destiny. While Huck scrambled for meaning in life through the questionable wisdom of others, he would have had a far greater understanding of God's loving plan if he had discovered the whole truth. Instead, he settled for hodge-podged tidbits of legalism, spirituality and tradition mixed with a dab of hell fire and brimstone and tempered with harps and angel choirs singing.

No wonder the world is confused when it comes to truth. We all, at times, have derived our own definitions based often on ignorance and well-intending, but ill-informed tutors. Don't just take my paltry explanations. Look it up for yourself right in the source if you want to know the real plan of God. It's clearly shared in the Holy Scriptures and these days you can get it written in languages and dialects that cover the globe. No longer are the Hucks of the world able to “just let it go.” We all have access to the very throne of God through the Word of God and have opportunity to worship the living God in Christian churches on every corner!

But are those outside of Christ hungry enough, curious enough, in need enough to seek truth for Truth's sake? Maybe the fear of not having the freedom to seek Christ will awaken that hunger. That same selfish drive that keeps us from serving others, may be the very thing that drives us to our knees! If a day dawned in this country when Americans were told they could not proclaim the Christ nor enter a house of worship, I believe we wouldn't “just let it go.” I believe we would see churches swell with a renewed commitment by those who have grown Mississippi River lazy and see people clamoring like the rolling river for the right to pray and worship!

I pray it doesn't take that kind of oppression for people to wake up and embrace truth and freedom found in Jesus. For “if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,.” Jesus told those who believed. (John 8:31b-32)

Those who hunger for the teaching and hold to it can right now be released from the entrapment of ignorance. They can be set free from a prison of confusion. Right now, today – they can escape the enslavement of selfishness, and live free in Christ. And that, folks, is Huck Finn Apologetics.

Weary Words

By Brenda Black

Words won't come this week, as I scour my brain for just the right turn of a phrase to express my deepest sorrow for people harmed, homes demolished, jobs lost, and lives ended or altered in the span of ten minutes on a Sunday night in Southwest Missouri. So let my words be few and what is needed arrive in plenty. Hands, help, blood, money, spare rooms, a drink of water and unending prayer are all critically necessary for the tornado victims shocked, stranded, worried, wounded and bereaved.

In the wake of such horrific devastation, it is hard to know where to begin and even more uncertain just how long it will take for the nightmare to end. My words mean so little at such a time as this, but I know the Word of God is powerful and true and when it goes forth it is life. It is help and hope and a refuge in times of trouble. May the words of Scripture from the Holy Bible minister to the masses and bolster courage and peace and joy in the days ahead. May victims be comforted and volunteers be motivated to persevere and overcome such tragedy. May the Word bring blessings upon neighbors and friends – those who are now homeless and the public servants rushing to their aid.

“I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold...

“The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.” (Psalm 18:1-6)

Even when our words seem feeble, God hears the heart's plea. If those overwhelmed by unimaginable fear cry out to Him, He will hear. For God cares not how simple or magnanimous the vernacular, He listens for the broken and searching and He longs to draw near.

I pray that people turn to God for help in this time of trouble for He alone can rescue. He alone can save. And may the Lord send the hands and feet of humanity to touch the lives of those so desperately in need of his mercies.

Dear God, help us wait in hope for You - our help and our shield. In You, may hearts rejoice for the lives that were spared and the help that you send. Teach us to trust in Your holy name always – in good times and bad. “May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” (Ps. 33:20-22 vs 20-21 paraphrased)

You may be the answer to someone's prayer. Here's how you can help: Visit http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/05/23/6700666-joplin-tornado-how-to-help for an extensive list of reputable networks and agencies and volunteer programs managing donations, volunteers, animal rescue, medical assistance and communication for disaster relief in Missouri.