Oceanskater’s Blog

In the mornings, I try to daily spend some time with God. Today, I read from a little booklet called “Our Daily Bread”. The Scripture was Psalm 27.

To me, it served as an amazing reminder that we have so much to be thankful for.

“The LORD is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid? ” v. 1

It’s a psalm of King David. We know that he went through many trials. But in this psalm, he’s reminded himself of God’s goodness. He’s reminding himself that if God is for him, who can be against him?

“For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tent will He hide me; He will set me high upon a rock.” v. 5 (AMP)

“Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child].” v. 10 (AMP)

A quote from “Our Daily Bread”:

“So let’s look more closely at the psalmist’s hope. His expectation was not necessarily deliverance from bad circumstances but the hope of seeing ‘the goodness of the Lord.’ That’s something we can see even in times of trouble.”

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.” v. 13 (NIV)

And in the end, he strongly believes that no matter what happens, he will choose to see the goodness of the Lord while he still lives.

Thanksgiving is an opportunity to remember all the gifts we have in our lives. It would be very easy to look around and see plenty of things we want that we don’t yet have. Often in life we walk around with the “glass half empty” mentality rather than the “glass half full” mentality. We can get stuck in the rut of constantly asking God for all the things we don’t have rather than remembering to thank God for all the things we do have. Of course, God wants us to be honest in our prayers and He does want us to ask for those things we need, but we have to remember to not get those focused on what we lack that we forget all the good gifts God has already blessed us with.

We have a lot to be thankful for. No matter what trials we are facing today, no matter who abandons us or what enemies we face, we can praise God for life, for breath, for all His gifts, and for His promise that He works out all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). We can thank Him that when we wait on Him, He always comes through.

“Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.” v. 14 (AMP)

The world has been talking a lot about for forgiveness lately after the tragic deaths at the Amish schoolhouse. So many are amazed in particular at the humility of the grandfather of one of the girls who was killed.

But I’m not really surprised or amazed at all. Because I recognize the power of forgiveness and the freedom it has brought me in my own life.

People often think of justice first, forgiveness second. Forgiveness without justice seems unfair to people, even impossible. And forgiveness without justice also just seems unfair.

We can usually think of 100 reasons not to forgive. They probably sound something like this: He should learn a lesson. I don’t want to encourage irresponsible behavior. She needs to learn that actions have consequences. I was wronged - he needs to make the first move. He needs to ask for forgiveness. How can I forgive if he’s not even sorry?

We can usually think of 100 reasons not to forgive before we remember the one good reasons to forgive: because we have experienced the ultimate forgiveness through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

In the New Testament, the most common word translated as forgiveness means, literally, to release, to hurl away, to free yourself. On the flip side of that is resentment. It means, literally, “to feel again”: resentment clings to the past, relives it over and over, never allowing healing.Philip Yancey wrote this in “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”: “Not to forgive imprisons me in the past and locks out all potential for change. I thus yields control to another, my enemy, and doom myself to suffer the consequences of the wrong.”

What that Amish grandfather demostrated is really a very simple truth: our lack of willingness to forgive only hurts us.

“The first and often the only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness…..When we genuinely forgive, we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.” Lewis Smedes in “Shame”

I’ve been a crazy traveling woman! First, I was in upstate NY at a family member’s wedding. Then I was home for a few and my mom came to travel with us to a family reunion in Amish Country, Pennsylvania. Now, we’re home again.

It was quite a different experience to see so many Amish and Mennonite folks all over the place. Quite honestly, I can’t say I know the difference between the two, but I’m told they wear different head coverings They run a good number of the grocery stores and other businesses around the area, and so they all shut down on Sundays. Not a bad policy. It is kind of strange to think about people who don’t use electricity running businesses that require electricity. We stayed with my great uncle who I haven’t seen in probably 20 years, so that was cool. He has a neat accent, and I’m told it’s actually quite mild compared to most native PA-ers.

I also got to have “church” with some of my relatives who are born-again Christians. We were all going to go together up the street to a church some of my family has visited, but when we got there, the doors were locked and no one was there for church! My uncle vaguely remembered the pastor at one recent visit saying something about concentrating on home groups and not meeting as a congregation for a few weeks. So I suggested I get out my guitar and we would have our own church service! It was actually totally awesome. God showed up and I was totally blessed, as were others. I know we blessed God’s heart as well.

Besides all that, everything was so peaceful there. It was hard to come back to the city, to all the hustle and bustle and noise, to the rude people with music blasting out of there cars, the pedestrians who walk out in front of traffic. Last weekend, I was so thankful to be back in the city. This weekend, not so much.

And I keep thinking about how Roy ran in the road after Noodles. He dropped everything without a second thought in order to make a mad dash for his beloved dog. How much greater lengths does our Heavenly Father go to to rescue us when we are in trouble. The greatest example is Jesus Christ. God sent His Only Son to earth to rescue us when we were in trouble. Awesome