Sailing Life’s Storms

Hope Ellen Rapson

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:2)

Life is filled with distressing issues or events that make us want to just give “up the ship.” We often cannot see beyond the waves of fear, anxiety, or hopelessness. Such storms break out threatening to sweep our resolve to stay faithful to God because in the struggle, we cannot see the calm shore or safe harbor ahead. Even when we put our whole strength to control the tiller and sheets of our lives we still cry out to the Lord, “Is this the right course? Does the Lord really want me to go through this? Isn’t there some other way?”

We are not alone in this rain of emotions and questions. Jesus, the God/Man experienced the same when he found himself alone among his sleeping disciples on the Mount of Olives. In full acknowledgement of the lightening that would soon strike him…arrest, abandonment, beating, crucifixion, and being completely split apart from his heavenly Father and guiding Holy Spirit, Jesus asked, “isn’t there another way?” He did not find it easy to say, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt. 26-39) He even told his companions that He was so deeply troubled that He thought he could die. (Matt. 26:38) In prayer, He poured out the storm in his heart to the point sweating blood. (Lk. 22: 44) Would he hold the course, follow the compass, obey the chart through the storm to provide redemption for even those who would even kill Him? Three times he came to the brink, but three time his naked, storm-soaked will said, “I will hold this course!”

We find it hard to keep our prow into the wind, to battle with the will and emotions against the winds and waves that seek to capsize our lives. Even after we say, “I will hold the course,” the storms do not quickly abate, but they will not last forever. Because Christ, who was tossed and torn for us, knows who we are, where we are, and how we are, and why we are struggling. He did, too. We do not endure life’s storms alone and with the help of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, united now because of the death and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf, we can weather the storms here with eternal hope. Amen!

Related reading:  Get a Grip! Be Steadfast

Shoeless Worship

 

By Hope Ellen Rapson


“…Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up”. When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

The He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said also, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” Gen. 3:1-9 (ESV)



In many cultures, it is a sign of respect, humility, and honor to remove one’s shoes or at least to ask the host or hostess what their preference might be, before entering their home. Moses belonged to one of these cultures. His religious life reflected traditional practices. Then, when he found himself in the very presence of Almighty God, the Lord gave him these instructions.

First, Moses had to present himself as other, and lesser, than God. Second, he had to fully recognize whose Presence he was entering. Third, Moses had to honor, submit, and worship, not a tradition, but the living Creator and Sustainer of all.

Moses was a prince, a skillful shepherd, a businessman, and a family leader in Midian. His successes and status perhaps gave him a sense of exalted self-importance. This had to be counted as nothing in the presence of Almighty God. It had to be set aside with his shoes.

C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity that pride is the ‘anti-God’ state, the position in which the ego and the self are directly opposed to God. “Shoeless Worship” is the position in which the ego and self are discounted and surrendered to glorify God. It is easy and common to attend church services with our ego-shoes on, and neglect to humbly recognize why we are there and Who we have come to meet.

In her poem “Aurora Leigh,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning expressed it this way:

Earth’s crammed with heaven;

And every common bush afire with God,

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.

The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries,

And daub their natural faces unaware.

Let us not “sit, and pluck, and daub” unaware or ignoring God who deserves our “shoeless worship.”

Related reading: Risky Worship; Life-Changing Worship; Worship in Spirit and Truth

Risky Worship

 

By Hope Ellen Rapson

"Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the Jesus had raised from the dead. So, they gave a dinner for him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of perfume, pure and expensive Nard, anointed Jesus’s feet and wiped his feet with her hair. So, the House was filled with the fragrance of the perfume…" John 12:1-8


Shortly after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus, Lazarus, and Lazarus' two sisters were invited to a dinner with family friends. This event was in direct defiance to the orders of the Sanhedrin edict that anyone who knew where Jesus was, should report it so that they could arrest him (John 11:57).

Mary chose to worship and honor Jesus by helping to serve the meal, no doubt with a heart of joy. After all, her sole legal protection and financial provision in society had been restored when Lazarus was restored to life. Mary chose to worship and honor Jesus another way. Washing someone’s feet was considered degrading, but Mary washed the Lord’s feet with twelve ounces of undiluted perfume (nard) worth a year’s wages. Furthermore, she dried the Lord’s feet with her hair, which was expected to be completely covered as a sign of purity and piety. All the guests, and especially Mary, recklessly abandoned and disregarded their culture’s expectations and concerns; they purposed in their hearts to follow Jesus as “God in their midst.”

Are you ready to take risks to align yourself with Jesus? Are you willing to “worship Christ in spirit and in truth?”

Related reading: Worship in Spirit and Truth; C.S. Lewis on Worship; Life-Changing Worship

Worship in Spirit and Truth

 

Hope Ellen Rapson

“I appeal to you therefore brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1.

Two dictionary definitions of worship are (1) honoring or showing reverence for a divine being or supernatural power, and (2) regarding someone or something with great or extravagant respect, honor, or devotion, The first one applies to God; the second applies to man. Together they reflect what Jesus taught as the two greatest commandments---to love God with all you heart, mind, and spirit, and to love others as one loves themselves.

However, the question most asked is “How?” Jesus told Photini (the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well) that we should worship God “in spirit and in truth.” 

How do we do that? By developing a lifestyle that is focused on honoring God in all we do and serving others in ways that show that God has continually loving thought toward them. An excellent example of that was Brother Lawrence.

Brother Lawrence, author of Practicing the Presence of God, lived a simple monastic life focused on doing whatever he was called upon to do in the presence of God for the honor and glory of God. He wrote, “We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king.”

Consider the following questions:

• Do I start my day with the goal of giving honor to God through all the duties or demands or distresses that might come whether they seem insignificant or considerably important?

• Do I review my day asking forgiveness for when I did not reflect his glory and honor Him in what I thought, did, or said, and asking for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to better honor Him during the next day?

Praise, thanksgiving, and commitment to Almighty God in the mornings partnered with confession, supplication, and submission in the evenings is a practical pattern framework to follow in developing a lifestyle that demonstrates the worship of the Lord “in spirit and truth.”

Diggers

Hope Ellen Rapson

With sweaty palms and rusty spades

Diggers hope to find and drink,

Waters that quench their cravings…

Beauty, brawn, brains, and a bounty…

Only to discover thick tepid liquid,

Tasting of darkness, death, and dirt.

One broken heart, filled with thirst,

Unquenched by Jacob’s well…

Prompted---asked for a running stream…

A clear, continual life-giving artesian

Only of the Holy Spirit’s making,

Discovering fresh faith in “I am He.”

With sweaty palms and rusty spades

Still diggers search to find and drink,

Waters to quench those cravings…

With broken hearts and unfilled thirst,

Some come to the eternal current,

Fresh and flowing from the great “I Am.”

My empty heart, filled with thirst,

Unquenched by acts of my own will

Convicted---drank from the saving stream,

The cool, continual renewing well

Only of the Holy Spirit’s flowing

From faith in the Everlasting Man.

Related: Life Changing Worship

Life Changing Worship

 

"But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth." Jn. 4:23-24

Hope Ellen Rapson

The Samaritan women came to the well seeking the gratification of her thirst, performing an activity that led to her survival as woman in her culture, and escaping the shaming eyes of society. She had lost sight of the God she claimed she worshipped. Jesus restored her relationship by sweeping away her three great distractions.

The first distraction is the craving for physical gratification. In her case it was water in a parched land, but it could have been sex, drugs, alcohol, even food. 

The second is the desire to acquire material things. The Samaritan woman desired a marriage that would provide her those things in her culture…a home, its furnishings, financial security…had led her into two legal marriages followed by three illicit relationships. 

The third distraction was her the hope for the status, significance, and acceptance all of which she had lost, forcing her to draw water in the heat of the noonday sun away from the community of women that would gather there in the cool of the day.

Jesus redirected her focus from what the world offers to what God freely gives---the ability to walk in his loving presence and provision and practices everyday as an act of worship. Her life changing worship led to the transformation of her whole village.

In this present hour, are believers being transformed by the Holy Spirit and walking in visible, practicable ways showing the world what true worship of God is? Or are they so involved in the distractions of the world, they have lost sight and love of the Father?

Jesus said, "But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth." Glorify the Father in undistracted worship.

Related reading: Who Was Photini?

By Grace, Through Faith

By Hope Ellen Rapson

By grace, through Faith

Your Spirit lives within

Not outside, but inside

Freeing me from sin.

I need not be shackled

By the sins of my past,

With confidence and joy

I can look at last---

To becoming all

You’ve designed for me,

To become like Christ,

To reflect Your glory.

I can do Your will;

I can cope with life.

I can grow in love;

I can conquer self.

I can choose as Christ

To serve the lost

Sharing the good news

Whatever the cost.

By grace, through faith,

Your Spirit lives within

Not outside, but inside

To free me from sin.

(Try singing this to the tune of Amazing Grace!)

Redemption: The Disciple’s Expectation

Hope Ellen Rapson


One of the last commands of Jesus to his disciples was, “Look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21:28)

In the context of his immediate arrest, trial, crucifixion, and burial, the Lord instructed them to “expect their redemption.” Christians often forget that this command was given not only to the twelve, but to all believers.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer said:

“Look up, you whose gaze is fixed on the earth, who are spellbound by the little events and changes on the face of the earth. Look up to these words, you who have turned away from heaven disappointed. Look up, you whose eyes are heavy with tears and who are heavy and who are crying over the fact that the earth has gracelessly torn us away. Look up, you who, burdened with guilt, cannot lift your eyes. Look up, your redemption is drawing near. Something different from what you see daily will happen. Just be aware, be watchful, wait just another short moment. Wait and something quite new will break over you: God will come.”

This is the promise of Jesus Christ; God is ever present and ever working to redeem his disciples. He promises redemption. It draws near. This is the disciple’s daily stance of faith. Always, look up!


Related Reading: True Disciples Watch For Christ's Return; Rabbi Kaduri on the Messiah's Identity

Passionate, Patient and Faithful

Hope Ellen Rapson

These are troubled times. With the Covid-19 pandemic, economic hardship, political unrest, hunger, pain, wrongful death, looting and destruction, terrorism, fear, anger and depression surrounding us, it is difficult to keep one's footing. We walk hesitantly and question, “Is this a historical reset? If so, how do I live without normalcy or stability?”  

We find a clue in Revelation. 

Revelation 13:10 says, “Meanwhile, God’s holy people passionately and faithfully stand their ground.” 

Revelation 14:12 reiterates, “Meanwhile, the saints stand passionately patient, keeping God’s commands, staying faithful to Jesus.” 

In times of social, economic, political, and ecological chaos, God’s saints are to stand passionately and patiently in obedience to God’s Word and solidly faithful to Jesus Christ.

Whether the “time” bring us trouble or peace, we are to remember Who made time and Who controls time. Jesus said, “In the world you have tribulation, but fear not! I have overcome the world!” 

Be passionately committed to the Gospel. Be faithful and obedient to the Lord regardless of the trouble. Stand your ground!

Related Reading: Overcoming Violence in the Land; Commissioned Means Giving Account; INDEX of Topics

Washed From Head to Toe

Dirt Daubing

By Hope Ellen Rapson

Earth’s children play in dirt,

Claiming “a pound won’t hurt!”

They make and serve mud pies

Under sultry summer skies.

After all, they’re made of clay;

They only dabble in what may

Be the bent that does direct

What everyone should expect.

Filthy from head to toe…

Washing? Well, some might go.

Yet in their next new morn

They will certainly return

To play in the clay and dirt,

Laughing, “A pound won’t hurt!”

So God’s Son came trapped in dirt,

Teaching every ounce does hurt!

Instead of molding mere mud pies,

With spit-filled daubs, he opened eyes.

He showed that spirit-filled clay

Need not dabble in what may

Twist, distort, or harden to direct---

Just what muddied souls expect.

So some, still filthy head to toe,

Through God’s cleansing showers go

And in the bright blue morn,

They find themselves reborn,

Never wanting to play in dirt,

Knowing just a bit will hurt!

Other poems by Hope Ellen Rapson

The Veining

A Thanksgiving Wish

Hypostasis ( A poem for Christmas)

The Seed Pod (A poem for Holy Week)

God's Rain

Moonlight

Pepperjack

Melting Minds

What God's Love Can Do