Very good day to all! Welcome to the “front porch.”
One sublime feeling that seems to be more common in these cold days of December – and this is a good thing – is that of peace. After all, it is one of the key messages the gospel-writer Luke records from those angelic messengers who visited a Bethlehem hillside two millennia ago: “Glory to God in the highest,” he writes, “and on earth peace, good will toward men” (2:14).
Here in the latter days of 2016 and with a prospective eye to 2017, it is good that we spend some time doing some personal examination, particularly spiritually. Reaching for your outward goals may be worthy, but it is far more important to reach for something special within.
Peace, we all agree, is that one precious inward gym that we all should search for at such a time of the year. It’s greater than money, fame, even health.
Peace is something we develop gradually through both good and difficult times. The Apostle Paul says that peace the Lord gives is a peace "that passes understanding" (Philippians 4:7). That's the kind of peace I want. I know you do, too.
For one of our final visits of 2016, let’s pause together to emphasize this powerful element. There are few stories that illustrate the power of peace more than the story of an old-time songwriter named H.G. Spafford.
In 1873, H.G. Spafford wrote one of the most beautiful gospel hymns ever written. When I’ve considered the words of his great hymn through the years, I’ve often thought Mr. Spafford must have been well-acquainted with difficulties. It would be many years after first singing his hymn that I would learn that we were right.
In 1870, Mr. Spafford and his wife Anna lost their only son to pneumonia. He was four. A year later, tragedy struck again as Mr. Spafford, his wife, and their four daughters lost most of their income in the great fire of Chicago. They held their lives together for the next couple of years, and in 1873 decided to take a trip to England to re-energize themselves. Mr. Spafford stayed back in Chicago a few days to attend to some urgent business, and he sent his wife and daughters on ahead. Halfway across the Atlantic on their voyage, an English vessel struck their ship, and it went down in less than 15 minutes. Spafford’s wife survived miraculously, but the four daughters – Tanetta, Maggie, Annie, and Bessie – did not.
Spafford immediately boarded a ship to join his devastated wife in Wales. As he sailed, he spent many difficult hours on the deck of that ship grieving over his great loss. It is said that when the ship came near the place where the vessel carrying his four girls went down, Spafford felt a rare comfort and peace. Years later, a daughter who would be born later – Bertha Spafford Vesser – said that it was on that journey that her father wrote his greatest hymn.
Somewhere during that rocky voyage, Mr. Spafford retired from the deck to his chamber and sat down tearfully to pen the great words to this great poem.
You’ve heard them many times and, no doubt, have felt the peace the words can give: When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say. It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Finding the peace that Mr. Spafford found is a difficult task. Still, when we look to the Lord – putting our faith in Him and our confidence in His Word – we can find such a rare and special peace that will carry us through on this voyage.
It is when we find such peace – regardless of our circumstances – we can say with confidence and grace: "It is well, it is well with my soul."
May all be well with your souls, good friends, during this special time of the year. God bless!
***We actually ran this piece twice in the year, around April
A long time ago my older brother Wayne told me something that has stuck with me through the years. He said that sometimes we are so concerned with giving our children the things our parents weren’t able to give us that we fail to give them the things our parents did give us!
I’ve thought about that a great deal, especially in this era of change. The Holy Spirit provides that lesson for us in the scriptures beautifully by recording a simple but powerful fact in the life of Isaac: Isaac – who was abundantly inheriting the blessings of the Lord (Genesis 26:3, 12-13) – went back to the valley of Gerar where Abraham had long dwelt, and he re-dug the wells his father had dug. The Philistines had come through and sealed them up, but Isaac wasn’t going to have that.
Not only that: He called “their names after the names by which his father had called them” (v. 18).
That story reminds me of my brother’s comment. Think back to some of those old values that our parents and grandparents taught us that we’ve let slip a little. We may have thought they were out of style and “behind times” and “old fogey” then, but now we can see their wisdom. Re-dig some of those wells. Name them as our forefathers named them, and teach them to your children and grandchildren.
There are so many of these lessons that I remember, but here are some that stick in my mind the most. They are important not only because I learned them from my parents and grandparents but because they are founded soundly in the scriptures. Please make sure that is the case, because sometimes our parents can be misled, too.
Those who raised me taught me the importance of Truth. Often today we fail to “find truth and put our foot on it!” That’s how Grandma always put it when she described Preacher Miller's and her discovery of Truth. The Apostle Paul warned the young preacher that the time would come when men would not accept “sound doctrine” but would “turn their ears away from the truth and be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4) – that is, they’ll turn to the things that make them feel good and seem to be right yet aren’t established in the scriptures. Let’s re-dig this well of searching and following after truth.
I also learned the importance of worship. Every worship service was special in those growing up years. It was a solemn time to serve God. If I played in services, then Mama would give me a good pinch (It made me want to holler out, but I knew better.) You didn’t even think about missing the assemblies, whether on Lord’s Day or on Wednesday night or during a week’s gospel meeting. What a great well to re-dig!
They taught me that church comes first, before everything. I loved playing basketball, but basketball had to take a back seat on the priority list. Church was first. The church the Lord “purchased with His own precious blood” (Acts 20:28) came before everything in our lives. It’s a great well for us to re-dig here at the edge of 2017 (Matthew 6:33 / Ephesians 5:25-27).
One more thing: My parents and grandparents taught us to love the Word of God. When we gathered together for Sunday lunch at Grandma’s, you could be assured there’d be a friendly Bible discussion. The sermon didn’t have the luxury of staying at church. It had to come home with the members, and it was its duty to withstand the test once it got there. Some sermons did, some didn’t. We didn’t watch Sunday afternoon football (didn’t have a television anyway), but we talked the Bible. You didn’t have any choice at Grandma’s house. I know times have changed, but what a great value to hand down to our children: Let’s have a great love for the Word of God, and talk of it continually (Deuteronomy 6:7).
It’s time to re-dig some old wells. The Philistines have stopped many of them up and renamed them. But we can re-dig them, right here as we prepare to end one year and begin anew, and we can call them by Bible names, the way our biblical forefathers did.
Until next week, may the Lord bless you as you grab your shovels and re-dig some old wells!
Comments