Category: The Journey

Psalm 16:11                                                        Same Old Road?

“You make known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence and eternal pleasure at your right hand” (NIV).

 

Sounds great, “joy in your presence and eternal pleasure at your right hand.”  Maybe I don’t have that every day.  Maybe I don’t have that very often.  If I believe the Word of God, and I am not experiencing joy and pleasure, then it must be something that I am doing, or something I am not doing.  I must not be following the path of life that God has shown me.  Following my path, my way, has not resulted in joy and eternal pleasure.  If I’ve been doing the same old things,  I can expect the same old results.  If I look at my trail, it is probably worn deep like the one pictured above,  To get new results, I will need to get off this old, worn,  comfortable trail and strike out at a tangent, which may not be as comfortable as my old path.  But before I decide on what tangent to take, I need to take the time to read God’s Word and ask God about it.  It may take some time, but He will make the right path known to me.  Then it is up to me to follow it.  I will need to check frequently to be sure that I am following the path He has chosen for me.  When I notice the same old unsatisfactory results, I know it is time to get back on His path.  Then joy and pleasure along with challenges, will be in my present as well as my future.

Matthew11:28-30                                                 Unequally Yoked

“Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (NLT).

 

The double looped contraption hanging on the wall is a yoke for oxen.  We saw it at a farm in Iowa where they demonstrate farming methods from the past several hundred years.  In fact, we saw a yoke of oxen walking around the grounds.  They did everything together.  If one walked, they both walked, and if one wanted to eat, they both ate.  It is interesting to know that in every yoke of oxen, one is dominant and the other generally follows his lead.  Farmers who use oxen usually yoke together an experienced ox with a younger ox that is subservient.  In a short period of time, they work together as a strong team.  They have learned to work together for the better of both of them.

In the Scripture above Jesus invites us to become yoked with Him.  Being omnipotent and omniscient, He is obviously the leading member of the team.  We know that because He asks us to “take my yoke upon you.”  He says He will teach us and give us rest.  He states that He is “humble and gentle at heart.”  Finally, He says, “For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”  As the omnipotent member of the team, he will take the larger of the burden, and as the omniscient member of the team, he will direct us in the best way to go.  Because He is humble and gentle at heart, He will not demand that we follow Him exactly, but He will show us the way that is best, and then allow us to actually choose whether to stay yoked with Him or not.  As time goes on, and we learn from Him, we will follow His lead.  One important difference between this yoke and the yoke used by oxen is that there is no outsider who decides when our yoke with Him is broken.  Jesus gives us the opportunity to leave His yoke at any point.  He is saddened if we do leave the yoke, and He always gives us the opportunity to rejoin His yoke at any time in the future. Why would I not want to partner with the creator of the universe, who is both omnipotent and omniscient?  Being yoked with Him means that I will always have the best direction from the strongest.  Sign me up!

Mark 1:9-13                           Highs and Lows–Peaks and Valleys

“In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.  And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.’  The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him” (RSV).

 

If we want to discuss the journey between the highs and the lows, the peaks and the valleys, there is no better example than that of Jesus described in Mark 1:9-13.  He goes from “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased” to “And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.”  From God the Father to Satan, from the highest to the lowest.  There was very little transition for the passage also states, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.”  His time in the wilderness was an extended time, forty days.

In this life we experience journeys between the peaks and valleys in both directions.  Sometimes the journey is quick and sharply delineated, but other times the journey is longer with the distinction between the two—peak and valley—not so sharp.  Sometimes the journey goes almost unnoticed, as we drift between one to the other.  We can easily distinguish between a peak and a valley, but we need to learn when we are on the journey between the two and in which direction we are headed.  Satan does his best to cloud the journey, thus deceiving us as to where we are headed.  We need to be constant in the reading of His Word and in conversation with our Lord to understand where we stand at any time, and that is important.  When we are traveling from lows to highs, we can shorten the journey by our actions and our attitude, and when we are travelling from highs to lows, we can stop the journey before we reach rock bottom.

We do travel between highs and lows, peaks and valleys in this life, but when we are aware of the direction of travel, we can always depend upon our Lord to give us both help and comfort along the journey.  It can be said that the peaks are not as high when the valleys are not very low, but with the Lord’s help, we can spend more time on the peaks or on the journey toward the peaks to His glory than we do in the valleys or on the descent toward the valleys.  Thank you, Lord Jesus.  Help me to be aware of the direction of my journey, and help me to move toward you.

Habakkuk 3:19                                                  He Guides My Feet

“The Lord gives me strength, He makes my feet as sure as those of a deer, and he helps me stand on the mountains….” (CEV)

 

I took this picture fifty-three years ago.  Norma and I, her twin sister, Dorla, her husband, Ernie, and another couple, Wayne and Sue, took a camping trip to Glacier National Park where we spent much of our time on hiking trails.  This was a 7 ½ mile hike to Granite Park Chalet, where we slept on rugged bunks wearing all our clothes and all the blankets we could get.  We noticed something interesting as we walked up to the bunkhouse.  Sticking out from the door were numerous long, sharp spikes.  We were told that they discouraged the grizzly bear from knocking down the door and entering.

Each couple had a child of about two years of age with us, and each couple alternated carrying their child in a “Gerry” pack from which the kids could look at the scenery or take a nap.  All three of the kids were good campers, and they gave us insight to the sights through their eyes.

The trail began at Logan Pass, went along the Garden Wall that overlooked a deep valley with a river and a long lake, across snow fields, across rocky slopes that ran along the edge of the Garden Wall, and ended up at Granite Park Chalet with this magnificent view of aptly named, Heaven’s Peak.  What a glorious hike it was.  Even when the view was not long distance, the things close by were interesting—interesting included rocky mountain sheep.  Once we got to the chalet. we saw a group of people and a ranger looking through a spotting scope.  When we asked what they were looking at, they let us look at the grizzly bear mother and cub less than a hundred yards off the trial we had just hiked.

I believe this hike to be a metaphor for my Christian life.  I have walked this walk alongside my wife of sixty years.  We were joined on this journey for many years by Ernie and Dorla until they both moved on to an even more spectacular place, heaven.  Throughout my Christian life there have been many exciting times, from teaching in Christian schools, to having a Christian ministry to campgrounds across the United States.  Now we are providing church services in an assisted living home two Sundays a month.  In between the exciting times, there were years of living for and learning to know our Lord Jesus better day-by-day.  There have been times when the “spikes through the door” provided protection, and there were times when we later on looked back and saw times when the “grizzly bear” had been close to where we walked.  At the end of this hike mentioned above, we saw Heaven’s Peak, and we had a safe and beautiful place to stay for the night.  At the end of my Christian life here on earth, I will see the real “Heaven’s Peak” as I am welcomed into the best place I could ever stay, except this stay will not be for a night—it will last forever, and it will be in the company of my Lord, Jesus Christ, who created every bit of the beauty I saw on the trail to Granite Park Chalet.  I’ll look for you there.