For many years, our best seller at conventions has been Hymns for Family Worship, which has 100 hymns along with their histories and piano accompaniment. Now there are 25 more hymns to add to your collection. For a limited time, these are available for 10.00 at the booth of a convention, or 13.00 including postage. You will receive the hymnbook plus a CD with the musical accompaniment. Click here to take a peek at our newest resource for your home.
Or navigate to Building Faith Families and select “Books” to see the 25 Hymn supplemental edition as well as the Expanded Hymns for Family Worship, which now has 125 songs to enhance your worship times. You can examine both books by clicking on the black box which says Learn More and then the PDF icon, to see the contents of the books.
Never Alone in Grief
In our social media culture we post lovely pictures of vacations, birthdays, weddings, anniversary dinners, and other special events. We are smiling and well dressed. This medium allows us to put our best foot forward. Often when we do meet in person, we continue to smile, say we are fine and focus on the positive aspects of our life. Life appears good, even if we are not.
It is difficult to be real and vulnerable when we are hurting. It takes courage to acknowledge that we may need help or at least a hug and a compassionate tear. There is a popular lie, “Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.” This is not true for followers of Jesus, those that have been adopted into the family of God. We are never alone. Nor when we weep, do we weep alone for when we suffer He suffers with us. This is the truth.
Jesus did attend a wedding in Cana. However His nature is not to party and celebrate as much as it is to walk with the hurting, the contrite, and the poor in spirit. Consider this picture of Jesus in Isaiah 53.
“He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as One from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:2–5)
Since this is the month of March, I am reading in Numbers. I have been traveling with my forefathers out of Egypt and am now in the wilderness, having my daily bread and water supplied supernaturally by God. Sadly, even with all this loving care that God has lavished upon us, the nation of Israel is whining and complaining. Yet God was still good and in His pity, continued to lift them up and carry them.
“In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” (Isaiah 63:9)
God is good all the time. He is especially near when we need Him the most. When our family was gifted with a special needs son, we were presented with unique challenges way beyond our comfort zone. Even though I had made it a practice to read through the Bible each year, for the next year and a half, I planted my tent in the Psalms. I read them over and over. I found solace in passages such as these.
“He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from him; But when he cried to Him for help, He heard.” (Psalm 22:24)
“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in Your bottle. You have recorded each one in Your book.” (Psalm 56:8)
“Jehovah upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.” (Psalm 145:14)
Because of our new normal, we moved to a different state and attended a new church. As was my habit, I would attend church twice a week. I found that it was not difficult to fake it on Sundays. A few handshakes, some smiles, and then head for the car. However Wednesday nights were deeper, had a smaller attendance, and I found it tough to put on a smiling fake face. When I was particularly hurting, I would sit in the narthex so I could hear the meeting but not have to answer queries about how I was doing, for I simply did not know. I was hurting, but unable to articulate my emotional or spiritual condition.
One day I was reading in the Psalms, and encountered Psalm 55:22. The living Word of God not only illuminated my condition, it provided the solution. “Cast your burden upon Jehovah, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.” (Psalm 55:22)
As I read that verse, I recognized that the reason I did not want to open up and tell people how I was faring, was that I might fall apart, like Humpty Dumpty. Yet in this one verse, God provided fresh hope and a lifeline. He said that if I cast my burden (put it in His lap) on Him, He would hold me, sustain me, and promised I would not fall apart! I made an appointment with God for the combing weekend, closed the door to the bedroom, knelt by my bed, and poured out my heart with tears. God met me and I arose and that morning began to heal.
He was very present in my distress, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)
He was near when I was broken and crushed. “Jehovah is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18) He heard me, healed me, and bound up my wounds. “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3)
Jesus Weeps
One of the shortest and most meaningful verses in the Bible to me is found in John 11. A teenager taught me about this passage at her high school graduation. I was the speaker, and had the privilege to listen to parents and graduates share meaningful experiences. It was a small group and parents of the graduates were asked to share their child’s favorite verse. One mom didn’t know what to share, and asked her daughter her favorite passage. Her teen responded, “Jesus wept.” The mom thought she was joking, rolled her eyes, and asked her not to kid around. Her daughter looked at her and said deliberately, “Mom, the Creator of the Universe wept.” I have never read that passage the same since that day.
“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept.” (John 11:33–35)
Alone but Not Alone
On one of the most painful and loneliest days of my life, I got into my car and sat not knowing where to turn or what to do. I prayed desperately, “Oh God help.” I looked up through the moonroof and sensed God looking at me. As I did, this passage went through my mind, “to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2) God was with me. He saw me and my distress.
Another similar verse that amplifies this insight into our Heavenly Dad, “Thus says the One Who is high and lifted up, Who inhabits eternity, Whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” (Isaiah 57:15) God is always near. He has promised “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
Burden Bearer
We have seen and experienced the care and support of God. “Blessed be the Lord, Who daily bears our burden, the God Who is our salvation.” (Psalm 68:19) We now have the opportunity to support and bear the burdens of each other. Or as Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
The day I got into my car, and looked through the moonroof to see God looking at me, began a difficult season of my life. After a few weeks trying to endure myself, I finally reached out to brothers and sisters and asked for help. They responded wonderfully. They called, they prayed, they reached out. They sat with me and walked with me in my grief. They fulfilled the law of Christ. Paul wrote to the Galatian believers, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2)
I dug a little into the Greek to understand the root words for “bear” and “burden.” Bear is from βαστάζω which means to carry or support. It is the same word used in Matthew 8:17, “This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘He (Jesus) took our illnesses and bore our diseases.’”
Burden is from ἀναπληρόω which means to fulfill or complete the measure of. Galatians 6:2 is clear and straightforward. We are to carry, support, and bear the burdens or our brothers and sisters, just as Jesus did, and is doing. This is our Jesus, the man of sorrows, Who is intimately acquainted with our grief, and Who is carrying our burdens. For this and many other reasons, I love Him.
Hoping to be a burden bearer like Jesus,
Steve
Upcoming Events
For those in Wisconsin I hope you will consider attending the Homeschool Convention in the Dells March 21-22.
April 11-12 I will be in Peoria, Illinois for the PAACH Homeschool Convention.
Minnesota is the next stop. The MACHE Conference is in Duluth May 15-17.
Podcasts
As you can see from the list below, I have been doing a series on rebuilding our understanding of God according to Scripture. I search God’s Word to see what God says about His nature and character. Podcast 442 begins a new series on the basics of our faith beginning with the blood of Jesus.
Recently Posted:
437 God Our Redeemer
438 Humble God
439 Jesus the Man of Sorrows
440 The God Who Sees
441 Jesus the Savior
442 The Blood of Jesus, part 1