a spiritual oasis

For years a fitness craze has swept across our nation. For a small sum you can purchase a little plastic gadget that is guaranteed to give you a “tonier tummy.” Or, you can be aerobicized by the latest cross-country ski simulator. You can still “sweat with the oldies” if that is your cup of tea. Everyone has heard the news: fitness pays! There are great benefits in a well-thought-out and properly executed plan for body building. 

Did you realize that God wants every Christian to be in the body building business? Building up the body of Christ, the church, should be a priority in our lives! This is what being the body is all about! Consider that Ephesians 4:16 says that the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament and it grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Collectively, members of the body of Christ enjoy the benefit of relationships which help us grow in the Lord. Individually, each member has the responsibility to function as an industrious builder in God’s spiritual house, being careful how he builds (1 Corinthians 3:10b). Because, we are all in the body building business, we must give careful attention to becoming more effective builders. Where does this begin?

First, the church is built on the rock solid foundation of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11). There is no other suitable underpinning. Jesus is our firm foundation, upon this Rock we can build with confidence. In fact, if we are not putting Christ first we are building on shifting sand.

Next, Paul indicates that the building process involves both planting and watering the seed, that is, God’s Word (1 Corinthians 3:6). Inherent in the preceding is both message and method. The seed needs to be sown in human hearts. We must be truly convicted that the Word of God, when implanted in human hearts, can save (James 1:21). Even as Paul was willing to become all things to all men that he might by all possible means save some (1Corinthians 9:22), we must also be committed to engaging in every permissible method to broadcast this message to the world.

Finally, we must realize that God has designed the church to work together as an interdependent unit. Members of Christ’s body aren’t to have a “maverick mentality.” While we are all required to do our part, we don’t “go it alone.” Romans 12:5 states, “In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” God’s plan is for us to function as a body, working together as a living organism to bring about spiritual growth. The body builds itself up in love as each part does its work. We who are members of the Lord’s church all need one another. Because each member has been blessed by God with special talents and abilities, every member should be resolved to be involved. This what being the body is all about!

© Bill Williams
2009.06.22

Our family’s communion devotional is this beautiful poem, which was penned by a family friend about ten years ago. May these words bless your lives as they have blessed ours.

Often I’ve Wondered by Jeff Bogue

Often I’ve wondered

How You must have felt

There in the garden

As Your only Son knelt.

A cry for release

From a destiny grave,

Did Your heart break in two?

Were You longing to save?

Three times He beseeched You,

His blood dripping like wine,

Each time still resolving

Not My will but Thine.

Did You want to stop time?

Change Your plan?  Save Your Son?

After all, You are God…

Say the word and it’s done.

Some things can’t be fathomed,

Some concepts aren’t grown,

At least ’til you have one,

A son of your own.

I look at my son

And think, “No way could I

Just stand back and watch

While he suffered and died.”

I’d lay down my life

To save him from death;

To ensure his deliverance,

I’d breathe my last breath.

That’s when You showed me

A scene crystal clear

It’s for us Your dear children,

Through Your Son You came here.

You did hear His prayer!

But there was no other way

To bring Your lost children

Home forever to stay.

You had to have cried

As He sweat drops of blood,

Knowing He must endure it,

A true gift of love.

As men mocked Him and beat Him,

Did anger burn within you?

Calmed only by His voice “Forgive;

They know not what they do.”

As they drove the spikes

That pierced His flesh,

Did You flinch from His pain?

Did You feel His distress?

As He hung on the cross,

Gasping for air,

Did it hurt You when they said,

“His God doesn’t care?”

Surely Your pain reached its height

As He cried out, then died.

You tore the veil, shook the Earth;

From You, nothing could hide.

Was the pain You must have felt

Transformed the third day

To triumphant rejoicing

As the stone rolled away,

When He rose by Your power

Defeating sin and the grave

And completing Your plan

That the lost could be saved?

And now He’s there beside You,

Jesus, name above all,

Waiting for the shout

And Your mighty trumpet call.

Often I’ve wondered

How You’ll feel on that day

When all of Your children

Are home to stay.

© Jeff Bogue
May 9, 1999

In The Ragamuffin Gospel, Brennan Manning relates a story told by Richard Selzer in Mortal Lessons. A surgeon, Selzer was forced to sever the facial nerve of a young woman in order to remove a tumor. When she inquired as to whether her face would remain twisted and palsied, the surgeon informed her that it would, since he was forced to cut the nerve. The poignancy of the moment is accentuated when her young husband ended the silence by stating that he thought it was cute. He then twisted his own lips to accommodate hers and pressed his lips against hers, confirming his love and showing her that their kiss still worked.

In the chapter that follows Manning discusses the way that our loving, gracious God has responded to our sin-mangled lives in much the same way. He suggests three responses we should make to such love. These are:

First, the love of Christ and His gospel of graces calls for a personal, free, and unconventional decision. To respond is to acknowledge that the other has taken the initiative and issued the invitation. The other’s overture has made a response necessary.

Second, our response to the love of Jesus demands trust. Do we rely on our résumé or the gospel of grace? How do we cope failure? Grace tells us that we are accepted just as we are. We may not be the kind of people we want to be, we may be a long way from our goals, we may have more failures than achievements, we may not be wealthy or powerful or spiritual, we may not even be happy, but we are nonetheless accepted by God, held in his hands. Such is his promise to us in Jesus Christ, a promise we can trust (McCullough,122)

The third characteristic of our response to the gratuitous intervention of Jesus in our lives is heartfelt gratitude. In O. Henry’s famous short story “The Gift of the Magi,” the young wife has only $1.87 to buy her husband a gift, and Christmas is the next day. Impulsively she decides to sell her long, thick hair to buy him a chain for his treasured gold watch. At the same moment he is selling the watch to buy his present for her—special combs for her beautiful hair. Have you ever done such an extravagant thing spontaneously? Gone off and emptied the piggy bank because a certain gift was perfect for someone you cherished?

Well, I’ve shared a bit of the flavor of each of these points. Hopefully, this gives you a sense of what Brennan is talking about in this chapter called, “Grazie, Signore.” One additional section of this chapter ties all of this together, helping us to understand the title of the chapter and much, much more:

Amadeus was a remarkable film centered on two powerful and contrasting figures: Antonio Salieri, court composer to the Austrian emperor, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a brash and conceited young genius. “Someone described his life as wine, women and song. And he didn’t sing much” (Burghardt, 43). The limited, uninspired Salieri lives with a raging jealousy for the limitless, God-given talent of Mozart. Yet after every laborious score that he writes, Salieri whispers, “Grazie, Signore.” Thank you, Lord. This song of Salieri lies at the heart of our response to the graciousness of God and the gospel of grace.

Thus, we are struck by the profundity of this section. It is placed almost exactly in the middle of Brennan’s exultation in grace and poignantly describes the compelling nature of grace. The nineteen pages of this chapter are summarized in the following few lines of prayerful thanksgiving:

Grazie, Signore, for Your lips twisted in love to accommodate my sinful self; for judging me not by my shabby good deeds but by Your love that is Your gift to me; for Your unbearable forgiveness and infinite patience with me; for other people who have greater gifts than mine; and for the honesty to acknowledge thatI am a ragamuffin. When the final curtain falls and You summon me home, may my last whispered word on earth be the wholehearted cry, “Grazie, Signore.”

The Ragamuffin GospelBy Brennan Manning / MultnomahFor more than 15 years, Manning’s bestseller The Ragamuffin Gospel has reminded us that Jesus did not come for the pretty, pious and powerful. Instead, he came for the “bedraggled, beat-up and burnt-out” ragamuffins who desperately need his grace. Dispelling the myth that you must work to receive God’s gift of grace and joy, Manning, a fellow ragamuffin, reveals the true nature of a freely-given and unrelenting grace that’s available to all. Drop the burden of never measuring up and revel in the comfort of a God who loves you for who you are - not for who you think you should be.This 2005 release includes a new epilogue, “The Scandal of Grace: Fifteen Years Later,” and a new section “19 Mercies: A Spiritual Journey” of reading, prayer, and contemplation.

What psalms are your favorites? This is a difficult question for me, since life’s changing circumstances bring different psalms to the fore. However, there are several that are seldom far from my thoughts. As I sit here on the front porch composing this post on a beautiful spring day in May, these are my top twelve psalms (and why).

1. Psalm 1 - Provides a baseline for positive and productive living which leads to the conviction that God is watching over me.
2. Psalm 8 - Reminds me of what an awesome God we serve and just how incredible it is that He actually does take thought of each one of us.
3. Psalm 22 - Brings my mind around to the eternal purpose of God and His choice to allow the chastisement of my peace to fall upon His one and only Son.
4. Psalm 23 - Helps me to understand what it means to live in a covenant relationship with God, who shepherds my life and leads me into an eternal dwelling place with Him.
5. Psalm 32 - This psalm, along with David’s other psalms of penitence, brings to my mind the reality that there really is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, even those of us who have really made a mess of our lives.
6. Psalm 46 - Causes me to realize that God is always here with us and He truly is at work in all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
7. Psalm 62 - This psalm helps me to understand that nothing in this world will satisfy my heart-hunger for God. Thus I am able to echo David’s sentiment in the next psalm and declare that God’s love is better than life.
8. Psalm 73 - Gives me a godly perspective on some of life’s most perplexing questions, helping me to understand that how things turn out in the latter end is much more important than the short-term “gains” of those who spurn God’s will.
9. Psalm 86 - This psalm seems to borrow from the expressions of trust found in other psalms to show that no matter where life takes us-even if we reside in the palace as king-there will always be adversaries and adversity to overcome. Thus, we are and will always be in need of God’s provision and protection.
10. Psalm 103 - Encourages me to guard my heart against negative thoughts and destructive doubts by challenging me not to forget all the benefits that are ours as a result of living in relationship with God.
11. Psalm 121 - Reminds me that since my help comes from the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth, it only stands to reason that nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
12. Psalm 139 - Helps me keep everything in perspective. God knows me. He searches my heart and knows my innermost thoughts. With God, I can never fake it ’til I make it. I can not run so far as to get away from Him. I can not hide so well as to avoid detection. No matter how many masks I try to wear, God sees right through them all. Therefore, even though it is not an easy course to follow, the best thing I can do with my heart, my soul, my mind and my strength as to lay them before the Lord, while humbly and sincerely praying, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

If you were to ask me to list my twelve favorite psalms and explain my choices on another day, some of my answers might be different. But, these are my reflections in this moment on this day.  

What are some of your favorites psalms, and why?

© Bill Williams
2009.05.27

On May 31, 2002, I attended the closing program at Ground Zero in New York City. This was a special day full of ceremonies designed to mark the beginning of the rebuilding process at Ground Zero. There was also hope for the day’s activities providing some closure for those who were grieving the death of loved ones when the Twin Towers collapsed following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

As I look back, it seems like a lifetime has passed since that day. I’ve experienced many joyous things with my family. I visited many fun and interesting places. I’ve enjoyed untold good times with family and friends both new and old. I’ve been strethched and challeneged by the books I’ve read. I’ve even written a few chapters in my own books. God has placed many exciting opportunities for service before me. I even allow myself to imagine that more fulfilling days lie ahead. I think of all of the ways that God has blessed my life and I am truly grateful for what He has allowed me to experience during the past six years.

When I think of the time that has passed since May, 2002, I’m also moved by the realization that many thousands of people have not been able to enjoy similar experiences—experiences they probably eagerly anticipated before that terrible day in September. So, as the anniversary of the ceremony which was intended to mark new beginnings approaches, I take time out to remember those who continue to bear the burdens of their grief. I take time out to say, “Even though the ceremony is becoming a distant memory to many. We still remember your sorrow and grief. We honor the valiant way you have pushed forward with your lives. We promise not to forget your pain. We also lift you up in our prayers, asking God to draw you close so that you can know the depth of His love.”

So that you might get a sense of what this day was like, I’m posting some photographs that I took during the concluding ceremony on May 31, 2002. To view them, click the link below.

Ground Zero Concluding Program Slide Show

(follow this link, then click slide show)

Please note that it is not my intention to discount the losses at in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon. Since my service as a volunteer chaplain was limited to Ground Zero in New York City, that is what I am discussing here. My thoughts and prayers are with all who continue to grieve the loss of loved ones on September 11, 2001.

(c) Bill Williams
2009.05.27

With the official holiday falling on the last Monday in May, Memorial Day naturally marks the beginning of summer. School is out for most students. June weddings are just around the corner. For those who live a bit further north, swimming pools are often opened over the Memorial Day weekend. And, many people also enjoy a three-day weekend. Of course, the Indianapolis 500 merits a mention, right? This weekend marks the beginning of exciting times for many.

In spite of all the picnics and camping trips, there is a solemn side to this holiday. Since its inception, Memorial Day has been a special time set aside to remember those who have given their lives in service to our country in order to secure and protect our freedoms. My hope is that we will all take a few minutes over the next couple of days to focus on what makes Memorial Day special.

For me, it is impossible to think of Memorial Day without remembering a relative who was killed in Vietnam. To the best of my recollection I never met him. But, I do remember sitting through his memorial service with him staring at me from the framed, glossy photograph, which was displayed on a table next to his flag-draped casket. I also remember how sobering it was when I located his name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. SP4 Gail Lynn Strickland was a member of the Army’s 101st Airborne. He was killed when his helicopter was shot down in Vietnam on August 12, 1971, one month short of his nineteenth birthday. His memory and the memory of many others who served and gave their lives in this war are always close to my heart on Memorial Day.

This year’s Memorial Day is made special because of a new friend I’m just getting to know. His name is Jim. He lives next door. He is a veteran of World War II. Like most of his generation and almost all who have witnessed the horrors of war, he doesn’t talk a lot about his experiences. Still, we have talked enough for me to develop an appreciation for him and his unselfish service to our nation. We have visited while mending the fence between our backyards. I’ve gained fresh insights into why his is known as the greatest generation. These times have also underscored the fact that this generation is fast slipping into the annals of history. If you know people like Jim, I hope you will take a few minutes to thank them for their service. Let them know, also, that you can appreciate why this holiday might be especially difficult for them. After all, most of them are probably remembering the loss of many of their comrades-in-arms in horrific battlefield conditions or prison camps.

So, what makes Memorial Day special? Well, that’s simple. It is special to me for two reasons. First, because it helps me remember the great price that has been paid throughout our nation’s history in an effort to realize and protect our freedoms. Remembering the price that has been paid for these freedoms helps me to more fully appreciate their value. Second, because it reminds me to pray for peace. You see, this holiday shines a huge spot light on the hideous nature of war. When we are told about God’s grief over human depravity in Genesis 6:11 we read these words: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.” So, while I am and will always be thankful for those who protect us from the malicious intents of others, one of the things I am going to remember to pray about this Memorial Day is that God will help us find less violent, non-violent ways of solving our differences.

© Bill Williams
2009.05.23