The Lord is at your right hand to help you. When He becomes angry, He will crush kings. He will judge those nations, filling them with dead bodies. He will defeat rulers all over the world. The King will drink from the brook on the way. Then he will be strengthened. (Verses 5-7)
But I trust in You, Lord. I say, "You are my God." My times are in Your hands." Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Psalm 31
I'd just been to the obstetrician. "Yep," he declared. "You're pregnant!" Flooded with a mixture of joy and consternation, I walked from his office in a daze. I'd taken an early pregnancy test a couple of weeks before, was experiencing a little nausea and was needing naps at odd times of the day. So, I wasn't surprised. But the confirmation of the new life growing in me sealed the deal. Our daughters were seven and nine, and we weren't expecting the addition to our family. Had to get all the baby things together again. Bassinet, crib, changing table, stroller...all the things we'd bid adieu to long before. There was so much on my mind as I drove across town to the Dallas hospital where my best friend, Cathette, lay awaiting news of a biopsy on a lump in her breast.
I met my friend the first day of our teaching careers in Red Oak, Texas, a little town outside of Dallas. She was so pretty, sitting on the other side of the room with her long dark hair, her red heart-shaped lips pursed in a half-smile that revealed her deep dimples and accentuated her rosy cheeks. Our eyes met. We knew in that moment we were comrades-in-arms in this suburban high school. She was a Catholic. Had thought of becoming a nun. Her love for Jesus was authentic. I loved her. From the very start. My beautiful friend. We studied the Bible together during lunch. She spent many hours in our home. Rejoiced over both of our daughters with us. Made me maternity clothes. Cathette finally married in her early thirties and wanted to begin her own family. But she contracted mumps on her honeymoon. Not long afterward, the lump appeared. And now she was waiting for me, along with her husband, to visit her in the hospital.
When I turned the corner from the elevator and wandered down the hall looking for the room number, I felt my stomach churning. Desperately wanting her news to be good. To match mine. But a dread becoming stronger with each footstep that her life was about to drastically change. "Hi," I said as I tiptoed into her room. I was going to say, "How are you?" but I knew from the looks on their faces it wasn't good.
"It's cancer, Kay," she whispered. She was holding her husband's hand. Like she was holding on for dear life trying to stay on a lifeboat. I took her other hand in mine. Breathed in. Breathed out. What to say? All I could think of was, "Oh, Cathette." My eyes filled with tears as her huge green eyes pooled with her own. "I am the Lord's, Kay."
After we prayed together, I got back on the elevator, stunned. New life beginning in me. The time in my life for joy ricocheting off her new struggle. And I reached for His hand to steady my doubts. Our times must rest in the knowledge that He loves and protects us.
Never will I forget that acknowledgment in the midst of the battle that was now her reality. That assurance would take her through the next few years of her short life. Remission. Two adopted sons. Another bout with cancer. Her eventual death. She is the Lord's. I know to some it would seem He abandoned her. Let her fall on the battlefield. But for us all, the last real enemy is death. And if we don't know we are His in life and in death, we will expect things to go differently. Our times--the length of our days, the direction of our path, the purposes of our journey--are in His hands. Though Satan grabs for us, trying to snatch us into hell, we are secure in our God. So in dancing and in dirges, we belong to Christ Who sustains us. Who fights for us. Rescued from the ravages of cancer, I know Cathette rejoices whole and beyond happy as she looks at her conquering Savior today.
Our times are confusing and treacherous. We are tempted on all sides to be squeezed into the world's mold. Pornography, drugs, alcohol, adulterous relationships, greed, power--enemies of our souls. Sent to rob us of a holy walk with God. It seems daily that one more moral standard succumbs to political correctness and we wade through the polluted waters of the River Styx while we pray to be clean. Our promise, though, in all of this? God is going to stand up one day and judge it. This chaotic, unholy world. It is a war He is destined to win. In the meantime, we need a drink from the brook. To gulp living water until we overflow with it. To be refreshed during our time here, trusting He holds our hand through thick and thin and holds it still when we leave this fleshy life, trading it for eternity. Our battle plan in the meantime?
Brothers and sisters, I ask you to look for those who cause people to be against each other and who upset other people's faith. They are against the true teaching you learned, so stay away from them. Such people are not serving our Lord Christ but are only doing what pleases themselves. They use fancy talk and fine words to fool the minds of those who do not know about evil...Be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. Then the God Who brings peace will crush Satan under your feet! Romans 16
But I trust in You, Lord. I say, "You are my God." My times are in Your hands." Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Psalm 31
I'd just been to the obstetrician. "Yep," he declared. "You're pregnant!" Flooded with a mixture of joy and consternation, I walked from his office in a daze. I'd taken an early pregnancy test a couple of weeks before, was experiencing a little nausea and was needing naps at odd times of the day. So, I wasn't surprised. But the confirmation of the new life growing in me sealed the deal. Our daughters were seven and nine, and we weren't expecting the addition to our family. Had to get all the baby things together again. Bassinet, crib, changing table, stroller...all the things we'd bid adieu to long before. There was so much on my mind as I drove across town to the Dallas hospital where my best friend, Cathette, lay awaiting news of a biopsy on a lump in her breast.
I met my friend the first day of our teaching careers in Red Oak, Texas, a little town outside of Dallas. She was so pretty, sitting on the other side of the room with her long dark hair, her red heart-shaped lips pursed in a half-smile that revealed her deep dimples and accentuated her rosy cheeks. Our eyes met. We knew in that moment we were comrades-in-arms in this suburban high school. She was a Catholic. Had thought of becoming a nun. Her love for Jesus was authentic. I loved her. From the very start. My beautiful friend. We studied the Bible together during lunch. She spent many hours in our home. Rejoiced over both of our daughters with us. Made me maternity clothes. Cathette finally married in her early thirties and wanted to begin her own family. But she contracted mumps on her honeymoon. Not long afterward, the lump appeared. And now she was waiting for me, along with her husband, to visit her in the hospital.
When I turned the corner from the elevator and wandered down the hall looking for the room number, I felt my stomach churning. Desperately wanting her news to be good. To match mine. But a dread becoming stronger with each footstep that her life was about to drastically change. "Hi," I said as I tiptoed into her room. I was going to say, "How are you?" but I knew from the looks on their faces it wasn't good.
"It's cancer, Kay," she whispered. She was holding her husband's hand. Like she was holding on for dear life trying to stay on a lifeboat. I took her other hand in mine. Breathed in. Breathed out. What to say? All I could think of was, "Oh, Cathette." My eyes filled with tears as her huge green eyes pooled with her own. "I am the Lord's, Kay."
After we prayed together, I got back on the elevator, stunned. New life beginning in me. The time in my life for joy ricocheting off her new struggle. And I reached for His hand to steady my doubts. Our times must rest in the knowledge that He loves and protects us.
Never will I forget that acknowledgment in the midst of the battle that was now her reality. That assurance would take her through the next few years of her short life. Remission. Two adopted sons. Another bout with cancer. Her eventual death. She is the Lord's. I know to some it would seem He abandoned her. Let her fall on the battlefield. But for us all, the last real enemy is death. And if we don't know we are His in life and in death, we will expect things to go differently. Our times--the length of our days, the direction of our path, the purposes of our journey--are in His hands. Though Satan grabs for us, trying to snatch us into hell, we are secure in our God. So in dancing and in dirges, we belong to Christ Who sustains us. Who fights for us. Rescued from the ravages of cancer, I know Cathette rejoices whole and beyond happy as she looks at her conquering Savior today.
Our times are confusing and treacherous. We are tempted on all sides to be squeezed into the world's mold. Pornography, drugs, alcohol, adulterous relationships, greed, power--enemies of our souls. Sent to rob us of a holy walk with God. It seems daily that one more moral standard succumbs to political correctness and we wade through the polluted waters of the River Styx while we pray to be clean. Our promise, though, in all of this? God is going to stand up one day and judge it. This chaotic, unholy world. It is a war He is destined to win. In the meantime, we need a drink from the brook. To gulp living water until we overflow with it. To be refreshed during our time here, trusting He holds our hand through thick and thin and holds it still when we leave this fleshy life, trading it for eternity. Our battle plan in the meantime?
Brothers and sisters, I ask you to look for those who cause people to be against each other and who upset other people's faith. They are against the true teaching you learned, so stay away from them. Such people are not serving our Lord Christ but are only doing what pleases themselves. They use fancy talk and fine words to fool the minds of those who do not know about evil...Be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. Then the God Who brings peace will crush Satan under your feet! Romans 16
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