Healing Rays of Righteousness

Why Ash Wednesday

Today is “Ash Wednesday” which begins the 40 days of “Lent” during which we journey with Jesus as He walks toward His death by crucifixion on “Good Friday” and resurrection from death on “Easter Sunday.” 

Ash Wednesday is all about acknowledging our ungodly thoughts and behaviors as sin and in sincere penitence asking for God’s forgiveness and cleansing.  From since the Middle Ages, the Christian church has characterized Ash Wednesday with the placing of ashes on the forehead of individuals as a public sign of the person’s confession of sin and their sorrow for it.  

Ash Wednesday begins the 40-day season of Lent, a season of testing. The testing is to reveal our real self, our inner essence; who am I and what is my greatest desire? Lent is a time to seriously look within ourselves and make a realistic assessment of our relationship with God. Do my thoughts and behaviors affirm and strengthen my professed identity as a child of God? 

Many persons turn away from this inward journey, anxious for the calendar to quickly fast-forward them to Easter and its joyous celebrations, because words like repentance, fasting, discipline, and denial are hard words to think about.  Such words do not fit comfortably into our chosen lifestyle of self-will, self-trust, self-satisfaction, and self-exaltation.

However, if we try to take short-cuts or ignore this journey inward in order to avoid the need to respond to God’s Spirit lovingly imploring us to repent, we cannot and will not fully appreciate nor participate in the gladness and glory of Easter Sunday.

Repent? Yes, being human in a wilderness of various temptations, we most likely will stumble in our commitment to the Lordship of Jesus.

Repent? Yes, if we are honest with inviting God’s Spirit to search our heart and thoughts, we will most likely be shown a need to repent of our feeble love for God, our neglect in the reading of His Word, and failure to pray except in emergencies. And we may also be shown a need to repent of selfishness, pride, misplaced priorities, and a failure to live up to the highest and best in our relationship with others. 

This Lenten journey with Jesus is also a time to more carefully listen and reflect on His teachings, in order to better understand the gracious immensity of love that compelled and sustained Jesus through unthinkable sufferings and death in order to rescue us from evil’s grip and to reconcile us back into relationship with Himself. 

The Christian life is a journey, a process of growth in which we, like the apostle Paul, “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. … to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12, 14).

We have been loved, saved, and reconciled into a new relationship with Christ.  We claim that Christ has made us new creatures, but every day we humbly confess that we have not yet fully become what Christ wants us to be. 

The days of “Lent” are marked on our calendars for the purpose of an intentional and sincere self-examination of our relationship with Jesus, who claims to be the Messiah, “God with us.”

Am I living and growing more in love with God?  Have my attitudes and behaviors become more like Jesus?  Have I always done my best toward being a Jesus-person in my world?

The psalmist prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139:23-24).

And the hymn writer, Elisha A. Hoffman, prays;

“Lord, I am fondly, earnestly longing into thy holy likeness to grow, thirsting for more and deeper communion, yearning thy love more fully to know.

Dead to the world would I be, O Savior, dead unto sin, alive unto thee. Crucify all the earthly within me, emptied of sin and self may I be.

I would be thine and serve thee forever, filled with thy Spirit, lost in thy love. Come to my heart, Lord, come with anointing, showers of grace send down from above.

Refrain: Open the wells of grace and salvation, pour the rich streams deep into my heart. Cleanse and refine my thought and affection, seal me and make me pure as thou art.

I invite you to join me in making the above prayers our sincere prayer during the six-week Lenten journey that begins today – Ash Wednesday.

<><><><><> 

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 22, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Why Ash Wednesday

Today is “Ash Wednesday” which begins the 40 days of “Lent” during which we journey with Jesus as He walks toward His death by crucifixion on “Good Friday” and resurrection from death on “Easter Sunday.” 

Ash Wednesday is all about acknowledging our ungodly thoughts and behaviors as sin and in sincere penitence asking for God’s forgiveness and cleansing.  From since the Middle Ages, the Christian church has characterized Ash Wednesday with the placing of ashes on the forehead of individuals as a public sign of the person’s confession of sin and their sorrow for it.  

Ash Wednesday begins the 40-day season of Lent, a season of testing. The testing is to reveal our real self, our inner essence; who am I and what is my greatest desire? Lent is a time to seriously look within ourselves and make a realistic assessment of our relationship with God. Do my thoughts and behaviors affirm and strengthen my professed identity as a child of God? 

Many persons turn away from this inward journey, anxious for the calendar to quickly fast-forward them to Easter and its joyous celebrations, because words like repentance, fasting, discipline, and denial are hard words to think about.  Such words do not fit comfortably into our chosen lifestyle of self-will, self-trust, self-satisfaction, and self-exaltation.

However, if we try to take short-cuts or ignore this journey inward in order to avoid the need to respond to God’s Spirit lovingly imploring us to repent, we cannot and will not fully appreciate nor participate in the gladness and glory of Easter Sunday.

Repent? Yes, being human in a wilderness of various temptations, we most likely will stumble in our commitment to the Lordship of Jesus.

Repent? Yes, if we are honest with inviting God’s Spirit to search our heart and thoughts, we will most likely be shown a need to repent of our feeble love for God, our neglect in the reading of His Word, and failure to pray except in emergencies. And we may also be shown a need to repent of selfishness, pride, misplaced priorities, and a failure to live up to the highest and best in our relationship with others. 

This Lenten journey with Jesus is also a time to more carefully listen and reflect on His teachings, in order to better understand the gracious immensity of love that compelled and sustained Jesus through unthinkable sufferings and death in order to rescue us from evil’s grip and to reconcile us back into relationship with Himself. 

The Christian life is a journey, a process of growth in which we, like the apostle Paul, “press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. … to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12, 14).

We have been loved, saved, and reconciled into a new relationship with Christ.  We claim that Christ has made us new creatures, but every day we humbly confess that we have not yet fully become what Christ wants us to be. 

The days of “Lent” are marked on our calendars for the purpose of an intentional and sincere self-examination of our relationship with Jesus, who claims to be the Messiah, “God with us.”

Am I living and growing more in love with God?  Have my attitudes and behaviors become more like Jesus?  Have I always done my best toward being a Jesus-person in my world?

The psalmist prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” (Psalm 139:23-24).

And the hymn writer, Elisha A. Hoffman, prays;

“Lord, I am fondly, earnestly longing into thy holy likeness to grow, thirsting for more and deeper communion, yearning thy love more fully to know.

               Dead to the world would I be, O Savior, dead unto sin, alive unto thee. Crucify all the earthly         within me, emptied of sin and self may I be.

I would be thine and serve thee forever, filled with thy Spirit, lost in thy love. Come to my heart, Lord, come with anointing, showers of grace send down from above.

               Refrain:

               Open the wells of grace and salvation, pour the rich streams deep into my heart.

               Cleanse and refine my thought and affection, seal me and make me pure as thou art.

I invite you to join me in making the above prayers our sincere prayer during the six-week Lenten journey that begins today – Ash Wednesday.

<><><><><> 

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 22, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

God Fully Knows Us

I remember reading a story about a small-town prosecuting attorney. When he called his first witness to the stand in a trial, who was a grandmotherly, elderly woman.  He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?”

She responded, “Why, yes, I do know you Mr. Williams. I have known you since you were a young boy. And frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me.  You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you are a rising big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.”

The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do he pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs. Williams, do you know the defense attorney?”

She again replied, “Why, yes, I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he, too, has been a real disappointment to me. He is lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. The man can’t build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the entire state. Yes, I know him.”

At this point, the judge rapped the courtroom to silence and called both counselors to the bench. In a very quiet voice, he said with menace, “If either of you asks her if she knows me, you will be jailed for contempt!”

This story reminds me of King David’s story. He learned the truth that God fully knows us the hard way.

But his repentant acknowledgement of God’s fully knowing him, is what made him the great servant-leader that he was. And in response to the truth that God knows him fully and perfectly, he wrote a song of thankful praise. It is Psalm 139, a favorite of mine.

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. Your hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (Psalm 139:1-6).

Yes, God knows our every word spoken and every action done. And he also knows what is behind our words and actions. He sees through our masks and behind our self-justifications and self-deceptions, manipulating people and events for our own advantage, desires, and lusts.

It is overwhelming for me to think that God would know me as He does, that God would be as involved in the specifics of my daily living as He is. And so I say with David, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand.” (v.6).Yes, God knows us thoroughly and completely, and yet, He dearly loves us.

In his book Experiencing God, Henry T. Blackaby writes, “God is far more interested in a love relationship with you then He is in what you can do for Him.”

Sadly, such ‘love relationship’ is the road less traveled by many Christians. We more often tend to relate to God with our hands, that is, by what we do for Him, rather than relating to Him with our heart. 

Some of the most profound teaching in the whole Bible is found in the 4^th chapter of John’s first letter.  It contains the whole theology of John’s understanding of God as he writes to instruct the early Christians.

In verse 8 of this chapter, John tells us that “God is love.” Those three little words get to the heart of what John believed about God.  They tell us that God is pure self-giving love.  God cares. Indeed, God cares deeply about you and me.

That is the reality John points to when he writes in verse 9 that “This is how God showed his love among us:  He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him.” And in verse 10 he adds, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” AND NOTHING WE CAN EVER DO WILL STOP GOD FROM LOVING US.

David concludes his prayer of praise with, “When I awake, I am still with you.”   David takes comfort in being able to rely on God’s safekeeping, fearlessly falling asleep in the presence of God and joyfully waking up in the presence of God.  And so can we!

For King David, God’s fully knowing of his inner self, gave him comfort and security, and a reason to stand in worshipful awe and praise God. What about us? Does the truth that God fully knows you, frighten or comfort you?

<><><><><> 

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 15, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Sheep or Cowboys

I have been told that every culture has its own mythical image of itself, usually drawn from some romantic past.  Thus, the British think of themselves as the noble Knight-philosophers of the Round Table, the Scandinavians as the Vikings, and the Americans as the free-spirited Cowboys.

In all of world history, biblical Israel is the only nation that identified themselves as Sheep. By doing so, they were proclaiming their dependence on a “good shepherd” – a leader who could protect them from the dangers swirling around them. And so, King David writes, “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. … Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:1-4).

The gospel writer, John, records Jesus asserting that he is the “good shepherd” because he is willing to lay down his life for the sheep. In other words, the shepherd’s commitment to the sheep is total and without any reservations, whereas a hired hand only cares about himself and runs when the wolf comes.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.”  (John 10:11-12).

As we carefully study these verses, we discover that it is the shepherd’s job to take care of the wolf. The wolf is not the sheep’s problem but the shepherd’s concern. The sheep’s primary problem and effort is to stay near the shepherd, always in the shadow of the shepherd’s protection.

But therein lies the problem for many of us Americans. We “cowboys” do not like to think of ourselves as being dependent on anyone or anything outside ourselves for protection. We “cowboys” can take care of ourselves, or so we think.

When evil and temptations come knocking on our door, it is not our nature to let a “protector shepherd” answer it for us. Even though Jesus, who wants to be our “good shepherd” is standing nearby, our do-it-myself” attitude prompts us to deal with the devil in our own way and strength.

Invariably, when we do attempt such response, we get seriously hurt, if not totally destroyed. We are no match for a wolf. We are sheep, not cowboys. We need a “good shepherd” who will lay down his life for us. Let us stay close to his protecting, providing presence!

The following prayer-hymn reminds me that I am not a “cowboy” but a “sheep” in need of a shepherd.

               Gen-tle Shep-herd, come and lead us, for we need you to help us find our way.

               Gen-tle Shep-herd, come and feed us, for we need your strength from day to day.

               There’s no oth-er we can turn to who can help us face an-oth-er day.

               Gen-tle Shep-herd, come and lead us, for we need you to help us find our way.

<><><><><> 

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 8, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley

Enjoying Peace or Going to Pieces

Being busy is in many ways a blessing. But too much of a good thing often causes life to become pressured and stressful. So how can we learn to live relaxed and enjoy living at full speed? We may need to slow our pace or increase our pauses, but more importantly we need to discipline ourselves to keep in step with Jesus, not racing ahead or dragging behind. This skill is not automatic, we must intentionally practice being relaxed while sitting, walking, or running with Jesus.

I agree with Chuck Swindoll when he said that “A relaxed, easy-going Christian is far more attractive and effective than the rigid, uptight brother (or sister) who squeaks when he walks and whines when he talks.”

How can I live relaxed when so many expectations and demands swirl around me?  I suggest the first step is to regain and strengthen our confidence and trust in God presence and purpose. This comes through frequent conversation (prayers) with Him.

Roy Lawrence writes that “The essence of prayer is simply affirming God’s will, rejoicing in God’s will, and relaxing into God’s will.” I think this is one of the best definition of praying that I have found most helpful in my own praying.

Do I hear you saying that often you are too busy to pray? I suggest that it is in the “being too busy” times that we most need to pray. I have learned that no matter how busy I may be there is always time for the “arrow prayer” – a few words of praise or petition shot like an arrow into the heart of any situation, need, or uncertainty when and wherever it occurs. 

I read that Bishop George Sinker developed the habit of praying every time he went through a doorway, “Lord, come with me through this door.”  This is why it is not surprising to hear it said that he brought a sense of God’s presence with him when he entered a room.

We have many moments throughout every day that could be used as prayer moments for both self and for others. Such “in the moment” praying will teach us how to be both busy and relaxed; how to be in flesh the God of peace among a people going to pieces.

Remember Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” God’s love for us and His desire to be in relationship with us is so awesome that it is truly amazing that it is being offered us.  Why then are we so reluctant to come to Him in any busy or stress-filled moment and enjoy the rest and peace He offers us?

John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a beautiful prayer-hymn that I find helpful as my own prayer.

     Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Forgive our foolish ways!  Reclothe us in our rightful minds;

               In purer lives Thy service find;  In deeper reverence, praise.

     Drop Thy still dews of quietness  Till all our strivings cease. Take from our souls the strain and stress 

            And let our ordered lives confess   The beauty of Thy peace.

<><><><><> 

“Healing Rays of Righteousness” – February 2, 2023

www.geigler13.wordpress.com

Ray M. Geigley