Healing Rays of Righteousness

For What Do We Wait – Advent 2022

In 742 B.C., a young man from a good, influential family in Jerusalem responded to God’s call to bring a message of hope to a troubled and hopeless people. Despite all the difficulties that Isaiah experienced in a nation that seemed bent on self-destruction, he remained confident in the promises of God made to King David.

Isaiah was convinced that Yahweh was still in control of events, and that His purpose was to set up His kingly rule of peace over all the nations. Isaiah dreamed of a day when God would come and turn his people away from the hopeless darkness of sin and violence. He dreamed of a day when the desire to know God would turn his people and all peoples of the world, back to living as God intended for His created world. A world where justice, peace, and righteousness were the everyday reality.

During the annual Advent season, we celebrate the fulfillment of Isaiah’s hopes. This is the heart and soul of the Christmas message. On the night Jesus was born the angel announced to the world, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11).

Admiral Sir William Penn conquered Jamaica and took the land for himself. His son, another William Penn, chose an alternative way of conquering. On land granted to his father as payment of debt by the king of England, the young William Penn established Philadelphia and the colony of Pennsylvania.

Raised an Anglican, he became a pacifist Quaker and was expelled from Christ Church College, Oxford, for his nonconformist views. But that did not stop him from rebelling against the world of his upbringing. After his conversion to the Society of Friends, he was imprisoned at the age of twenty-five for publishing a booklet on Quaker beliefs.

When William Penn came to the colonies, he did not use force to take from the Native Americans the land by the Delaware River. Rather, he stayed faithful to the Quaker’s opposition to war by negotiating a peaceful and fair settlement with the Native Americans who lived on the land.

Some of the colonists had viewed the Native Americans as their enemy, but Penn’s vision of a society of peace overcame that perception and created a harmonious order. Unfortunately, that harmonious order was broken years later by others who lived and governed by self-interest and greediness.

About one hundred years after the establishment of Pennsylvania, a child born in Pennsylvania became an admirer of William Penn. Edward Hicks, a sign painter, Quaker preacher, and artist brought together Isaiah’s vision of a “peaceable kingdom” and William Penn’s peaceful treaty with the Native Americans.

He painted over eighty versions of the “peaceable kingdom.” In the foreground of one version, painted sometime in the 1830s, is the cast of characters from Isaiah; the wolf, lamb, leopard, kid, calf, lion, cow, bear, cub, and nursing child, whose hand is over the snake’s nest, and the older child with her hand over the snake’s den and leading the lion.

In another painting, just off to the side of the beasts and little children playing together there is a scene of William Penn and other leaders making a treaty with the native Americans.

Hick’s believed that all people are born with a “savage disposition,” like the leopard, bear, wolf, or lion. If undisciplined, killing and self-destruction are inevitable. In 1837 he preached a sermon on salvation, declaring that salvation depends on a willingness to allow the Divine Will to reign over self-will. The resulting rebirth transforms a person into a creature of gentleness, like a cow, lamb, or kid.

And I ask, is such a vision of the “peaceable kingdom” a realistic hope yet today? Can we hope for a day when Republicans and Democrats care more about the peace and well-being of the nation and the world than they do about the special interests of their donors, even when those interests are unfair and unjust? Will they ever be able to ignore the lobbyists and conspiracy theorists, to make governing judgments that are righteous and just.

The Bible speaks of a dream, an uncommon vision that tells us we can have a world of peace, that this is God’s intent for us, his created beings. Isaiah’s portrait of the peaceable community challenges all of us to deny selfish inclinations, which only cause devilish disunity, divisions, hatreds, and killings.

Advent, the four weeks before Christmas Day, is a time to be reminded of God’s intent for the world. God invites and expects us to live Isaiah’s vision, to give up having enemies, to make peace with them, to be child-like in trusting and loving, and to be righteous in our relationships with everyone.

Each year during the Advent season, God’s people declare by word and song the message of Isaiah’s vision to a world that has mostly closed its ears to God’s powerful proclamation of peace and joy.

The world asks, Do Christians really believe what they declare? Do they really believe God has a different vision for the world than what we see, and that God is at work redeeming and reconciling all things, all people, all creation back to Himself in the person of Jesus Christ?

I plead with you, my Christian friend, we cannot, we dare not give up praying, living, and working out Isaiah’s vision of God’s peaceable kingdom. Our faith and prayer commands it. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  AMEN!

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 30, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Memory and Gratefulness are Twins

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. For what in your life will you give thanks to God. How grateful are you for memory? Why do you think God gifted us with memory? What memories of past experiences will feed your grateful expressions on this day of “Thanks-giving”? I suspect that many of us give little thought to how much memory shapes our experience of relationship with, and worshipful response to God.

Memory plays a significant role in Psalm 103. Listen for memory’s role as you read these first se verses from Psalm 103: “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.”

For the psalmist, memory inspires his grateful praise to God. From the first word, we learn that this is a psalm of PRAISE. The psalm does not speak explicitly about praising God, but instead, it piles up reasons that show God is deserving of our praise. I encourage you to read the entire psalm.

The form of this psalm is that of a hymn or meditation since it contains no direct address to God. The psalmist begins his words of thanksgiving by addressing his “soul,” which is better understood as his “inmost being” – or the “all” of who a person is. It is the Hebrew way of addressing oneself.

So, when we say, “Praise the Lord, my soul,” we are worshipping with our whole being, both our physical body and our inner spirit. This means our physical expressions will mirror what is happening deep within us, as we express praise to our loving and compassionate God.

Question to self; How frequently do I personally experience praising God with both my body and spirit?

The psalmist remembers and stacks up the many things God is doing and will continuing doing for his soul. These memories inspire his gratefulness and praise. Read the psalm again and underline those specific memories or reasons the psalmist gives as a reason to praise God. And note that these memories are from both individual experiences and shared collective experiences.

Note the psalmist’s shift in verse seven from a listing of God’s actions in healing, redeeming, satisfying, enacting justice, to his extended descriptions of God’s love. In doing this, the psalmist reminds us that it is not only God’s action on our behalf, but also God’s consistent loving character should inspire our continual praise.

We praise God, then, not only because of what God has done for us in the past but also because of how God will love us into the future.

The Bible consistently and frequently says that we are to praise God because of what God has done and continues to do and will do. And often the word “remember” accompanies this counsel, suggesting that our praise will be minimal and lacking emotion, unless we remember God’s many acts of goodness and mercy to us. Thus, God gifted us with memory for the purpose of inspiring our praise to him and deepening our love relationship with himself.

For that reason, I say that memory and gratefulness are twins. Both are needed in shaping a meaningful, life-transforming relationship with God.

It is easy to say, “Thank you, God” for the big things and significant events in our life, but do we also give God thanks for the little things in life. I suspect that we tend to take such for granted, expecting God to provide these daily necessities to us because he should do so as our Creator. We forget that such attitude and behavior in failing to express our gratefulness and praise, hinders and diminishes our daily relationship with God, which he so greatly desires.

I agree with James Waltner who writes in his commentary on this psalm, “Forgetting and turning away from God begins when we no longer praise.”(Believer’s Church Bible Commentary).

And so, I am encouraging us to thank God for his gift of memory and pray that he will enliven our memory for the purpose of our more meaningful praise of goodness and in transforming our relationship with him.

The apostle Paul encouraged the early Christian church, “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

On the tombstone of her husband’s grave, a southern mountain woman had chiseled in rough and uneven letters this epitaph, “He always appreciated.”

I hope that same tribute can be said about me and you after our deaths. This “Thanksgiving Day” let us join the Psalmist in remembering our blessings and expressing our thanks with “Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 23, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

BIBLICAL STRESS RELIEF

The teacher was giving a lecture to his students on stress management. He raised a glass of water and asked the audience, “How heavy do you think this glass of water is?” The students’ answers ranged from 20gm to 500gm.

The teacher responded, “It does not matter what is the absolute weight. It depends on how long you hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it is OK. If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance. It is the exact same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. What I need to do is to put the glass down, rest for a while before holding it up again.”

“Likewise, if we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, we will not be able to carry on, because the burdens become increasingly heavier. “We need to put down our burdens periodically, so that we can be refreshed and able to carry on.”

“So, before returning home each night, put down whatever burdens of work you carry. Do not carry them back home. You can pick them up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you now have on your shoulders, let them down for a moment. Pick them up again later when you have rested. Rest and relax. Life is short, enjoy it.”

There is biblical wisdom in what the teacher said regarding how to manage the stresses of life. God admonishes us to “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”(Psalm 46:10).

Earlier in verses one through three, the psalmist declared that “God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”  

This is not always easy to do. We live in a terribly busy and noisy world. Deafened by noise, blinded by advertisements, and burdened by uncertainties and expectations, we have difficulty hearing one another’s heart cries, as well as the difficulty in hearing the deep sighs of our own stress-filled soul. And, most often, we have difficulty hearing God’s reassuring love and directive voice.

Yes, the psalmist lived in a much simpler time than ours, yet even he had to deal with the stresses of life. However, he found the answer to stress management in his relationship with God. In his Psalm 23, he gives us a picture of God looking at the needs of his children, and seeing them stressed, tense, and tired, leads them to the place of rest and refreshment. “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.” (Psalm 23:1-3).

And then in verse five, the psalmist says to the Lord, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” I know of no better remedy for stress relief. Do you?

You probably have read and prayed “The Prayer of St. Francis.”  I have the following adaptation of that prayer in my file. To my knowledge the author remains unknown. I recommend this prayer to you for those times you are feeling stressed in life by a burden that is increasingly growing heavier.

Lord God, make me an instrument of Your healing;

When I am weak and in pain, help me to rest;

When I am anxious, help me to wait;

When I am fearful, help me to trust;

When I am lonely, help me to love;

When I place You apart from me,

Help me to know You are near.

Healing God, grant me not so much to demand everything from myself as to let others help me;

Grant me not so much to seek escape, as to face myself and learn the depths of Your love.

For it is in being uncertain and not in control, that we find true faith;

In knowing the limits of mind and body and ministry, that we find wholeness of spirit;

In passing through death that we find life that lasts forever.

In the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Healer, we offer this prayer. … Amen.

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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Surely and truly, the Lord Jesus invites us to find in him the ultimate remedy for stress relief. I will meet you there, my friend, at the feet of Jesus.

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 16, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

“Take Courage! It is I”

The news was awful. Their friend, John the Baptist, had been killed, beheaded by Herod. Jesus and His disciples needed some time in a solitary place to grieve, but the crowds followed them. And because Jesus had compassion on the large crowd, instead of solitary time, they spent the day assisting Jesus in healing the sick and then as evening approached, feeding this large crowd. It was a long, exhausting day and so Jesus “made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd.” (Matthew 14:22).

Matthew tells us that Jesus chose not to go with them, because He needed time alone to think and pray. While the story does not say this, I am inclined to think that part of Jesus’ praying was for the men He had just sent on a dark night journey by boat across the wide sea with deep waters.

It is during the pre-dawn darkness that a storm sweeps down upon the disciples with threatening winds and waves. “Straining at the oars” to keep their boat afloat, they see only the tall waves of wild water cascading over their boat and filling them with the fear of death.

What they did not know was that Jesus had gone up on a mountainside to pray and was watching them.

“Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.” (vv. 25-26).

The story reminds us that it often takes courage and faith to follow Jesus’ instructions. To get into the boat of life and begin a journey across the sea of life is no small thing. It can be extremely dramatic, even frightening.

Both biblical stories and church history teach us that the church in their obedience to Jesus Christ will experience life-threatening storms. And, likewise, it is the obedient followers of Jesus who will most likely find themselves being battered and torn by stormy seas of terrifying physical, emotional, economic, or political situations.

That is what this story is about. Whether you are tossing on a bed or tossing in a boat. Whether the storm is without or the storm is within you, the only thing that will calm and satisfy your troubled mind and spirit, is the presence and help of the One named “Jesus.” Which is precisely the One who comes to you in any storm, if our biblical story is to be believed.

It is in the fourth watch of the night, when everything seems contrary and out of control, that Jesus comes to His disciples, walking on the turbulent, threatening waves of a stormy sea. During the darkest, most dangerous time of the night, Jesus comes.

Yes, yes! When the sea is so wide and our boat is so small and the storms of life are raging, Jesus comes. When we are up a creek with no paddle, and even if we had a paddle, our arms are too tired to hold it, Jesus comes. When we are the weariest, Jesus comes. When it is too dark to see, or worst yet, too dark to hope, Jesus comes.

Some of the most reassuring words we can hear are the words of Jesus speaking to us from within the storm, “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (v.27). He comes to calm our greatest fears with a pledge of His unshakable presence and in full control of the storm.

When Jesus said, “Take courage! It is I,” the Greek understanding would be “I am.” As Jesus stood there, Sovereign over the terrifying stormy waters, we hear him saying to His disciples, “Take courage. I am here. I am what I will be, Lord in the storm. I am with you and will talk and strengthen you in the storm.”

Jesus comes to us in our most desperate moments in the same way. He does not begin by overruling the forces of nature, but by telling us to look up, to see and feel the reality of His presence, power, and love. To acknowledge this reality and live in it, will enable us to journey through any and every storm with fearless confidence and strength.

If we know that He is personally present with us in the storm, the calming of the sea and the stopping of the winds are incidental miracles. Because, you see, the greatest truth is that whenever and wherever Jesus is present the wildest, most terrifying storm becomes a calm wind with Jesus’ in our boat and in control of the storm. The presence of Jesus and the love of God which flows from the Cross bring peace, calm, and trustful serenity to our fears. “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Jesus’ presence is our assurance and strength, even as it was for the psalmist who wrote, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4).

Jesus, please come by here, into our different worlds, into our differing storms, and reassure our fearful hearts. Come, O Lord, we need you now.

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 10, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

How Are You Using God’s Gift of Time

The same God who created time and worked in time, sending his Son in the fullness of time to rescue, redeem, and adopt us, as His children, will someday say with a trumpet shout, time is ended, “There will be no more delay!”  (Revelation 10:6). But, more likely, before God’s final shout, He will whisper to you during one heartbeat moment, “Your time on earth is ended. Come home.”

That is why the apostle Paul writes, “I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2). He also wrote, “Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.” (Romans 13:10-11).

God created time and gives it to us human beings as His gift to us, heartbeat by heartbeat. Time is a precious package of life, individually gift-wrapped by God and sent to us, heartbeat by heartbeat. And what we do with this gift of time very directly shapes our future destination in an eternal world of either life, light, and love in God’s Kingdom or the opposite realities in Satan’s Kingdom. What future reality are you presently preparing for?

The passing of time, which we call aging, is not just an issue for the elderly, it is an urgent issue for all of us, whatever our calendar age. Unfortunately, we tend to join in our culture’s massive effort to hide and deny the evidence of body aging. We spend millions of dollars on cosmetics to keep us looking young. We pluck or dye our gray hairs. We pay for surgical facelifts to reverse the aging process. But it is all in vain. Time marches on towards its end, and so do we.

The apostle Paul admonished the Ephesian Christians, “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.” (Ephesians 5:15-17).

When confronted with this truth by God’s Spirit, many say, “Lord, I understand what you are saying to me and what I need to do. Sometime, Lord, I will do that. Sometime I will become a Christian. Sometime I will turn my life over to you, be baptized, and commit myself to membership with your people, the church. Yes, Lord, sometime I will get around to accepting your invitation. But right now, I am too busy enjoying all that is available to me in this world.”

Many a marriage relationship has crashed, causing immense pain and suffering to family and children, because a spouse, or both, have said, “Sometime soon, Lord, I am going to take my marriage vows seriously and work at building a love relationship that endures. Sometime I am going to be the dad or mother my children need me to be. Yes, Lord, sometime I will do that, but right now I am just too busy enhancing my career, trying to get ahead in this world, preparing for my family’s future.”

Some years ago, there was a popular musician by the name of Jim Croce. He wrote a song entitled, “Time in a Bottle,” in which he said he was going to put “time” in a bottle. He was going to put a cork in the bottle and bottle up “some time.” Then when he needed “some time” for his family, or with his friends, he could uncork the bottle and take “some time” out to enjoy life with them.

He was foolishly planning to bottle us some “time” so he would have “time” when he needed or wanted to use it. However, it was less than twelve months from the day he recorded the song that he was killed in a plane crash, and his bottle of “sometime” was smashed to pieces.

The sad truth is that bottled “sometime” is seldom, if ever, used as was planned. Today is the time that God has given us. “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Today is the day we hold in our hands. As Bill and Gloria Gaither sing so beautifully; “We have this moment to hold in our hands, and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand. Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow may never come, but we have this moment today.”

My friend, now is the time to “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim  In the light of His glory and grace.” (Song by Helen Lemmel). Now is the time to serve the King of kings and Lord of lords! Now is the time to prepare for our future life in the timeless world of eternal love in God’s Kingdom.

What do you want to accomplish before your time in this world of time is ended? How do you want people to remember you? What are you doing about it today? How are you using God’s gift of “Time”?

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“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – November 2, 2022

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley