ADs February Devotional

 

The Glorious Paradox of Celebrating Life in Death! 

Life is so precious that it defies logic for us to release loved ones when it’s their time.   Yet we see this exhortation, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” Psalm 116:15.  Death graphically reminds us that we aren’t home yet. (Heb. 11:16) Meanwhile, we journey and don’t lose heart.  Though our outward man is wasting away, we see our inward man being renewed day by day.  Perhaps, there is true life in death and paradoxically a genuine experience of death in our daily life.  

That is the compelling reason that “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’ (2 Cor. 4:18)  There is a true sense that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.”  Glory, God’s glory is tugging at all of our hearts, that yearning to be in our heavenly home.  On January 5, 2013 one of our precious colleagues felt that tug and went home.

 

Kathleen Elizabeth Powers went to glory in a true celebration of life.    Even though her earthly departure was commemorated with great dignity, it is nothing compared to the majesty of her reception in heaven.   As the scripture says,  ^“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face.”   Kathleen is beholding the face of Jesus.   Kathleen is home.

AD's 2013 January Devotional

 

Our times are in His Hands - God is infinite.   I am not.  The abrasive realities of time and space remind me of my vulnerabilities.  Nothing calls attention to my own finiteness as the passing of time.   Here I sit in a moment in time, 14 days away from the shadow of the year 2013 feeling apprehensive.  Time has markers:  September 11, 2001 is marked by the Twin Towers; September 11, 2012 by Benghazi; December 11, 2012 by the shooting in the Clackamas Mall and then just three painful days later by the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook.  As I say goodbye to 2012 wondering what 2013 may hold, I desperately need my life, my time, rooted in God’s perspective of time.    What about you?

    Your only true security comes when you surrender your present, past and future into God’s care.      In Hebrews 2:1 we are reminded that we must pay more careful attention to the all-sufficiency of Christ, lest we drift away from this glorious relationship.  God provides an anchor for our souls in the present.   When everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for Joseph, instead of allowing the bitter pain of betrayal to rob his well being, Joseph chose not to be the victim.    He declared to his brother, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.  He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.”  Genesis 50:20 (NLT).  God helped Joseph transform and redeem his past.    Finally, God wants us to embrace our future without fear.  In Acts 2: 17 (NKJV),  God says, “I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh….your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.”

   As we are empowered by God’s spirit to gain His Divine insight, we can anchor our present, redeem our past and embrace our future in God.   We are not infinite, but God is.  Our times are in His hands!