Waiting for an Answer

Sometimes we believe that our prayers have gone unanswered when all we really need to do is wait for God to move.

When I was a child and a teenager, I attended the Protestant Chapel on the Air Force base where my step-father was stationed. A number of chaplains served the congregation, so we never knew ahead of time who would be conducting the service on any given Sunday.  Some of the chaplains were fairly good preachers, but others made me wonder why they had ever chosen to go into the ministry.

 Over the years I encountered a wide spectrum of chaplains representing every major Protestant denomination, but my favorite, by far, was an African American Baptist who absolutely believed what he preached. In fact, every Sunday morning I found myself hoping that he would be the one leading the service. One Sunday he told a story that has stayed with me for fifty-three years because it taught me the importance of waiting for God’s answer to my prayers.

When Chaplain Price was a little boy, he had wanted a bicycle more than anything, but his family was poor and could not afford to buy him one. He knew that the only way he was ever going to get a bicycle was for God to provide one for him, and he began to pray for a bicycle. He prayed fervently, but the years passed, and the bicycle never materialized.

Years later, when he was serving as a military chaplain, he arrived at an Air Force base where he was to begin serving. Since he needed transportation on base and did not yet have his car, he commented to one of the sergeants that he wished he had a bicycle. The sergeant then told Chaplain Price to come with him. He took him to a large warehouse and opened the door. To the chaplain’s amazement, he saw that the warehouse was filled with bicycles of every kind---beautiful shiny bicycles outfitted with all the bells and whistles.

“Take any one you want,” the sergeant said.

The chaplain was stunned. In relating this story he said that he knew at that moment that his prayers had been answered—not for one bicycle, but for a fleet of beautiful bicycles that fulfilled every bicycle fantasy that he had ever entertained.

The sergeant went on to tell him that the bicycles were his to use whenever he wished. All he needed to do was sign one out and keep it as long as he wished.

From that day forward Chaplain Price rode various bicycles around the military base daily, and they became his preferred method of transportation. He added that he never knew of anyone else who ever signed out a bicycle. But he did know that God had answered his prayers in a way much grander than he could ever have imagined.

I wonder how many of us pray fervently for something, and when we do not immediately see the answer to our prayers, we believe that God did not answer. I also wonder how many times, when we finally receive what we prayed for, we fail to recognize it as the answer to our prayers because we believe that too much time has passed. Part of living a successful Christian life is knowing that God always hears our prayers, but He answers those prayers in His time and in His way.

Men and women of faith have always had to wait for God to fulfill His promises: Abraham and Sarah waited 25 years for the son that God had promised them. Likewise, the nation of Israel waited for more than 400 years for the deliverer to lead them out of bondage in Egypt.  Hebrews 11 tells of the countless men and women of faith who believed God and eventually saw the answers to their prayers—although none of them received all that God had for them because He wanted them to look forward to the even better things that he had waiting for them in heaven.

If you have been praying for something for a long time but have not seen the answer to your prayers, do not become discouraged. Know that God hears and that He will answer at the perfect time and in the perfect way. And, in the meantime, keep praying.

Joyce Swann is a nationally-known author and speaker. Her own story of teaching her ten children from the first grade through master’s degrees before their seventeenth birthdays is retold in her book, Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother.   Her newest novel, The Warrior, is available on Kindle and in paperback.  For more information visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

When the End is Near

When I was twenty-five years old, my husband and I made the trip to Parsons, Kansas, to introduce our newly-born baby girl to my relatives. My grandfather was seventy-six at the time, and, to me, he seemed ancient. In fact, I thought it likely that he would die before I saw him again, and I spent as much time talking to him as possible.

My grandfather was born into a family of fourteen children, and he grew up in extreme poverty on a farm in Pleasanton, Kansas.  He left only to fight in World War I and then returned to Kansas where he married my grandmother at age twenty-seven. For a time he supported his family by working as a barber, but he took a job with the Katy Railroad as soon as one became available, and he remained there until he retired.

My grandfather never had any money. He and my grandmother bought a small house on five acres of land at the edge of town, and they fed their six surviving children by raising a huge garden and milking their own cow. Their meat was provided by the chickens that they raised and the calf and pig that they butchered each year. Life was hard.

Yet, my grandfather never said anything to indicate that they were poor. During the depression, he instructed each of his six children to bring one child home from school each evening to have “supper” with them. This was a great treat for the children who lived in town and often went to bed hungry. His only stipulation was that they had to bring different children home each evening so that they could rotate those special meals among the children in their classes.

In spite of the obvious hardships that my grandfather had endured, he never talked about his unfulfilled dreams. I never heard him say, “I wish,” or “I wanted,” or “I could have.” He lived his life simply and honestly in a straight-forward manner, and he seemed to be at peace with himself and his neighbors.

Nevertheless, I felt certain that a man of his age must have some regrets, and so during that visit, I asked him if he could go back in time and change anything about his life what that change would be. I was certain that he would say that he would have liked to have been better educated, or he would have liked to have made more money, or he would have like to have traveled to distant parts of the world. Surely, by the time a man has lived seventy-six years, he must have something he would go back and change that would have, in turn, changed the outcome of the rest of his life.

 I was very surprised, therefore, when he responded without the slightest hesitation, “I would only change one thing. I would have kept my baby from dying if I could have.” (This was a reference to the sixteen-month old baby girl who died of diphtheria).

What could possibly cause a man to be so content with a life that would appear to an observer to be completely unremarkable? I believe that the secret to my grandfather’s contentment was this: At the age of thirty-eight, he became a Christian. When he accepted Christ, he did so with his whole heart, and he never looked back.  From that time on Christ was the reason for everything he did.

My grandfather had smoked a pipe since he was eleven or twelve years old, but when he became a Christian, he stopped smoking—not because anyone told him that he should not smoke—but because he believed that smoking did not honor Christ. He never smoked again, and he never talked about having quit; it was just no longer a part of who he was.

Everything that my grandfather did was a reflection of his relationship to Christ. I do not know what he did prior to his conversion, but during the forty years that I knew him, he never drank; he never swore; and he never told a lie that I was aware of.

I needn’t have worried about not seeing my grandfather again. He lived an additional fourteen years after that visit, dying less than three months before his ninetieth birthday. He is buried in a beautiful little country cemetery only a few feet from the grave of his baby girl whose death he always mourned.

A few years after my grandfather’s death my mother and stepfather visited my family, and my stepfather began talking about my grandfather. He said that he had noticed that during the last couple of years before my grandfather died, whenever he napped in his favorite chair, he would talk in his sleep. One day my stepfather decided that he wanted to find out what my grandfather was saying, and he walked to his chair and bent his head to catch his words.

“He was praying!” my stepfather exclaimed. “All that talking in his sleep was just praying.”My stepfather was disappointed that there were no deep dark secrets to be discovered, and he quickly lost interest in my grandfather’s sleeping habits.

I, however, am blessed beyond measure to know that my grandfather was a man who loved Jesus so much that he even talked to him in his sleep. That is the best legacy he could have left me, and I hope to follow his example so that when I am seventy-six years old I can look back on my life and say with honesty that my only regret is having lost my own baby girl. If I live to be old enough to spend much of the day napping in my chair, I hope that my thoughts will be so centered on Jesus that I will talk to Him even as I sleep.

My grandfather’s name is not known outside of that small area where he lived and died, but during his lifetime he had a reputation as an honest man who loved his family and helped his neighbor. He died without regrets, and when the end was near, he drew ever closer to his Savior. I don’t know how a life can be more successful than that.

For books by Joyce Swann visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/ or like her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/frontier2000mediagroup

Joyce's blog is moving!

We are moving this blog to Joyce's new blog, The Last Frontier.  Her new blog has the same great posts dealing with family, parenting and Christian living, but we are hoping that the new name will be more inclusive for families with a variety of educational preferences.  To visit the new blog, visit http://www.frontier2000.blogspot.com/.

How Big is Your Anchor?

About 2:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 18, two police officers rescued four teens whose boat had gotten turned around on the Niagara River and were in danger of going over the falls. Because it was dark and foggy, the police officers then became lost and mistakenly headed for the falls themselves.

Fortunately, their anchor caught on rocks about 300 yards from the falls’ crest. The terrified officers were stranded for five hours before they were rescued by Canada’s Niagara Police Service. Helicopter pilot Ruedi Hafen, who flew the rescue helicopter, told the Toronto Star that it was a “desperate situation.” He went on to say, “If the anchor would have let go, they would have had no chance. They would have gone over. Such a little boat, such a big anchor. That saved their lives.”

What Hafen did not say in his interview is that regardless of the size of the anchor, if it had not been attached to the rocks, the boat would have perished anyway. In fact, the anchor was holding so securely to the rocks that later that day the Coast Guard was able to successfully retrieve the boat.

What a story! And it is a story with two heroes—the anchor and the rocks. Without the anchor it would have been impossible to hold on, and without the rocks there would have been nothing to hold onto. I believe that this is a perfect illustration of our relationship with Christ.

In chapter 6 of Hebrews we read that God has made us a promise and bound himself with an oath so that we need never doubt our salvation. “This certain hope of being saved is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, connecting us with God himself…” (Hebrews 6:19, Living Bible)

It is this hope that keeps us connected to Christ, “a mighty Rock of spiritual refreshment.” (I Corinthians 10:4, Living Bible) Those police officers, caught up in what seemed to be a situation that would result in certain death, provide a wonderful picture of what Christ has done for us.

First, He has given us hope. Without hope we cannot have faith. The Bible defines faith as “the certainty that what we hope for is waiting for us, even though we cannot see it up ahead.” (Hebrews 11:1, Living Bible) Our hope in Christ is our anchor that allows us to connect to the Rock that will save us from certain disaster.

Second, He has given us Himself, “a mighty Rock of spiritual refreshment” that sustains us through life’s most precarious situations. He has promised that He will provide for us and lead us to safety if we will only trust in Him.

In describing the police officer’s boat, Hafen said, “such a little boat, such a big anchor.” We need to remember that it is not the size of the boat, it’s the size of the anchor that matters. If that anchor is big and strong, all we have to do is attach it to the Rock, and we will be able to weather any storm.

For related posts by Joyce, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/.

Preach what you Practice—Part II

In Part I we talked about the importance of sharing our Christian faith with others. Today I want to share what God taught me about effective witnessing.

When I was in my early twenties, I spent one entire summer on my knees in the guest bedroom of our first home praying that the Lord would help me to really know Him. Consequently, He sent a series of men and women of faith into my life who helped me develop a personal relationship with Him.

Our neighbor, who was in her mid thirties, attended a Baptist church near our home, and I assumed that she was as eager as I to know Jesus better.  Consequently, I told her every detail of what was going on in my life. I was so excited about my new relationship with Christ that I told her about reading the Bible daily, and about praying for the sick, and about believing God to supply finances. She always smiled and seemed very open to everything I said. Thus encouraged, I spent the next couple of years sharing everything that God was doing in my life.

Finally, the day came when my husband and I moved to a larger house in another part of town that could accommodate our growing family, and I did not see her again. We exchanged Christmas cards and an occasional keep-in-touch phone call, but our communications more or less ceased. Then one day a couple of years later, I received a phone call from my former neighbor. She sounded very excited as she blurted out, “Joyce! I got baptized.”

I was puzzled. “You’re a Baptist. Didn’t you have to get baptized when you joined the church?”

“No, listen to me. I got baptized!”

I was now more confused than ever. “I thought you were already baptized.”

“I got baptized in the Holy Spirit!” she shouted.

My former neighbor went on to tell me that when I first began “sharing” with her she was horrified. She said that when she would come to my house she would see the Bible lying on the coffee table and she would know that I had actually been reading it. “That made me feel kind of sick,” she confessed, “but I knew that everything you were telling me was real to you, even though it made me really uncomfortable.”

My neighbor went on to say that after we moved she missed hearing all of those stories about how God was working in my life. After a while she began to look for a church where people believed the way I did. She just wanted to hear more about what Jesus was doing in people’s lives. Eventually, she came to a point where she wanted more of Jesus in her life.

A long time ago I was praying about how to witness more effectively, and God told me to tell people what He has done for me. I have always used that approach, and it has held me in good stead. I have discovered that when I share with others exactly what God has done in my life, they have no defense against that. No one has ever said to me, “God did not do that for you.” No one has ever argued any point that I have shared from my own experience. I believe that this is so because they know that I am sincere. They may not see value in Christianity for themselves, but they know that I believe it has enormous value.

If we are going to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ, it is imperative that we study the Bible and really understand how a person can be certain that he is saved. It is also important that we are able to share that knowledge with others in a simple, straight-forward manner. However, we also need to understand that no one will seek Christ unless he understands that being a Christian has genuine, tangible value in this world as well as the next.

If you are trying to find an effective way to witness for Jesus, I suggest that you share what He has done in your life with everyone who will listen. When you do, you will become one of those messengers with “beautiful feet” sent by God to share the Good News with those who have never heard it. For “how shall they ask Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?” (Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:14-15).

For related books and articles by Joyce Swann visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net/.

                                                                                                               

Preach what you Practice

Who among us has not been told since early childhood to “practice what you preach?” Certainly this is good advice. If we do not believe in our message strongly enough to lead by example, we probably need to either rethink our message or rethink our actions.

This weekend someone told me that he had donated blood that day because he needs to “practice what he preaches,” and I was struck by the idea that if this is true, it must also be true that we have an equal obligation to preach what we practice. After some further thought on the subject, I have concluded that preaching what we practice may be more difficult than its converse.

It seems to me that one of the biggest obstacles we face as Christians is sharing our faith with unbelievers. Many of us live our lives carefully; we treat others with true Christian charity, and we attempt to not do anything that will dishonor the name of Christ and set a bad example for others. Certainly, these are important elements of the Christian life, but we must move beyond those basics if we are ever to help others find Jesus as their Savior.

The Bible says: “But how shall they ask Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them….That is what the scriptures are talking about when they say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God and bring glad tidings of good things.’ In other words, how welcome are those who come preaching God’s Good News!” (Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:15, Living Bible)

For many years it was more or less true that anyone living in the United States had been exposed to the Gospel on numerous occasions. They might have chosen to reject it, but they had heard the salvation message. This is no longer true. Our society has moved so far away from genuine Christianity that many people do not even have a reference point for what it means to be saved.

One of my sons was telling me about his co-workers’ total lack of Bible knowledge. He loves to reference scripture as it applies to various life situations, and on numerous occasions had mentioned the accounts from the Gospels of the dishonest accountant and the wicked farmers who murdered the king’s son and stole the vineyard.  He had also referenced the handwriting on the wall from the book of Daniel.  Invariably, the response was, “That’s not in the Bible.”

One day my son decided that he would use the story of The Pied Piper of Hamlin to illustrate a particular situation, and recounted the story in some detail. After he had finished, one of the young women made a reference to it’s being from the Bible. “No,” my son replied, “That’s not in the Bible.”

“Oh,” the young woman responded, “I was waiting for you to say that Jesus came and saved the kids and took them home.”

Unfortunately, this young woman is typical of the absolute spiritual darkness that permeates today’s generation of young people. They do have any idea of what the Bible says, and because they have never heard the Gospel message, it all sounds like a fairy tale to them.

So, how do we reach them? In Part II I will share the method that the Lord gave me for sharing Christ with those who have never heard the Good News.

For books and blogs by Joyce Swann visit http://www.frontier2000.net/.

The Big Picture

From 1950 until 1975 a television show titled The Big Picture was aired by ABC. It was a documentary program produced by the United States Army Signal Corps showing weapons, battles, and biographies of famous soldiers. It was a sort of recruiting device for the army that really showed only the tiny picture that suited the army’s purpose of promoting patriotism and increasing enlistments.

This week I was reminded of that old television series when someone used the phrase “the big picture” as she wondered aloud whether God really has a specific plan for each of us—a big picture that includes every person who has ever lived. While the existence of God’s big picture may not seem to be of major importance, it actually touches the very heart of our Christian beliefs. If God has no big picture that involves each of us doing specific work, all we need to do is accept Jesus Christ as our savior and live a Christian life. Our responsibility ends there. If, however, each of us is a part of His plan, every day of our lives is of the utmost importance.

God’s picture begins and ends with Jesus Christ dying on the cross. That picture stretches out across the universe and covers everything from the highest heaven to the darkest recesses of the earth. Christ dying on the cross has been painted across everything that man will ever know or discover and everything that will forever remain hidden. It is painted across you and me, and we cannot escape from it.  It is a picture of love so enormous and all-encompassing that we can never fully appreciate the scope of the sacrifice that painted it.

It has been said that if you were the only person who had ever lived, Christ would still have died on that cross—just for you. If, then, we are not just part of God’s big picture but each of us, individually, is the reason for it, we can never say that what we do does not matter. We can never be content to accept less for our lives than that which God has called us to be.

At this moment our country is going through very difficult times. Many of us, individually, are also going through very difficult times. Sometimes we want to throw up our hands and say, “I’m finished. I can’t do this any more.” Sometimes we feel that God has forgotten us or just doesn’t care about our little problems. When you are tempted to give up, remember this:

The last thing that Christ said on the cross was, “It is finished!” During his thirty-three years on this earth, He was persecuted, despised, and vilified, but He never said, “I’m finished” until He had completed God’s plan for His life and brought salvation to everyone who will accept it. If He had stopped short of that, we would be without hope.

The next time you are tempted to quit, remember God’s big picture that covers the universe and includes you.  God’s plan will surely come to pass, but He has a special place for you in that plan, and the only one who can keep you from fulfilling your part is you. Take courage, trust Him, and let God be the one who decides when you are finished.

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