Groans

“Poor little things! You can’t fly,” said the Lark.

“No, but we can look up,” said Tricksey. —George MacDonald in "The Giant’s Heart"

" Listen to my words,” David prays, “Understand my groans” (Psalm 5:1,2). God's eye is ever upon the righteous, and His ear open to their cry. One upward glance is all it takes.

Prayer can be a groan, a fleeting wish, an anxious reaction, a ragged cry of despair. “Groans are quick, and full of wings, And all their motions upward be," George Herbert said.

God is our Father. He knows more of all our needs than all our words can tell. He knows what we need before we ask Him. He reads our anxious, inarticulate thoughts and turns them into prayer.

So, if you don't know how or what to pray for it don't worry. "God does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans” (Romans 8:26,27, The Message).

David Roper

4.1.17

The Unlearning

“Whatever gain I had, I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Philippians 3:7)

Much of what I spent a life-time and a lot of money learning seems to be slipping away. I’m unlearning now what I once knew. It’s a bit unsettling.

But I came across an old poem a few weeks ago that greatly helped me:

To learn, and yet to learn, whilst life goes by, 

So pass the student's days;  

And thus be great, and do great things, and die,  

And lie embalmed with praise.  

My work is but to lose and to forget,  

Thus small, despised to be;  

All to unlearn—this task before me set;  

Unlearn all else but Thee. 

—Gerhard Ter Steegen

David Roper

Staying in Touch

Moses, Aaron and Samuel "called to the LORD, and he answered them" (99:6).

These three men were hardly paragons of virtue, but God "was a forgiving God to them” (99:8). He always answered when they called.

We don't have to be perfect to be on speaking terms with our God. Because of Jesus, He is, and always will be, "our God." (3x in vs. 8,9). He wants to hear from us, even when we're far away.

That's the way it is with fathers, you know: They like to hear from their children every day.

David Roper

3.29.17

Remembrance

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear (worship) the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
“They are Mine,” says the Lord of hosts… (Malachi 3:16).

Some years ago the boys and I spent a week on an abandoned backcountry ranch on the Salmon River. One day, exploring the ranch, I came across anancient grave with a wooden marker. Whatever inscription the marker may have borne, it had long since weathered away. 

Someone—I think it was Tolstoy—said the best of us is remembered for about 100 years. The rest of us are soon forgotten. 

“What are our markers,” I thought, “but monuments to the forgetfulness of the living?” The memories of past generations, like our own gravestones, quickly crumble away.

No matter. We can love the Lord and serve Him in our generation and leave the remembering to Him.

David Roper
3.27.17 

Evergreen

Psalm 92

The righteous flourish like the palm tree
and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
They are planted in the house of the Lord;
they flourish in the courts of our God.
They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever green and full of sap.

Psalm 92:12-14

"Tell me this," said Peter: "why do people talk about going down hill when they begin to get old? It seems to me that then first they begin to go up hill." —Curdle and the Princess, George Macdonald

Aging is perfectly fine. It's God’s way of getting us to slow down and take more time for Him. 

I love the picture the poet draws of those that are growing old with God. Imagine the towering majesty and beauty of a palm tree, the massive strength of a giant sequoia. Beauty and strength—the attributes of those that are "planted in the house of the Lord," rooted in God and in His love, bearing the fruit of His Spirit—love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, et. al.

Other trees, when they get old, stop bearing, but not God’s trees. They flourish...

They still bear fruit in old age;
they are ever green and full of sap.

David Roper
3.27.17