you’ve likely known people who are “fire origin species.” Perhaps you are one yourself—one who has been badly burned in life and who, out of the ashes, has started out again to build a new life. The fires of life have not destroyed you; they have made you even more experienced to face the battles ahead.
A few verses from the forty–third chapter of Isaiah fit this description: “But now, this is what the LORD says . . . “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isaiah 43:1a–2).
Isaiah, looking forward to the coming of the Messiah also writes: “The spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted . . . to comfort all who mourn . . . to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (Isaiah 61:1–3b).
“A crown of beauty instead of ashes.” Out of the burnt things of life, the ashes, God promises a crown of beauty.
Just like the lodgepole pine reforests the devastated land.
A Woman Called Deborah
March 12
There is a great story in the book of Judges in the Old Testament, a story of a woman named Deborah.
Joshua, who had followed Moses as leader of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt to the border of the land promised by God, brought them into that land, where he died. Having reached their goal, the generation that had made it possible passed away as well. A new generation arose who, as the Bible puts it, “knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.” They began to worship the idols of their pagan neighbors. Troubles began to turn on them and make them a subject people. The people of Israel groaned under the bondage.
The story of the book of Judges is the story of twelve judges or leaders God raised up over many years to deliver His people from that bondage. However, each time after they had been freed, the Israelites would slip back into the same old ways, facing a similar situation time after time. This continued until after the death of Samson, the last of the twelve judges.
Deborah was the fourth of the twelve judges. She burned with anger at the oppression of her people. For twenty years, Jabin, King of Canaan, had oppressed the nation of Israel. Their vineyards had been destroyed, their women shamed, and their children killed. The chief of the Canaanite army, Sisera, had the military might of nine hundred iron chariots, whereas Israel had none.
Deborah had the wisdom—and courage—to summon one of Israel’s most capable military leaders, Barak, asking him to take ten thousand men and attack Sisera. Barak was reluctant to face nine hundred chariots with only foot soldiers. He would go only if Deborah accompanied him. “‘Very well,’ Deborah said, ‘I will go with you. But because of the way you are going about this, the honor will not be yours, for the LORD will hand Sisera over to a woman’” (Judges 4:9). God did. Barak’s army, empowered by God, decimated Sisera’s forces.
The fifth chapter of the book of Judges is Deborah’s song following the annihilation of Sisera and the Canaanite army. It is a song of praise to the Lord God. The chapter ends with, “Then the land had peace forty years.”
Relationships
March 13
Each of us has many different relationships in life. For example, there are the relationships of grandparent/grandchild, parent/child, aunt or uncle/nephew or niece, employer/employee, etc. For Christians, in all of our relationships, we should show that Christ is within us—that we are doing our part to ensure that He is always present in our relationships.
Parents of growing children have a double duty of discipline and encouragement in their relationship with their children. Similarly, in our relationship with God as our Heavenly Father, God exercises that dual responsibility of discipline and encouragement. The writer of the book of Hebrews says this: “We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while, as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness” (Hebrews 12:9–10).
Paul writes of the encouragement side of God’s grace in the second letter to Thessalonians. It is in the form of a prayer: “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17).
Thus, in our relationships with each other, may they be based on mutual or reciprocal obligations, treating others as we would have them treat us, often going the second mile. May we too accept the discipline of our Heavenly Father, realizing that He is maturing us, and if we fall, He will pick us up . . . for God is the perfect Father.
We Would See Jesus
March 14
Many years ago, I was asked to preach in Olivet Baptist Church, New Westminster, British Columbia. I have not forgotten that initial experience. It was sobering.
Tucked at the back of the pulpit, where only the preacher could see it, there was a small metallic notice bearing just five words: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Those words brought me up short on that occasion. I asked myself, “What am I doing up here?”
“Sir, we would see Jesus” were words first asked by a group of foreigners who had come to worship with the Jews at their celebration of the Feast of the Passover. Obviously, they were God–fearing men. They were a group of Greeks who had heard of the activities of Christ, including the raising of Lazarus. Learning of His presence nearby, they wanted to meet Him. Coming up to Philip, one of the apostles, they made the request: “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Moving in toward his Master, Philip passed on the request to Andrew, and the two of them went on to Jesus.
It was a significant moment in Jesus’ life and ministry. First, He had come as Messiah . . . Savior . . . to His own people. Now, “The hour has come,” He responded to Philip and Andrew. A little later in John 12:32, He added, “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself”—just as those Greeks had been drawn. Salvation, which Jesus offers, is for all.
Back to the little sign. Those words mean that when we stand up to share God’s good news, our hearers don’t want to see or hear us, but the One whose ambassador we are trying to be—Jesus. Sometimes, even as Christians, our lives loom so large that our Master cannot be seen or heard. We Christians are really to be channels that lead to Christ.
Care and Prayer
March 15
Eight years after graduating as a Doctor, Sheila Cassidy went to work in Chile. In 1975 during the military dictatorship of General Pinochet, a priest asked her to treat a wounded revolutionary, an act of compassion which led to her arrest and torture. After two months in prison she was deported and returned to the UK where she was immediately drawn into a life of frenetic human rights lecturing. In 1980 after trying her vocation as a nun, she returned to the practice of medicine and in 1982 was appointed as medical director of Plymouth’s new hospice— St Luke’s.
“In my spare time,” said Dr. Cassidy, “I do a bit of religious broadcasting and preach in churches and cathedrals, often on suffering and prayer. My belief
