1991 March/April Issue Part 3

i am sorry for the messy article- new to using 'print screen' so think it'll improve with practice. Time (and patience!) will not allow me to type this out and didn't want to skip an article either because of it's length. 

1991 March/April issue Part 2

Women: The Road Ahead

That was the theme of Time's special issue last fall. There were pictures of women with babies in prison, an inconsolable “crack” baby with a tangle of tubes connected to machines, crying his little heart out, a mother charged with a felony: delivery of drugs to her newborn child, women in politics “sharing real rather than cosmetic power,” a veiled Muslim woman, ten tough-minded women who “create individual rules for success,” e.g. a police chief, a bishop, a rock climber, a baseball club owner, a rap artist, a fashion tycoon, an Indian chief and others (not much femininity showed in their pictures). There were single mothers, lesbian mothers, divorced mothers, working (outside the home) mothers. There was a twelve-year-old who fixes supper for her sisters when Mom works late and there was a man who is a house husband. But there was not one picture of a father and mother and their children. Not one.

1991 March/April issue Part 1

Small Things

When i want to do only great things for You, 

Make me willing to do small, unnoticed things, too. 

When i want to do what the world will acclaim, 

Make me willing to do what will lift up your name. 

B.J. Hoff

"Well done, my good and trusty servant!" said the master. "You have proved trustworthy in a small way; i will now put you in charge of somethings big. Come and share your master's delight" (Matthew 25:23, NEB). 

1991 January/February issue Part 2

The Angel in the Cell

My brother David Howard does a lot of travelling and comes back with wonderful stories. Last June when the six of us Howards with our spouses got together for a reunion Dave told us this one, heard from the son of the man in the story.

   A man we’ll call Ivan, prisoner in an unnamed country, was taken from his cell, interrogated, tortured and beaten nearly to a pulp. The one comfort in his life was a blanket. As he staggered back to his cell, ready to collapse into that meager comfort, he saw to his dismay that somebody was wrapped up in it- an informer, he supposed. He fell on the filthy floor, crying out, “I can’t take it any more!” whereupon a voice came from the blanket, “Ivan, what do you mean you can’t take it any more?” Thinking the man was trying to get information to be used against him, he didn’t explain. He merely repeated what he had said.

   “Ivan,” came the voice, “have you forgotten that Jesus is with you?”

   Then the figure in the blanket was gone. Ivan, unable to walk a minute ago, now leaped to his feat danced round the cell praising the Lord. In the morning the guard who had starved and beaten him asked who had given him food. No one, said Ivan.

   “But why do you look so different?”
   “Because my Lord was with me last night.”

   “Oh, is that so? And where is your Lord now?”

   Ivan opened his shirt, pointed to his heart- “Here.”

   “O.K. I’m going to shoot you and your Lord right now,” said the guard, pointing a pistol at Ivan’s chest.

   “Shoot me if you wish. I’ll go to be with the Lord.”

   The guard returned his pistol to his holster, shaking his head in bewilderment.

Later Ivan learned that his wife and children had been praying for him on that same night as they read Isaiah 15:14, “the cowering prisoner will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread.”
   Ivan was released shortly thereafter, and continued faithfully to preach the Gospel until he died in his eighties. 

1991 January/February issue Part 1

The childless man or woman      

  
Children, God tells us, are a heritage from the Him. Is the man or woman to whom He gives no children therefore disinherited? Surely not. the Lord gave portions of land to each tribe of Israel except one. “The tribe of Levi... received no holding; the Lord God of Israel is their portion, as He promised them” (Joshua 3:14, REB). Withholding what He granted to the rest, He gave to Levi a higher privilege. May we not see childlessness in the same light? I believe there is a special gift for those to whom God does not give the gift of physical fatherhood or motherhood.

1990 November/December issue Part 3

Men, Women and Biblical Equality. Part 3

   Men have disobeyed by misusing their authority, and women have disobeyed by refusing it. We are not therefore at liberty to drain the word headship of its oblivious hierarchical meaning. Let’s be careful not to overlook the all-important word as: “Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church” (Eph 5:22, 23). In what sense is Christ the head of the church? It’s a physical metaphor Paul is using. Is it not the head of the human body the part from which all other parts take orders? Yes, iv’e read pages and pages of arguments about that Greek word Kephale. Some would insist that it means only source, and carries no thought of authority. But I insist that metaphors are metaphors and they mean more, not less, than the mere words could mean in another context. One wonders if these humourless, nearsighted, nit-picking, theological pendants have ever read a book in their lives!

1990 November/December issue Part 2

Men, Women, and Biblical Equality. Part 2

   Most of what the MWBE’s advertisements say I think most Christians would accept. It is what they have chosen not to say that disturbs me deeply. The section on Community deals with the Holy Spirit's coming on both men and women; both have spiritual gifts. True enough, but were there not certain restrictions (for both men and women) placed on the use of these gifts? Is there no such thing as church order which manifests a church hierarchy?

1990 November/December issue Part 1

Men, Women, and Biblical Equality. Part 1

   A few months ago a double-paged advertisement with the above heading appeared in Christian magazine, containing a statement drawn up by seven Christian leaders, and signed by (if I counted correctly) 164 others. It appeared to be a direct rebuttal to The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood which was formed several years ago.

1990 September/October issue Part 3

Lord, Please remove this dilemma

(...) Some of you face serious dilemmas. We want to pray, “Lord, please remove the dilemma.” Usually the answer is “No, not right away.” We must face it, pray over it, think about it, wait on the Lord, make a choice. Sometimes it is an excruciating choice.

1990 September/October issue Part 2

Prayer

• For the greatest need for today's children; holy parents. Pray for them, that God will give them holy wisdom in teaching children to pray, to love God, to set their aims far above transitory things; wisdom in helping children decide about education and extra-curricular things which sometimes become too great a burden
• For the greatest need of today's churches: holy pastors.
• For Christian men in the business world, that they may be shielded from strong pressure to gain the whole world and thus lose their souls.

1990 September/October issue Part 1

Training a child to self-control

Shall I brace myself for the inevitable charge of ancestor-worship which is bound to come? This is not the first I’ve quoted my forebears, and probably won’t be the last, but it’s worth the risk of a taunt or two! Henry Clay Trumbull, a chaplain in the Civil War, was my great-grandfather, and only recently I found that his book, Hints on Child Training, has been brought back into print. His reason for writing it was His friend’s having asked for his theory of child training. “Theory?” he responded, “I have no theory in that matter. I had lots of theories before I had any children [he had eight] but now I do, with fear and trembling, in every case just that which seems to be the better thing for the hour, whether it agrees with any of my old theories or not.”
   A book written one hundred years ago which a publisher now deems worthy of reprint must be good. The publisher is Wolgemuth and Hyatt, Brentwood TN; price $8.95. Here’s an excerpt from chapter 10:

1990 July/August issue Part 4

A "Hard Time"

   Following a talk I gave on what older women are to teach younger, according to Titus 2:3-5, someone raised this objection during the question period:

“I have a hard time with that verse about staying home!”

   It’s an expression we often hear-“I have a hard time with that.” Usually the tone is one of argument, and the words are a euphemism for “I don’t like that,” or “surely that doesn’t apply to my case.” If the speaker were convinced that the verse did not apply to is case, he would not be having a hard time with it. He could dismiss it at once. But if the person really means he or she is having difficulty, what is the exact nature of the difficulty? I can think of four possibilities:

1. Does this apply to me?

2. I want to do it but I can’t.

3. I ought to do it but I don’t want to.

4. I wish God hadn’t said it.

   What shall we do with the difficulties? To the first I would say that if we come to God with an empty cup, asking Him to reveal His will and help us to do the right thing, no matter what it costs, He will certainly show us. For the second we have the promise, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” God never gave a command for which He will not supply the power to obey. For the third we know we have been created with the will to choose. We may choose to do what we ought to do, and God will help us. If the last describes our “hard time” let’s be straightforward with God, confess the truth, and submit to His Word as an obedient servant. Obedience always finally leads to joy.

1990 July/August issue Part 3

Spiritual opposition

When Lars and I returned from a fortnight in Scotland and England there was the expected pile-up of work awaiting us, and the usual temptation to feel overwhelmed by it. The suitcase had to be unpacked, clothes washed, mail opened, read and answered. The house had been partially cleaned by the students living with us, but up stairs I had to deal with the dust. There were phone messages waiting, and phone calls we needed to make to family members. Do you know the feeling of utter inadequacy to cope? I’m sure you do. But I believe the enemy of our souls is specially alert at such times, seeking to use them to turn us in ourselves rather than upwards to the One who stands ready to be our Refuge and Helper.

1990 July/August issue Part 2

Prayer

“When Thou rememberest what relates to me, think of me only in the light of Thy mercy- forget all else, O Thou, my injured and justly offended God, my unspeakable gracious Benefactor. Put out of sight all that has severed between me and Thee.” (William Kay’s note on Psalm 25:7)

1990 July/August issue Part 1

Taking Care of my Little Sister

(Reprinted by permission by The Home Sweet Home Newspaper of the Shepherd Family, Vol. I, No.1. The writer is my granddaughter, Christiana, age eight.)

Last night my mother and father were gone and i had to put Evangeline* down for bed. My mom had put on her diapers and i had to put on her pajamas. This is how it started. I put Evangeline on Colleens bed and I said, ‘Evangeline, stay here!’ and of course she went off the bed, crawled down the stairs, and of course I went after her and said, ‘Evangeline, come here!’ Finally I got her and put her on the kitchen table and put her pajamas on and she saw her bottle on the kitchen counter and I gave it to her and took her back upstairs. Then I prayed with her and wound up the ‘Hark, the Herald Angels Sing’ music box and said good night. Whew!”

*(aged sixteen months when this was written).

1990 May/June issue Part 2

Chronicle of a Soul
I kept a five year diary from high school through college, and began spiritual journals during my senior year in college (1848) which I continue to keep. These are chronicles of growth, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It is astounding to go back through them and learn things I had completely forgotten. It is wonderfully faith-strengthening to see that indeed “all the way my Saviour leads me,” hears my prayers, supplies my prayers, teaches me of Himself. As God said to Israel, “Thou shallt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led these forty years in the wilderness.” My memory is poor. A journal is a record of His faithfulness (and my own faithfulness too- which teaches me to value His grace and mercy). If you decide to begin recording your pilgrimage, buy yourself a notebook (one of those pretty flowered clothbound blank books available in gift and stationary stores) and begin to put down (not necessarily everyday):

1990 May/June issue Part 1

The Absence of Feeling in the Devotional Life

"I am sporadic in my devotions,” writes a Newsletter reader (who happens to be my daughter!), “though I am up pretty early regularly by 5.30am there are many mornings when my mind and heart are too dull and cold to learn of Him.”

1990 March/April issue Part 4

Child-Parent Relations

(Dan Tompkins, fourteen-year-old son of my dear friend Barb of Tuscan, Arizona, wrote this for his school paper:)
One of the problems that i and many of the students come across is child-parent relations. God has told us to honor and obey our parents (Eph 6:1-3). Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. Remember that you're the child and they're the parent.
2. Realize that parents know what you are going through. They've been there.
3. Understand their side and their imperfection.
4. Cooperate (they're trying to help you!)
5. Communicate without yelling and be open and truthful.
6. Be determined to clear things up.
7. Say you love them. Accept their decision- it's for the better!

"How i hated discipline... i would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors. I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly" (Proverbs 5:12-14).

1990 March/April issue Part 3

Virginity part 3

“How can a Christian single woman enter into the mystery of Christ and the church if she never experiences marriage?” is the question of a very thoughtful young woman.

   The gift of virginity, given to everyone to offer back to God for His use, is a priceless and irreplaceable gift. It can be offered in the pure sacrifice of marriage, or it can be offered in the sacrifice of life’s celibacy. Does this sound just too, too high and holy? But think for a moment- because the virgin has never known a man, she is free to concern herself wholly with the Lord’s affairs, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, “and her aim in life is to make herself holy, in body and spirit.” She keeps her heart as the Bride of Christ in a very special sense, and offers to the Heavenly Bridegroom alone all that she is and has. When she gives herself willingly to Him in love she has no need to justify herself to the world or to Christians who plague her with questions and suggestions. In a way not open to the married woman her daily “living sacrifices” is a powerful and humble witness, radiating love. I believe she may enter into the “mystery” more deeply than the rest of us.

1990 March/April issue Part 2

Virginity Part 2

But what shall I say to the women who write to me in such sorrow and perplexity? First of all, it is not our job to set about trying to coerce the men. They must answer to God, who made them the initiators. But a woman must answer to God about her acceptance of singleness, seeking to know Him in it and converting it into good by a peaceful YES, LORD! Rather than into real evil by a rebellious NO!
   At lunch today Lars said, “I’ll tell you what would change things fast- if all woman decided they would not ‘give out,’ I mean give men what they’re looking for but are unwilling to make a commitment for.”
   One young woman wrote in desperation, agreeing with what I believe is God’s order, “YEAH! That’s the way is should be!! Unfortunately, that’s not the way it is!”

1990 March/April issue Part 1

Virginity Part 1

My heart goes out to the countless women in their thirties and forties who write to me in real agony of soul because they are still single. There were two letters in this mornings mail. One said, “I am a Christian woman thirty years of age and I am facing the possibility of a life of singleness.” The other: “I am forty-one years old. I never dreamed I would not be married- I’ve been praying for a husband ever since I was sixteen. “
   This phenomenon, due in part, I suppose, to what demographers are calling “the postponed generaton” (the Baby Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964) has reached catastrophic proportions. Men postpone marriage ten or twenty years beyond what used to be considered the marrying age. When the mirror tells them they’re fast aging they decide it’s time to settle down.

1990 January/February issue Part 5

"Inclusive" language

In many churches today, the hymns, prayers, and Scriptures are revised to make the language "inclusive." This means that whenever the generic word man is used it is deleted or replaced by a word like person, people, others, men and women, etc. A line of the grand old hymn, "Holy, Holy, Holy"-"Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see" had been revised to read, "though the sinful human eye," which of course is a Manichean (see below) heresy. It stops me cold every time we sing it. And at Harvard University professors demand the use of "non-sexist" language such as (i'm not making this up) the "freshperson" class. It is mere ignorance of the meaning of generic which produces this outrageous mutilation of our glorious language, or is it a far more insidious and calculating determination to alter our vision of the nature god created when He designed man and woman? My brother Tom Howard explained his objection to "inclusive" language. Here's part of what he said:

"I use the traditional word 'men' because i am not a Manichean (a Persian system of belief which held that the soul is good and the body evil). The ancient edifice of language judges us, not we it. I am not prepared to leach away the almost sacramental solidity of words by expunging the rich and protohistoric 'men' and 'women' in favor of the eviscerate 'persons.' Remember, the word 'man' somehow bespeaks all of us mortals and sinners; and the word 'woman' bespeaks us as we receive  the approaches of the Divine. You and i must accept the mystery of our gender, and wear it with dignity and grace."

1990 January/February issue Part 4

The cesspool transfigured

My brother Dave wrote of the Lausanne II Congress in Manila that the highpoint was the brief testimony of a Chinese who had spent eighteen years in hard labor camp. 

   “Because he was a Christian they wanted to give him the worst job in the camp. So he was assigned to clean out the cesspool every day, as the Chinese cart off the waste as fertilizer. There was only one cesspool for the whole large camp, so it always overflowed on the ground around it. Therefore he had to literally wade through human excrement to get to the pool to empty it. But he said, ‘I rejoice at this, because I was able to get alone with the Lord in a way that was not possible for anyone else.’ He began to think of the cesspool and surrounding filth as his garden where, as he waded through the waste, he would sing, ‘I come to the garden alone.’ I used to think of that as a sickly sweet, rather sentimental song. But my whole concept of it changed as I heard him quote the whole song and apply it to his situation: ‘And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own; and the joy we share as we tarry there none other has ever known.’ Put that in the context of wading through sewage! Then he sang the whole song to us in Chinese, I doubt that there was a dry eye in the auditorium... I felt unworthy even to shake his hand.”

1990 January/February issue Part 3

Prayer and Feelings

   Our adversary the devil has many tricks to keep us from praying effectively. C.S. Lewis gives us a glimpse at some of them in his Screwtape Letters, in which an older demon is instructing a younger one in a few of those tricks:
   “Whenever they are attending to the enemy [i.e., God] Himself we are defeated. But there are some ways of preventing them of doing so. The simplest is to turn their gaze away from Him towards themselves. Keep them watching their own minds and trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. When they meant to ask Him for charity, let them, instead, start trying to manufacture charitable feelings for themselves and not notice that this is what they are doing. When they meant to pray for courage, let them really be trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feelings; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment” (The Screwtape Letters, pp. 19-21).

1990 January/February issue Part 2

Little Things

When we were growing up our parents taught us, by both word and example, to pay attention to little things. If you do a thing at all, do it thoroughly- make the sheets really smooth on the bed, sweep all the corners and move all the chairs when you sweep the kitchen, roll the toothpaste tube neatly and put the cap back on, clean the hair out of your brush each time you use it, hang your towel straight on the rod, fold your napkin and put it into the silver ring before you leave the table, never wet your finger when you turn pages. They kept promises to us as faithfully as those they made to adults. They taught us to do the same. You didn’t accept an invitation to a party and then not turn up, or agree to help with the vacation Bible school and back out because a more interesting activity presented itself. The only financial debt my parents ever incurred was a mortgage on a house, which my father explained was in a special case because it was real estate which would always have value. 

1990 January/February issue Part 1

Homeschooling

A reader asks me, as grandmother and outside observer of homeschooled children, to answer her questions. Is any school out of the question for Christians?

1989 September/October issue Part 1

The Effectual Fervent Prayer of a Mother

"Thou sentest Thine hand from above, and drewest my soul out of that profound darkness- my mother, that faithful one, weeping to Thee for me, more than mothers weep the bodily deaths of their children. For she, by that faith and spirit which she had from Thee, discerned the death wherein i lay, and Thou heardest her, O Lord; Thou heardest her, and despisedst not her tears, when streaming down, they watered the ground under her eyes [he alludes here to that devout manner of the Eastern ancients, who used to lie flat on their faces in prayer] in every place where she prayed; yea Thou heardest her... Thine ears were towards her heart. O Thou God omnipotent, who so caredst for every one of us, as if Thou carest for him only; and so for all, as if they were but one!"

(Confessions of St.Augustine)

1989 Spetember/October issue Part 3

Do not forecast grief

Sitting one still and sunny afternoon in a tiny chapel on an island in the South i thought i heard someone enter. A young woman was weeping quietly. After a little time i asked if i could help. She confided her fears for the future- what if her husband should die? Or one fo her children? What if money ran out?

1989 September/October issue Part 2

A call to older women.

In 1948 when i had been in Prairie Bible Institute (a very stark set of wooden buildings on a very bleak prairie in Alberta) for only a few weeks, i was feeling a bit displaced and lonely one afternoon when there came a knock on my door. I opened it to find a beautiful rosy-cheeked face framed by white hair. She spoke with a Scottish burr:
"You don't know me, but i know you. Iv'e been prraying forr you, Betty dearr. I'm Miss Cunningham. If everr you'd like a cup of tea and a scottish scone, just pop down to my little aparrtment."

1989 September/October issue Part 1

The Solace

Kathleen R. Lewis

I am waiting, Lord, on Thee,

Show me what you want from me.

I am resting; Thou art doing.

I am listening; Thou are wooing.

In the beauty of Thy will,

Draw me close, my being still.

I am trusting, Lord, in Thee,

Show me the path I cannot see.

I am foll'wing; Thou art leading.

I am hung'ring; Thou art feeding.

While I yield, though through my tears,

Pour Your comfort, calm my fears.

I am resting, Lord, in Thee,

Keep my eyes on Calvary.

I am praying; Thou art giving.

I am dying; Thou are living.

Not my will, but Thine instead,

Pured-out wine, and broken bread.

1989 July/August issue Part 3

But i have a graduate degree

A woman was asked to speak to the women students of a seminary about job opportunities for those with seminary degrees. She writes, "I talked to them first principally about being, doing and going as God wills (not who i am but whose am i). Then i listed both traditional and creative ways to fulfill needs in the Kingdom of God. Three feminists were offended especially that i should mention a nanny among the 70+ jobs. But Aristolte was a 'nanny' to Alexander the Great! These women had bought into the values of the world and were ready to figth for their ten years of executive computer programming. They said my talk had 'put the down more than any man's.'"

1989 July/August issue Part 2

What's a nice girl like you...

Young people have the crazy notion now days that the only way to really "get to know" somebody is to get intimate. That's what's important. No it isn't. What's important is what the person lives for and how much they'd be willing to risk for it. The following is reprinted from The Pilot, a Catholic weekly of the Aarchdiocese of Boston, March 31, 1989, with the premission of John Mallon:

1989 July/August issue Part 1

The gift of loneliness

I was not a wife anymore. I was a widow. Another assignment. Another gift. 

   Don’t imagine or a moment that that was the thought that occurred to me the instant the word came. O Lord, was probably all I could think, stunned as we all were.

   One step at a time over the years, as I sought to plumb the mystery of suffering (which cannot be plumbed), I began to see that there is a sense in which everything is a gift, even my widowhood. I hope I can explain.

1989 May/June issue Part 3

Letter to a Missionary

When my father and mother were newly married they sailed to Belgium where they were to work with the Belgian Gospel Mission. They were twenty-four and twenty-three. Recently my brother Jim Howard unearthed a letter to them by an older missionary of the china Inland Mission dated July 21, 1922. It spoke to me freshly and powerfully when I received it yesterday, so I give it to you;

1989 May/June issue Part 2

Humdudgeons or contentment

The word humdudgeon is a new word to me and I like the sound of it. It means “a loud complaint without a trifle.” Heard any of those lately around your house? One mother thought of an excellent antidote; all humdudgeons must be presented not orally but in writing, “of two hundred words or more.” There was a sudden marked reduction in whining and complaining.

   Parents, by example, teach their children to whine. No wonder it is so difficult to teach them not to! Listen to conversations in the elevator, at the hairdresser’s, at the next table in the restaurant. Everybody’s whining about everything- weather, health, the president, the IRS, the insurance mess, traffic, kids.

1989 May/June issue Part 1

Do it at once
"No unwelcome tasks become any the less unwelcome by putting them off till tomorrow. It is only when they are put behind us and done, that we begin to find that there is a sweetness to be tasted afterwards, and that the rememberance of unwelcome duties unhesitatingly done is welcome and pleasant. Accomplished, they are full of blessings, and there is a smile on their faces as they leave us. Undone, they stand threatening and disturbing our tranquility, and hindering our communion with God. If there be lying before you any bit of work from which you shrink, go straight up to it, and do it at once. The only way to get rid of it is to do it." (Alexander MacLarer)

1989 March/April issue Part 3

There Are No Accidents

   My friend Judy Squire of Portola Valley, California, is one of the most cheerful and radiant woman I know. I met her first in prayer meeting at the beginning of a conference. She was sitting in a wheel chair and I noticed something funny about her legs. Later that day I saw her with no legs at all. In the evening she was walking around with crutches. Of course I had to ask her some questions. She was born with no legs, she had artificial ones which she used sometimes, but they were tiresome, she said (laughing) and she often left them behind. When I heard of a little baby boy named Brandon Scott, born without arms or legs, I asked if she would write to his parents, she did;

   “The first thing I would say is that all that this entails is at least one hundred times harder on the parents than the child. A birth defect by God’s grace does not rob childhood from its wonder, nor is a child burdened by high expectations. Given a supportive, creative, and loving family, I know that I enjoyed not a less-than-average life nor an average life, but as I’ve told many, my life has not been ordinary but extraordinary.

   “I am convinced without a doubt that a loving Heavenly Father oversees the creative miracles in the inner sanctum of each mother’s womb (Psalm 139), and that in His sovereignty there are no accidents.

   “’What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Creator calls a butterfly.’ As humanity we see only the imperfect, underside of God’s tapestry of our lives. What we judge to be ‘tragic- the most dreaded thing that could happen,’ I expect we’ll one day see as the awesome reason for the beauty and uniqueness of our life and our family. I think that’s why James 1:2 is a favourite verse of mine. Phillips translation put it this way: ‘When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders but welcome them as friends. ‘

1989 March/April issue Part 2

Too Many Children?

When I learned that my daughter Valerie was expecting number five, my insides tied themselves in knots.
  Val and Walt were both very peaceful about it, willing to receive this child as they had the others- as a gift from the Lord, remembering His words, “Whoever receives this child in my name receives me” (Luke 9:48). But my imagination ran to the future and its seeming impossibilities- “Poor dear Val. she has her hands more than full. What will she do with five?” Before she was married Valerie had told me she had hoped the Lord would give her six. I had smiled to myself, thinking she would probably ably revise that number after the first three or four. Practical considerations rose like thunderclouds in my mind. Money. Another room to be built into the house. Homeschooling (Valerie was teaching two already). How would the new child receive the attention he needed? Etc., etc.
  Then I began to look at the advantages. I was one of six children myself, and loved growing up in a big family. Children learn early what it means to help and to share, to take responsibility and to make sacrifices, to give place to others, to cooperate and deny themselves. Why all this turmoil in my soul? Well because I love my child! She was tired! Her hands were full! Maybe later, maybe when the others were old enough to help more, maybe... O Lord!
  I tried to talk to God about it. Breakfast time came, we ate, washed dishes, school began in the children’s schoolroom, and I went to my room, my heart churning. What does one do?
I write this because troubled young women have come to me not understanding their mothers’ reactions to the news of another baby. Was it resentment? Did they not love the grandchildren they had? Why would they not want more? Was it nothing but a meddlesome yen to run their children’s lives? Was it a revelation of a worst attitude- an unwillingness to let God be God?

1989 March/April issue Part 1

Why The Newsletter?

 

I began writing the newsletter in 1982 because kind people of the Word of God Community in Ann Arbor, Michigan, suggested that I write one and offered all their facilities for the carrying out of the idea.

  Now that my radio programme, “Gateway to Joy,” is in its sixth month I have bethought me again the need for or the wisdom of continuing the letter. I have, after all, a new channel of communication with many more people than on our mailing list. Maybe that’s enough, but then, maybe radio listeners will be wanting a newsletter. I’m in a quandary.

  To call it a "newsletter” is a bit misleading, I admit. It’s nothing like a proper one. It doesn’t keep you abreast of much of anything. It isn’t “relevant” in the popular sense. But I take refuge in C.S Lewis’s remark, “All that is not eternal is eternally out of date,” and I try always to include things of eternal. I suppose the heart of the matter is a burning desire, amounting to perhaps a compulsion akin to that of the psalmist’s (“My heart is teeming with a good word;/ I utter what I have framed concerning the King” Psalm 45:1; Kay). Often I have some treasure to share which I didn’t frame – treasures from the pens of long dead saints. Because it’s getting harder and harder to find some of the writings which have nourished my soul, I give you tastes so that you can ransack old bookstores and feast on spiritual food much more substantial than many contemporary offerings. I had wanted to give you something for an Easter meditation. Nothing I can frame comes close to this jewel from George Herbert, born in Whales in 1593.

1989 January/February issue Part 6

When Your Children Grow Up

  In response to my question as to what readers would like, one asked “how to look at one’s purpose in life when your children are grown up and gone.”
  If ones supreme ai min life is to glorify God by doing what He wants, I would suggest a careful study of the characteristics of Godly women in the New Testament as set forth in 1 Timothy 5:5-10 and Titus 2:3-5. Nancy Krumreich of Anderson, Indiana, makes a practical suggestion that fits Paul’s advice; “You might write about what you think older women ought to be doing in our world (besides going to retreats!). it seems to me that there is a gaping need for women in this category to do things other than seek careers, things which teach us younger women how to love our husbands and children. And things which we younger ones should not be doing, like being Crisis Pregnancy Center directors, picketers of abortion clinics, spending hours of time volunteering which needs to be spent with our children and/or husbands. Perhaps even things like helping us younger ones with our heavy loads and giving practical guidance and encouragement... Are there churches out there bold enough to teach that older women have this responsibility? It seems to me that the attitude is strong both in church and out of it that once the youngest child is in school, women are freed up to pursue whatever they wish.
  “I’m a young woman in search of a mother-figure, mine having dies three years ago when my middle daughter was newborn.”
  I’m sure Nancy is all for the CPC’s, the protests against abortion, and volunteer work- for those who can be free to participate without neglecting the first God-given duties. But if the young women can’t do those jobs, and older women choose to pursue something called fulfilment, who is available?
  Are there some out there with ears to hear this plea?

1989 January/February issue Part 5

God's Curriculum

"I, Thy servant, will study Thy statutes. / Thy instruction is my continual delight; / I turn to is for counsel. / I will run the course set out in Thy commandments, / For they gladden my heart" (Psalm 119:23, 24, 32; NEB).

One day recently something lit a fuse of anger in someone who then burned me with hot words. I felt sure i didn't deserve this response, but when i ran to God about it, He reminded me of part of a prayer I’d been using lately: “Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and with firm conviction that your will governs all.”

  Where could that kind of peace come from? Only from God, who gives “not as the world gives.”

  His will that I should be burnt? Not exactly, but His will governs all. In a wrong-filled world we suffer (and cause) many a wrong. God is there to heal and comfort and forgive. He who brought blessing to many out of the sin of the jealous brothers of Joseph means this hurt for my ultimate blessing and, I think, for an increase of love between me and the one who hurt me. Love is very patient, very kind. Love never seeks its own. Love looks to God for His grace to help.

  “It was not you who sent me here but God,” Joseph said to his brothers. “You meant to do me harm; but God meant to bring good out of it” (Genesis 45:8, 50:20; NEB).

  There is a philosophy of secular education which holds that the student ought to be allowed to assemble his own curriculum according to his own preferences. Few students have a strong basis for making these choices, not knowing how little they know. Ideas of what they need to learn are not only greatly limited but greatly distorted. What they need is help- from those who know more than they do.

  Mercifully God does not allow us to choose our own curriculum. His wisdom is perfect, His knowledge braces not only all worlds but the individual hearts and minds of each of His loved children. With intimate understanding of our deepest needs and individual capacities, He chooses our curriculum. We need only ask, “Give us this day our daily bread, our daily lesson, our homework.” An angry retort from someone may be just the occasion we need in which to learn not only longsuffering and forgiveness, but meekness and gentleness, fruits not borne in us but borne by the Holy Spirit. As Amy Carmichael wrote, “A cup brimful of sweetness cannot spill even one drop of bitter water no matter how suddenly jarred.”

  God’s curriculum for all who sincerely want to know Him and do His will will always include lessons we wish we could skip. But the more we apply ourselves, the more honestly we can say what the psalmist said, “I, Thy servant, will study Thy statutes. / Thy instruction is my continual delight; / I turn to it for counsel. / I will run the course set out in Thy commandments, / for they gladden my heart” (Psalm119:23, 24, 32; NEB).

1989 January/February issue Part 4

A Child Learns Self-Denial - Part 2

Does this training seem hard on the child, impossible for the mother? I don’t think it is. The earlier the parents begin to make the laws of order and beauty and quietness comprehensible to their children, the sooner they will acquire good, strong notions of what is so basic to real godliness: self-denial. A Christian home should be a place of peace, and there can be no peace where there is no self-denial.

  Christian parents are seeking to fit their children for their inheritance in Christ. A sense of the presence of God in the home is instilled by the simple way He is spoken of, by prayer not only at meals but in family devotions and perhaps as each child is tucked into bed. The Bible has a prominent place, and it is a greatly blessed child who grows up, as I did, in a hymn-singing family. Sam and Judy Palpant of Spokane have such a home. “Each of our children had his or her own lullaby which I sing before prayer time and the final tucking into bed,” Judy wrote. “That lullaby is a special part of our bedtime ritual. Whenever we have other children spend the night we sing ‘Jesus loves me’ as their lullaby. What a joy it was on the most recent overnighter to have the three Edminster children announce, ‘We have our own lullabies now!’ Mat, who is twelve and who can be swayed by the world said, ‘Mine is “Jesus Keep Me Near the Cross.”’

  The task of parents is to show by love and by the way they live that they belong to another Kingdom and another Master, and thus to turn their children’s thoughts toward that Kingdom and that Master. The “raw material” with which they begin is thoroughly selfish. They must gently lay the yoke of respect and consideration for others on those little children, for it is their earnest desire to make of them good and faithful servants and, as Janet Erskine Stuart expressed it, “to give saints to God.”

1989 January/February issue Part 3

A Child Learns Self-Denial - Part 1

One of the countless blessings of my life is having a daughter who actually asks for my prayers and my advice (and heeds the latter). She phoned from California this morning, describing the difficulties of home-schooling three children in grade six, four, and one, when you also have a four-year-old who is doing nursery school and a two-year-old who, Colleen, who wants to do everything. And on November 19, Evangeline Mary was born, so a nursing baby now claims attention as well. How to give Colleen proper attention and teach her also to occupy herself quietly for what seems to her long periods? Valerie was deeply concerned over whether she was doing all she should for that little one.

I reminded her of the women of the Bible times- while probably not homeschooling her children, an ordinary village women would have been working very hard most of the time, carrying heavy water jars, grinding grain, sweeping, planting, and cooking while tending children. This was true also of the Indians with whom Val grew up. An Indian mother never interrupted her days’ work to sit down with a small child and play or read a story, yet the children were always more or less with her, watching her work, imitating her, learning informally. They had a strong and secure home base, “and so have yours,” I told her. “Don’t worry! You are not doing Colleen an injustice. Quite the contrary. You are giving her wonderful things: a stable home, your presence in that home, a priceless education just in the things she observes.”

1989 January/February issue Part 2

Prayer
Dear Lord, help me to live this day
quietly; easily;
To lean upon Thy great strength
trustfully; restfully;
To meet others
peacfully; joyously;
To face tomorrow
confidently; courageously.

1989 January/February issue Part 1

He sufficeth thee: apart from Him nothing sufficeth thee.

- St. Augustine

1988 November/December issue Part 5

If You Can't Do What You Like, Like What You Do.

A young man working at a resort hotel for the summer: "For about four weeks i was in a total daze as i tried to relate the complex details of the hotel to each other. One day, at the end of my patience, i said, 'This is a waste of time' i sat down and read Ecclesiastes - 'Vanity, vanity...' I realised, like Solomon, that if we fail to recognize God's complete sovereignty over all things, life is just endless, meaningless cycles. After that, i realized that no matter how hard, dirty, or apparently useless my immediate job is, God has a purpose in it and i am to do my work 'heartily as unto the Lord.' So i do, and what peace it has brought me! I now love my job!"

1988 November/December issue Part 4

The Sweet Running of Household Wheels

"If i am inconsiderate about the comfort

of others,

or their feelings,

or even their little weaknesses; if i am careless about little

hurts and miss opportunities to

smooth their way;

if i make the sweet running of

household wheels more difficult

to accomplish,

then i know nothing of Calvary love."

(Amy Carmichael: If, London, SPCK, 1949, p.40)

1988 November/December issue Part 3

Christmas is a thing too wonderful.

  Some things are simply too wonderful for explanation- the navigational system of the Arctic tern, for example. How does it find its way 12,000 miles of ocean from its nesting grounds in the Arctic to its wintering grounds in the Antarctic? Ornithologists have conducted all sorts of tests without finding the answer. Instinct is the best they can offer- no explanation at all, merely a way of saying they really have no idea. A Laysan Albatross was once released 3,200 miles away from its nest in the Midway Islands. It was back home in ten days.

  The migration of birds is a thing too wonderful.

  When the angel Gabriel told Mary, “You will be with child and give birth to a son,” she had a simple question about the natural: How can this be, since I am a virgin?

  The answer had to do not with the natural but with something far more mysterious than the tern’s navigation- something, in fact, entirely supernatural: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35; NIV). That was too wonderful and Mary was silent. She had no question about the supernatural. She was satisfied with God’s answer.

1988 November/December issue Part 2

An Atheists Prayer Answered
  In his work with the World Evangelical Fellowship my brother David Howard has contact with many who live in countries where there is no freedom. In one of them he heard this true story:
  A pastor’s son in the second grade faced continuous Marxist and atheistic indoctrination in class every day. One day it went like this:
  Teacher: “Some people say there is a God up in heaven who will give you what you ask for. Let’s test that out and see if he does. We need more books, workbooks, paper, and pencils in this school. Let’s ask God to give them to us. “
  She then prayed, asking God to send these things. Nothing happened. “See, children? There is no God up in heaven. He didn’t hear us and He didn’t send anything. “
  That afternoon as school was letting out, a big truck loaded with education materials (books, workbooks, paper, and pencils) drove up and began to unload. The children called the teacher: “Teacher! Teacher! Come quickly! Here are the things we asked God to send! See? He sent them!”

1988 November/December issue Part 1

A Prayer for the Middle-Aged

Lord, Thou knowest better than I know myself that I am growing old... keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. Release me from craving to straighten out everybody’s affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom (?) it seems a pity not to use it all, but Thou knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

  Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point. Seal my lips on my aches and pains. They are increasing and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others’ pains but help me to endure them with patience.

  I dare not ask for an improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

  Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint – some of them are so hard to live with- but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil. Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people. Give me the grace to tell them so. Amen. (From my mother’s little red note book, source unknown.)

1988 September/October issue Part 4

Lord of her love life

“I’ve been married for six weeks,” she writes, “and I look back to about a year and a half ago when I read Passion and Purity for the first time. This time was different- I kept from resisting your words in this book. I thought, ‘Yes, I will bring my lovelife into submission under God’s authority!’ I began to pray to God for His will. I was not dating anyone, but I was praying fervently for one ma I knew- not with my usual attitude of lust, but with an attitude of wanting God’s will in his life, whether it be me or not. I made no advances or hints but left the relationship totally in God’s hand if He desired it. What a joy it is to say, ‘God have Your way and Your complete timing in my life.’

  “Passion and Purity changed my whole idea that ‘I deserved someone’ into God’s grace is all I need.’ I married the man I had been praying for. And I see the great value in starting out our relationship under God’s authority. We have both grown to know Him so much this year. I shared Passion and Purity with a good friend. She began to pray and leave her lovelife up to God. This resulted in a break-up, but soon after God brought a very godly man into her life. They will soon be married.

  “I’m not just saying, ‘Just follow the Passion and Purity formula and you will find yourself married.’ I am saying being in submission to God far outdoes any joy given by chasing our own whims.”

  A young man who read the same book writes, “God taught me that preparing for marriage is not so much a matter of finding the right person as it is becoming the right person. I began concentrating on my relationship with Christ and waiting on the Lord for His woman for me and His timing. It was quite a relief for me to realize that I didn’t have to date my entire Christian campus and use the process of elimination to find the right one! Not long after I had laid my desires on the altar, God brought into my life a wonderful young lady and we’ll be married soon.

1988 September/October issue Part 3

Nevertheless We Must Run Aground

Have you ever put your heart and soul into something, prayed over it, worked at it with a good heart because you believed it to be what God wanted, and finally seen it "run aground"?

The story of Paul's voyage as a prisoner across the Adriatic Sea tells how an angel stood beside him and told him not to be afraid (inspite of winds of hurricane force), for God would spare his life and the lives of all with him on board ship. Paul cheered his guards and fellow passengers with that word, but added, "Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island" (Acts 27:26; NIV).

It would seem that God promises to spare all hands might have "done the job right," saved the ship as well, and spared them the ignominy of having to make it to land on the flotsam and jetsam that was left. the fact is that He did not, nor does He always spare us.

Heaven is not here, it's There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.

"Running aground," then, is not "the end of the world." But it helps to make the world a bit less appealing. It may even be God's answer to "Lead us not into temptation"- the temptation complacently to settle for visible things.

1988 September/October issue Part 2

Prayer
This simple formula for prayer was sent by my nephew Gene Howard, just returning from mission work in Nepal.

Present my requests.
Relinquish my desires.
Accept His answers.
Yield my life.

1988 September/October issue Part 1

Recycling Discarded Babies

The abortion business thrives on what is called "freedom of choice." The tiny baby-shaped thing in a women's womb is a mere bit of tissue, not human but disposable, like a kleenex. if, however, it turns out that that same collection of cells is usable, comercially or medically, it becomes highly human. Now that medical procedures have been developed for the implantation of bone marrow, brains, and other organs from aborted babies for the treatment of disease, we are asked to ignore the glaring contradiction. Will Christians too ignore it? "The people who knoe their God will stand firm and take action" (Daniel 11:32; RSV)

1988 July/August issue Part 4

A Wife's Prayer for Her Husband
Lord, grant me the vision of a true lover as i look at                 . Help me to see him through Your eyes, to read the thoughts he does not put into words, to bear with his human imperfections, remembering that he bears with mine and that You are at work in both of us. Thank you, Lord, for this man, Your carefully chosen gift to me, and for the high privilege of being heirs together for the grace of life. Help me to make it as easy and pleasant as i possibly can for him to do Your will.

1988 July/August issue Part 3

The Saving Power of Housework

"Manual employments, especially if varied [and household occupations afford a great variety], give to children a sense of power in knowing what to do in a number of circumstances; they take pleasure in this, for it is a thing which they admire in others. Domestic occupations also form in them a habit of decision, from the necessity of getting through things which will not wait. For domestic duties do not allow of waiting for a moment of inspiration or delay until a mood of depression or indifference has passed. They have a quiet, imperious way of commanding, and an automatic system of punishing when they are neglected, which are more convincing than exhortations. Perhaps in this particular point lies their saving influence against nerves and moodiness and the demoralization of 'giving way.' Those who have no obligations, whose work will wait for their convenience, and who can if they please let everything go for a time, are more easliy broken down by trouble than those whose household duties have still to be done, in the midst of sorrow and trial. There is something in homely material duties which heals and calms the mind  and gives it power to come back to itself. And in sudden calamities those who know how to make use of their hands do not helplessly wring them, or make trouble worse by clinging to others for support." (Janet Erksine Stuart:  The Education of Catholic Girls, p.85- now out of print.)

1988 July/August issue Part 2

The Thick Darkness
(Exodus 20:21, Moses approached the dark cloud where God was. 1 Kings 8:12, "O Lord, who has set the sun in heaven, but has chosen to dwell in thick darkness...")

I thought i was walking all alone 

Into darkness immense and drear.

But where is was densest a Hand touched my own, 

And a voice spoke gentle and clear:

"Do you not think you might have known

That i should be here?

Your need is met, your way will be shown.

Be of good cheer."

(Bishop F.Houghton, China Inland Mission)

This was sent to me recently by Ann Draisey, an old friend whose husband was killed by a drunken driver in 1952. At his funeral my father handed her the above poem. " I was helped many times in reading this and thinking of the one who gave it to me," she writes. "When Ed died my whole world turned upside down. He was a stronger Christian and i leaned much on him." Ann has been widowed a second time, but says, "I marvel now at the goodness of the Lord and His care over me since that day. He is so faithful."

1988 July/August issue Part 1

A Man Moves toward Marriage

Letters keep coming from both men and women who are in a quandary about how one ought to move towards marriage. While I was sitting here, rereading some of them, a man phoned with a question about the same subject. I wonder what is happening. Why so much confusion? Here’s one of the letters:

  “I’m a male Christian who needs help. I just ended a long-term ‘relationship’ with a non-Christian girl. I made plenty of compromises those years, and by God’s grace I hope next time will be better. I read your book The Mark of a Man and was shown things I never knew before which blew my mind. I’m excited about the idea of sharing life with a girl in a way which would honour Jesus. At the same time I get scared about making bad moves, when to initiate, and financial fears about supporting a family if I’m a missionary, which at the moment I’m being directed to. These things may seem silly but they’re real to me. I only ask that in future Newsletters you could address some issues which would benefit us guys who see marriage as a blessing and not as years of imprisonment.

  No, the question does not seem silly to me- far from it. They are vital questions, and I’m glad there are men to whom they matter enough to pray about and ask counsel for.