Words of Faith

My new favorite singing group is Celtic Woman. The Irish folk songs and renditions of classics and modern music with full orchestra and supporting choirs are amazing. Their non-singing fiddle player is equally awesome. And, no, I am not getting any kick backs for mentioning them

One of their pieces from their recent “Songs From the Heart” CD, is entitled “Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears”. It talks about a young immigrant from Ireland arriving at Ellis Island. She is only 15 years old. Although the isle that she left behind was one of hunger and pain, the isle she now stands on is one of fear, as well as freedom. She is faced with tears over the past as well as hope for the future. It is a mixed bag, leaving a troubled past for an uncertain future. The clincher in the lyrics for me is the phrase “but the isle of home is always on my mind”.

That is how it is with the people of the Lord, also. The isle of Home is always on our minds. We know that we are just temporary travelers here on earth. As Paul says, our citizenship is in Heaven (Ephesians 2:19). That does not mean that we are to be “so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good”, as the saying goes. We are on earth for a purpose. We have to fulfill our part in the plan that God has for us here. As such, we must be engaged with the world around us. We have to be in the world, but not of it. But how do we do that “in” but not “of” thing?

I think we do it by keeping the “isle of Home” always on our minds. We keep our true purpose (loving God and others) and center (CHRIST) always on our minds while we interact with the people God places in our lives. We keep our task of bringing glory to God, and others to Christ as a central focus of the life we are living on the earth. With the “isle of Home” always on our mind, we will not be able to help speaking of it to others or living it out in our lives with others.

That is what Jesus did when he walked on the earth. He had His Father always on His heart, always on His mind. He did only what His Father said to do; said only those things His Father said. He lived His home life, His heaven life, here on earth, and drew others around Him into the fold. We can follow Jesus’ example and have our Father always on our heart, His Spirit always behind our words and actions, and the isle of Home always on our minds.

This post was actually for March 10th. Sorry for the delay. We’ll hopefully get back on schedule this coming week…..

I don’t know why I continually find myself in these predicaments, but I do. When I left the house for the meeting in town, the skies were mostly clear, and everything was hunky dory. A mere 3 hours later, at the close of the meeting, a winter storm had dumped almost 4 inches of snow, and it was still snowing! When I pulled out onto the highway and immediately began sliding down the road sideways, I knew it would be an interesting 20-mile drive home. There was evidently ice underneath the snow-covered road.

I did manage to get to the intersection with the highway that I needed to take home, and flipped the truck into 4-wheel drive (Thank the Lord forever for not having to get out and manually switch over to the 4 WD). The snow was furiously swirling, and continuing to drive very slowly, I inched down the road. I was the last person to leave the meeting, so I knew that there were 3 cars ahead of me whose tracks I could follow…if I could see them through the storm.

I turned on the high beam headlights and there before me were tire tracks on the snowy road. Since the highway looked very much like everything else in the storm, if I could just follow those tire tracks, I would be OK. This reminded me of another time I had done the same thing in another snowstorm and had written a Women’s Corner article about the importance of being able to follow tracks of those who have gone before us in this life, who had left a Christian witness.

Suddenly the urgency of the situation became real. When the Lord reminds us over and over of things, it is important. Since there was virtually no visibility, I was desperate for tracks to follow. I needed them. I needed help in the storm.

Similarly, we are living in desperate times. I’m confident that people down through the ages have all been able to say that about one thing or another in their time. And no matter what you think about our time before the Lord makes His promised return being long or short, the truth remains that the world is a confusing and often overwhelming place. Evil (I know that is a strong word, but the Lord uses it all the time- I think He knows what He is talking about.) exists everywhere. There are myriads of things to trip us up, land us in the ditch (or worse) and generally cause us to lose our way. The fact is still that Jesus is the answer, and His people are responsible for leaving tracks for others to follow that lead to Him. Even if the return of Christ is still far off, each individual does not know how much time he or she has left in this world, therefore the urgency of the matter.

We Christians must step up our track making activities, if you will! It is urgent! We have to think of the legacy we are leaving, and we must think of it intentionally. Then we need to translate that thought into action. We do not know our time, but when it is up… it is up. We need to start now, living every day from here on with the urgency to leave tracks in general, and also in the lives of those we know and love, specifically, that will encourage them in their walk with the Lord or point them to Christ. Each day we must purposely invest in the life of someone for Christ. The fact that you and I are still here means that the Lord desires to work through us. If our work on earth were finished, we would be in heavenly eternity praising Him! But we are here… here to walk through the lives of those we know and meet, to go ahead and leave tracks pointing to the Savior of everyone who will have Him.

If you are still living and breathing- start leaving tracks. Never has the need for Jesus Christ in individual lives been so great. Never has the need for individuals to show the way been so urgent.