Have you Been Silent Before the Lord Lately?

Friday, April 19, 2013

 

"Cease striving and know that I am God.; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth."  (Psalm 46:10).

 Hey gang, have you ever read anything by Ken Gire?  If not, I would strongly recommend that you might want to get your hands and heart around his books The Weathering Grace of God and Shaped by the Cross.  They are my kind of books, short and big print and carry a ‘big stick’.  We have been in a battle with cancer for the past two years, a battle we recently lost in the death of a grandson, and I might add, learned that such diseases are not restricted to the individual plagued but infect the whole family. 

 n The Weathering Grace of God, Gire addresses such subject areas as ‘The Terrifying Upheavals of Life’, ‘The Weathering Grace of God’, and ‘The Continuing Landscapes of Faith’.  In section one where he addresses the terrifying upheavals of life, he lays out a scenario that we all need to take to heart.  As times begins to wind down, the Bible is clear that it will be a time of ever growing more sever upheavals and man’s hearts will fail them for fear.

The advice of the Psalmist: "Cease striving and know that I am God" (Psa. 46:10a).    The Hebrew word means ‘to relax, stop making fists’.  I once had a youngster at the Village, a twelve year old that came to us from a very violent home, who, if I placed my hand behind his neck I could raise him from the ground as I would pick up a plank of wood.    My goal was very simple in intent, but a war in accomplishment.  Oh, by the way, after six months of just plain love and support, I did accomplish my goal.

 Ken Gire made a very profound point when he mentioned that artists, sculptors, painters, musicians, and poets seldom just decide to sit down and write a symphony or paint the Last Supper. 

 In his book Shaped by the Cross, which is a story about a magnificent sculpture of the body of Jesus laying in His mother’s lap (The Pieta), he tells us Michelangelo spent weeks and even months at the quarry where the marble would be selected to make the sculpture.  And, after choosing the perfect stone, there were periods of time when he stood by the stone waiting for the sculpture to come forth.  

 Ken made a very important point when he wrote, "What we are asked to listen to in times of upheaval is the voice of the Great Artist Himself, who will one day bring, out of the upheavals of the world, a new heaven and a new earth.  And who is in the process of bringing,out of the upheavals in our life, a new heaven and new earth within us as well.  Our culture knows little of his kind of listening. That is also true of our religious culture as well." 

  Sooooo, my young friends, as I wrap up this morning message, I can think of no better closing than with a quote from A. W Tozer's book The Pursuit of God: "Religion has accepted the monstrous heresy that noise, size, activity and bluster make a man dear to God.  But we may take heart.  To a people caught in the tempest of the last great conflict God says, "Be still, and know that I am God."  And still He says it, as if He means to tell us that our strength and safety lie not in noise of the world but in silence. 

 Blessings,

Gramps