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Both in Matthew and Mark’s gospels, Jesus used the expression, “This kind goes not out except with prayer and fasting.” The occasion was a private moment Jesus shared with His disciples when He, Peter, James and John came down from the top of the mountain where Jesus had been transfigured before them. The nine disciples who had remained at the foot of the mountain had tried to help a father who brought to them his son who had epilepsy and was possessed by a demon.(Matthew 17:19-21 and Mark 9:28-29). They did not have success in healing the boy and asked the Lord as soon as He returned to them, “Why could we not cast out that demon?”

 
This is a fascinating scene to me and has been since I first heard my pastor in Baltimore, Rev. Frank Downing preach on it nearly fifty years ago. I have pondered this passage and read what many Biblical scholars opined about it. Simply put, the disciples were asking why could we not defeat the devil? Where were You and your mighty Spirit’s anointing we have felt before operating through us to heal and deliver people? What did we do wrong? Or what did we fail to do?

I have often posed the same questions to the Lord I love. Why did you not heal the one I prayed for so earnestly? In the Gospel accounts Jesus replied to these questions by pointing to two ways the disciples erred. Most directly, the Lord said, “because of your unbelief.”  But quickly after Jesus chided them for their lack of faith, he comforted them by assuring them that even a mustard seed sized faith would be enough to defeat the devil’s work in the sick and tormented. But then he added this profound statement after encouraging them to believe in His power to heal. “This kind goes not out but by prayer and fasting.” So what does Jesus mean by “this kind?”

I propose he meant hard cases where the devil was at work. To dislodge demon power, Christ enjoined the disciples to pray and couple their believing prayers with fasting.

I recently located a sermon that C.H.Spurgeon preached over one hundred and twenty years ago. He presented a reason the Lord allowed the disciples to experience failure and disappointment. This mighty  orator’s words comforted me, and I pass them on in the hope they will encourage you.

In a sermon entitled “The Secret of Failure,” Spurgeon explains that the Lord allows hard things to come along from time to time in a believer’s life. These challenges put him on his face before the Lord in desperate need of more spiritual light and power. In stirring words, Sturgeon referred to the boy from the Gospel account we just referenced, the boy who threw himself into the fire in spite of the prayers of the disciples as the  kind of humbling event that “wakes them up; they have something to deal with now that is very different from that they have had before, it is not a common fever, or even an ordinary case of Satanic possession, but it is a dreadful demoniac who is now before them, foaming, and raging, and wallowing in their presence, and altogether beyond their power to heal. This wakes them up; and the Lord permits us sometimes to have trouble in the church, or a shock in the family, that we may wake right up, and not go on mechanically with no spiritual life in us.”

The obvious lesson of this dramatic moment in the ministry of Jesus is that we need to stop and ask the Lord a question when we face strong Satanic resistance in our lives. Why can’t we cast out the devil and restore sanity and health to ourselves and the ones for whom we pray?  When we do not see the breakthrough we desire and need in our health, in our family members’ lives, in our church or community, or yes, even in the country we love, it is time then to pray in faith and to fast. Esther did just that. She fasted and asked others to join her, and the deceitful and devilish plotting of Haman was revealed in time to save the Jewish people from death at the hands of a crazed and arrogant high government official.

As Purim, the Jewish holiday that honors the faith of Esther, begins tomorrow, let us pray and put aside our normal eating and feed on God’s Word until our faith is so energized that we can say, “Mountain of devilish divisiveness and rancor that seeks to destroy our land be plucked up and cast into the sea.” Father God, bring spiritual awakening to our country. In wrath, remember mercy.

John Knox prayed and fasted while crying out to God, “Give me Scotland, or I perish.”

There are situations that more talking (even praying) cannot heal. Sometimes fasting is the only answer to our needs. Let’s fast and pray this Purim season. March 8 through 11. Let us cast the demons out of our lives and the life of the nation.

Sovereign Lord, give us America or we perish!

Summer time is dragging into the dog days of August here in central Arkansas where I now live. August is always a mixed bag. The summer months offer a relaxed schedule (good thing) played against a backdrop of extreme heat and humidity (bad thing). August heats up even more fiercely in Louisiana where I lived for most of my life after marrying Jimmy Hatcher, the Southern boy who stole my heart. One year many summers ago after ten days of triple digit temperatures,  Jim and I arrived suddenly at a place of desperation. In our usual last minute form, we made plans to travel north to escape the fiery furnace our state had become. We hurriedly packed the car with changes of clothes, inner tubes and ice chests, and set out to seek cooler temperatures and relaxing venues before school started in the fall. It was usually a matter of making the budget stretch, and so often Jim suggested sleeping in tents on air mattresses. I countered, “I see that camping trip and raise it to a quick Motel 6 weekend to Hot Springs.”

Or better yet. We responded to a postcard that came in the mail inviting us to a complimentary weekend in Hot Springs. And so, off we went with the two kids to Arkansas.The only catch was that we had to endure the long tour of the Hot Springs Village and listen to the sales pitch from our friendly host who pressed us to buy some property to which we could retire eventually and meanwhile use as a  vacation spot. We were honest people, we insisted, and promised we would indeed really think about buying a time share in the piney woods of central Arkansas. For the present, we answered the salesman, we would have to politely refuse to buy but gratefully accept our two night/three day stay in a cabin on beautiful Lake Hamilton. Oh the memories. Stolen nights in comfortable quarters on the lake. Vacation swimming and boating. Sunburns. Horseshoes. Card games. And best of all, time with family away from the stresses and demands of home and work. We did not have smart phones in those days. Thank God.

Hot Springs offers a myriad of distractions. Oops, I mean attractions.There is the $15 ride in the amphibious vehicle rigged out for tourists named The Duck. The driver with a microphone talks to  you about the points of interest around town. The spas, the springs, the wax museum, the boutiques and eateries. Then suddenly, the tour host drives the road vehicle right into the lake and suddenly the waters of Lake Hamilton lift you up and you are indeed, like your name sake, bobbing on the water like a duck. One of the places the tour guide points out once you are water born is the lake property of a famous gangster who had a secret escape tunnel out to the dock in case of raids by the FBI during the Prohibition era. For a youngster this is pretty exciting stuff, and I have to say as the responsible parents in the party charged with keeping our kids on the boat and out of the lake during the tour, Jim and I were having fun too.

Sometimes we did go on the ever-popular-with- Jim camping trip. We would make it to Lake DeGray in Arkansas or (even closer if we were really broke) to Caddo Lake just over the Texas line. We set up the tent and gathered wood for the campfire. The kids were excited, and Jim was in heaven. He often relived memories of camping trips out west with his family when he was just a boy. He happily regaled us with stories of the bear that he could hear breathing outside the tent. How his Dad had taught him to take no food into the tent and to tie up any food items and hang them high in a tree overnight. How he went exploring the camping site and nearly walked right off a cliff. These tales did not inspire courage in me, and you can ask the kids, I almost always slipped out to the car to sleep after everyone else in our intrepid family group was asleep. Jim was always trying to recapture those halcyon days of his youthful adventures. His main challenge was getting me into those joyfully recalled outdoor memories.

I am the quintessential city slicker. I grew up in Baltimore playing hopscoth on the pavement and riding my bike. For our annual vacations there was one scenario and one scenario only. We went ” down ne oshen.” Ocean City, Maryland. We stayed in motels that opened right onto the beach. At night we strolled the boardwalk and bought Thrasher’s french fries and corn dogs. There were no tents or campfires involved in these beach vacations. My early adventures did not equip me with the skill of getting excited about arriving at a campsite and setting up a tent and emptying all the articles out of the car which you had just packed in the car. I had not learned to be patient while the coals got hot enough to cook the food while everyone was starving after the long drive to the campsite. But I tried. God knows I tried.

Usually the first nights of these camping excursions really were a treat. Change of pace. Rustic settings.The smell of campfire food. I usually had imagination enough to unpack franks and beans. Jim opened a can of potatoes and cooked them with bacon in a skillet on the fire.The makings for S’mores which had been hastily purchased on the way out of town were retrieved from the car. Hey now on that first night, I could get into eating around the campfire.Also I enjoyed the lingering around the fire to tell stories and sing songs. Fun! But I had different emotions when we started the let’s get ready for bed routine. This involved walking to a restroom facility (sometimes quite a hike) if we were in a state park. Sending the beams of a flashlight ahead into the night, I stumbled my way to the facility that was crawling with Daddy Long-legs spiders and attracting moths and mosquitoes like crazy to the lights on the cinderblock building. There was a brave attempt made to potty whilst darting looks around for spiders, and then the brushing of the teeth in a disgusting sink, and then the trudge back to camp if the batteries in the flashlight had not already started to fade.

If it were a more primitive camp like Daisy State Park where Jim took us to camp when the babies were still in diapers, there were no restroom facilities. It was dark and wet because the rain had not let up since we crossed the state line into Arkansas. We had to rig an indoor potty with a large cooking pot which of course tumbled over before the night was through and sent us packing– loading the toddlers and all the equipment hurriedly in a downpour into the car for home. That was one first night that was not so good. Another first night that comes to mind  is the one none of us slept a wink at DeGray in our new pop up Jim could not wait to try out. The large black crows called out so early in the morning it was impossible to sleep and thus began the second day of camping when everyone is tired and grouchy. We had quite a few of these second days of camping in our married life. Enough said.

Oddly enough many years after these memories come unbidden into my heart and mind with the arrival of the sweltering last days of summer, I now live in central Arkansas just minutes from Lake DeGray and those crows. My camping enthusiast husband is now gone and hopefully organizing camping trips in much more beautiful climes and pest free places in heaven. How I wish I could share another miserable night with him and my now grown kids during the dog days of August.

“Pastor Jim” as so many men, women, and children called him over the years was simply “Jimmy” to me. I remember so clearly when I first spoke to him in the cafeteria line at Oral Roberts University in 1967.  “Hi, I believe you’re new on campus,” I volunteered as I extended my hand to shake his. He turned his head and focused those azure blue eyes on me as he returned my greeting.  “Oh hello. I’m Jimmy Hatcher,” he said flashing a smile and speaking with a pleasant touch of drawl. “What a dreamboat!” I clearly remember thinking.

He stood six feet tall and sported sandy hair. He was friendly and easy to approach. I found my heart “strangely warmed” to use the words John Wesley used to describe a divine encounter. I was from that moment of connecting with those beautiful blue eyes of his on the alert for other places and times when I might “run into” Jim. I discovered he was a seminary student and had just arrived in Tulsa from Louisiana at the mid semester break. He worked in the library in the evenings, friends told me. I was suddenly in need of much research assistance. In fact every night you could find me hitting the books and looking quite helpless.

Our relationship was first a friendship, and how blessed I was to call Jim Hatcher friend. He would help me with my studies, he would offer to pray for me when I was ill or homesick. He shared insights into the Bible which he obviously loved and read with frequency and even devotion. He told me about a retreat where Tommy Tyson, a much loved Christian speaker, would be speaking in Ardmore, Oklahoma and offered me and other friends a ride to the weekend gathering. I accepted the invitation to accompany him and other hungry college freshmen to a “Camp Farthest Out.”

At the retreat in rural Oklahoma, a hundred or more assorted Christians from many denominations sang choruses and listened to sermons and testimonies. We prayed in small group settings for each other. We took long hikes among the camp trails and cabins. It was a slice of heaven for me so far from home and facing all the many new academic and social challenges of life at a university. I met Jim’s Dad and Mom and his brother Craig. I also was surprised to hear that the other featured speaker at the retreat would be the Reverend James Brown from Parkesburg, Pennsylvania. This man led the service of praise and prayer on a Saturday night two years previous in his small Presbyterian church close to my home in Maryland where I had opened my heart to the Lord and asked Him to fill me with the Holy Spirit. I was so happy to see Rev. Brown, and I still remember that he delivered a powerful sermon that night called “Jesus, Friend of Sinners.”

During Rev. Brown’s message that evening I felt a profound moving of God’s Spirit in my heart. I knew I was having a divine appointment. And now as I look back on that providentially arranged service of worship, I realize God was giving me a peek into my future because six years later I would stand with this man who was sitting to my left- Jim Hatcher- in front of this minister Rev James Brown, and we would be married and enter into a holy covenant that would determine and bless the rest of my life.

Eventually our friendship would grow into a  God-breathed love and a long lasting commitment although it would not be an easy route to marriage and a new life together. Jim’s Dad would pass away in 1968 and Jim would leave seminary to care for his Mom. He would work in several different jobs and try to find his way after the sudden loss of his father whom he adored. I, meanwhile, would graduate and return to my home in Maryland in 1970 and eventually find a job and ministry position in Parkesburg serving as the youth minister at the Upper Octorara Presbyterian church where Rev. Brown was the pastor.

By the grace of God Jim and I would come together again after being separated by hundreds of miles and four long years. Jim called me out of the clear blue one day and said he was wondering if I were “dropped, pinned, going steady or engaged.” When I said “No, to all of the above,” Jim drove to Pennsylvania at Christmas of 1972 and asked me to marry him. I was speechless, but managed to nod my head in assent. God had given me the friendly blue-eyed Southern gentleman! It was all a girl come ask for.

The wedding took place in the old historic church in Chester county Pennsylvania on May 5, 1973. We would first live in Tulsa and try to make a life around Jim’s position as an admissions counselor for the university. However we both were restless and felt God’s calling to ministry on our lives. Jim would try a stint at Perkins seminary in Dallas, and I would try a secular job in real estate. During his entrance interviews at Perkins, the officials spoke of “demythologizing the Bible.” We both knew God had Bible teaching and pastoring for us. After prayer and fasting we decided to refuse the liberal interpretation of the Scriptures that the seminary offered and simply trust the precious Holy Spirit to teach us how to minister the truths about God’s love and Jesus’ grace to people. In the fall of 1974 we left Dallas and drove to my parents’ home in Baltimore where we could live rent free for a season and seek the Lord.

Jim worked as an office painter at night in Washington D.C. and used the money to pay off student loans. I soon got involved with young people and served as a youth counselor and activities’ director at Randallstown Presbyterian church in the northwest suburbs of Baltimore. We loved this period of our early lives. We sensed God’s Spirit’s anointing on us to sing and teach God’s word to youth and home groups. We eventually moved to Jim’s home in Shreveport, Louisiana when some of the leaders in the area formed a multi-faith ministry non-profit organization in the north part of the state and invited us to sing at a conference they were sponsoring at the Shreveport Civic Centre. The invited speakers gave testimony to dramatic new outpourings of the Holy Spirit among denominational churches across the nation. Jim and I sang and also gathered the children up and prayed with them while the conference speakers held forth. Many parents told us they preferred our meeting with the children where we sang and laid hands on each other to the learned speakers.

“Christian Ministries of Shreveport” became our spiritual “covering” and provided many varied opportunities for us to learn about caring for people. They offered to provide some financial support in exchange for our representing them in home groups and churches interested in the charismatic renewal. In this way we were introduced to venues for our guitar playing and singing and for our teachings about the Holy Spirit’s workings in our lives. We were like the early church. We met in homes and in rented public venues. We shared in Catholic masses and Pentecostal churches. We shared in summer camps and marriage retreats. We shared in children’s meetings and youth conferences and adult study groups. But soon our flexible life style  of travel and ministry would be interrupted by the coming of our own children.

Rebecca Christine Hatcher made her appearance in the Schumpert hospital in Shreveport on the Sunday morning of May 2, 1976. Our good friend Ed Dilworth’s father was the well respected  area obstetrician who delivered her. She was a precious pink little creature who completely stole our hearts. She was good natured and put herself to sleep easily with the help of music and recorded books. She was a singer from an early age and a reader too. In a few months after her birth, I discovered we were expecting again. This time it was a beautiful baby boy – James Christopher- who made his way into our hearts the very next May 4th.  He was born playing the guitar and making everybody smile. Not really, but it seems like it.

After the children came, Jim and I had a gathering of friends at our house, and we prayed together about starting a new church in Shreveport where the Holy Spirit would be free to move in the many gifts of His presence in the church. Tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy and words of knowledge and wisdom and discernment, healing and miracles were all desired and welcomed. It was a rich time. We incorporated our faithful friends and supporters into a non- denominational church and called ourselves Zion Christian Fellowship. At first we met in a local Doctor’s home but moved to the Smith building on the Centenary College campus in Shreveport as we grew and needed more room. We sojourned for a while at the LSU-Shreveport campus, but eventually purchased a church property on Greenwood Road in west Shreveport.

From 1979 to the year Jimmy passed away in 2002, this local fellowship of believers met and worshiped the Lord and prayed for people to be saved from sin and filled with God’s Spirit. We taught the truths of discipleship and how God has made healing and abundant life available to us in this life. We invited the local Jewish congregation to our service during the Feast of Tabernacles. We hosted tours to Israel and prayed for the peace of Jerusalem. We loved our city and always tried to be a blessing to the people God brought to us.

I miss those days. They were not without stresses and challenges, but nothing worthwhile is. Jimmy was a pastor at heart. He loved people. He  performed hundreds of weddings and dedicated countless babies. He was moved with compassion for the sick and was a frequent visitor of the sick from all different churches at the area hospitals. He was a worshipper. He could play any musical instrument but was especially gifted on the guitar. He and I led many folks in worship over the years. It brings tears to my eyes to remember making harmony with my sweet Jimmy in every possible setting. We even sang at the walls of Jericho. And shared sweet adoration of the Savior down in the dark dungeon in Caiaphas’ house in Jerusalem where Jesus was held on the night before He was crucified.

In the year before Jim died suddenly of an AVM (an arterio-venous malformaton) hemorrhaging in his brain, Jim was compelled to write down all the Lord had taught him through some thirty years of ministry about communicating the Gospel to people. He had no idea he had little time left on the earth, but he faithfully rose early in the mornings in the years of 2000 and 2001 and sat at the computer writing and editing His remembrances. He was consumed with the desire to get it all down on paper for his children and anyone else who might want to read his memories. Jim had been influenced by many ministers and teachers, but I have to say Oral Roberts was probably the strongest mentor. Jim could preach by heart “the Fourth Man” sermon that Oral preached so effectively in the tent revivals of the 40s and 50s.

Jim often shared the story Oral used to illustrate our loving Father’s heart. Jim, sounding a lot like Oral, would often tell how a little boy once carved a sailing vessel out of wood and played with it for hours in a stream that flowed behind his house. One day a strong wind blew up and carried the boat out of reach in a moment. The boy could not catch up with the boat in the swiftly moving water and was so saddened by its loss. However one day the boy was in a toy store in a nearby town and saw the boat for sale. He knew it was his very own boat because his initials were still faintly visible where he had carved them on the bottom of the boat. When the store owner heard the story of the boy losing his boat, he simply said, “You will have to pay the price I have set. It is mine now and is for sale.”

So the little boy determined in his heart to work hard for as long as it would take to raise the steep price. He did chores at home as well as for friends and for strangers, and at long last, he had saved the money for the purchase of the boat. The happy day came when the boy went and claimed his boat. As he walked home, the boy was heard to say, “Little boat, little boat you are twice mine. I made you and I bought you back.”

As you read through the memories Jim records about the Lord he served so well, please know God loves you and that you belong to Him. He made you and He bought you back. He paid the high price to buy you back from eternal separation from God by sacrificing His only begotten Son whose spotless blood paid for our sins. We have a place in the Father’s heart through the atoning love of the Son. You have a place in the Son. You always will have the place of a beloved son or daughter who is twice Your Father God’s. He made you and He bought you back.

Introductions are important and sometimes socially awkward. When you meet someone or perhaps you introduce a friend or acquaintance to others for the first time, do you struggle for just the right words? Perhaps you include in the initial phrases something about where the friend lives or hails from. Perhaps you say what they do for a living or what common interest brought you together. Looking back on life, it is interesting and often remarkable to call to mind the exact circumstances as well as the words that were spoken when we first met people who later became extremely important and even precious to us.

Consider the first chapter of John’s Gospel as the writer John introducing us to the most important person in all the universe, the God of eternity! The beloved apostle does not make small talk, but rather gets right to the point. “World” he says, “Here is the Word!” Here is the One who was with God from the very beginning and helped him create the universe. Nothing was made without Him. He is the source of all life and His life/light came into a dark world and shines. Darkness attempts to extinguish the light but the light will outlast the darkness. The Light who comes from God wants to meet and indwell everyone who has been cut off from the Light of God through the disobedience of Adam.

Next the gospel writer teaches The Word had a forerunner to announce His coming! There was a man called John whom God sent to make the introduction. He was sent into the world of men to bear witness to the Son of God who was Life and Light. Since Christ the Word that expressed the Father’s Mind was the divine agent in creating the universe, He came into the world so men and women could “know” Him and “receive” Him. Thus a new birth, a new creation, was made available to fallen people who were made for living in the light forever but who had been darkened by sin and death.

John the Baptist was not the Light but he announced the true Light was in the world. He declared that God had pitched His tent in our world and we could see His glory as he lived out His life of unprecedented “grace and truth.” John lamented that even though He came to His own people, they did not receive Him. But the Good news of the gospel of John is that “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God.” John 1:12 NKJV. Receiving Him would bring about a new birth of the spirit, not by the passion of the flesh or human effort, but by the will and power of a loving God.

Think of what a privilege it was for John the beloved disciple to introduce God incarnate to the world. His words in the fourteenth verse of the first chapter of his book recording the life of Christ are immortal and known and loved by millions of people. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among  us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Today we have that very same privilege as modern day disciples of Jesus the Messiah. We get to share the Good News. We can go tell it on the mountains. Tell it in the cities. Tell it in the small towns and in the rural settings. It is our great honor to share the Savior on social media and share Him in person. He wants to be introduced to so many who don’t know Him yet. Let’s have the manners and good graces to step up to folks and say,  “World, here’s the Word.”

Now after the opening fourteen verses we have just read and pondered, the Gospel of John says that religious people began to pepper John the Baptist with questions. They were not asking for an introduction to the Lord. They were questioning and searching for something about John and his message to discredit. The religious know -it -alls asked the Baptist, “Who are you?” “Are you Elijah?” “Are you the prophet Moses said God would raise up?” The Baptizer protested that he was not the Christ nor any of the prophets, but rather “a voice crying in the wilderness” quoting Isaiah chapter 40 verse 3.

Then Pharisees’ henchmen pressed John further and said, “Who gives you the authority to baptize if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the prophet that was promised?” Then in response to these inquiries John the Baptist had the privilege of introducing another member of the Triune God. He said, “I only baptize with water but there is One in your midst whom you do not know. I am declaring that the One upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, this is He who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Here John says, “World and even religious world, here is the Holy Spirit!”

Next day the Gospel tells us that John the Baptist was standing with two of His disciples when Jesus approached them. These two disciples were Andrew and probably John the writer of the story. John the voice crying in the wilderness points to the Lord Jesus and declares with authority, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Those two seekers of truth turned from the Baptizer to the King he heralded that day. They began to follow Jesus and the Lord turned to them and said to them, “What do you seek?” They replied “Teacher, where are you staying?” To which the Lord simply answered, “Come and see.” They followed and stayed close to Him the remainder of that day.

The next introduction in this book of important introductions is when one of the two who we are told is Andrew went to find his brother Simon Peter so he could meet the Messiah. Andrew soon located his brother and “brought him to Jesus.”  Jesus looked at Simon and said, “You are Simon, the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas which translated means ‘the stone.'” What an odd meeting this was. Jesus is drawing men to Himself and then naming them and speaking a new identity and destiny over them in His service.

The next day after Simon Peter and Andrew were brought into His circle, Christ travelled to their home town Bethsaida in Galilee where He found Philip. Jesus told Philip to follow Him and he did. Then Philip went to get his friend Nathaniel and encouraged him to come meet Jesus whom Philip said is “the One that Moses and the prophets had foretold.” He told Nathaniel that the man’s name was Jesus of Nazareth to which Nathaniel replied with a question, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip simply replied, “Come and see.”

In a little while when Nathaniel got within sight of Jesus, the Lord spoke out and said, “Behold an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guile.” To this strange greeting, Nathaniel asked how Jesus knew him or his character. Without batting an eye Jesus countered that he had seen Nathaniel sitting under a fig tree before Philip had even come for him. This word of knowledge made an impression on Nathaniel since he immediately believed and declared, “You are the Son of God. You are the king of Israel.”

Jesus was amazed that such a small demonstration of his power had won Nathaniel’s heart. He said to his newest disciple, “Because I said to you ‘I saw you under the fig tree’ you believe? You will see greater things than these.” Then the Lord went so far as to promise Nathaniel and his disciples that “hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

I love this first chapter of the Gospel of John so full of introductions and first encounters. This scene with Nathaniel and our Lord interacting at the beginning of their relationship is my favorite. Jesus reveals to this honest Jew with no deceit in his heart that He is the Messiah and that He has climbed down the ladder of his Jewish lineage and now stands in the human family as a Redeemer of sinful, wasted lives and the source of new birth and Holy Spirit infilling. He is available to Jew or Gentile, male or female, rich or poor, slave or free. He is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of all. Jesus is the ladder God showed their ancestor Jacob. He is the link between heaven and earth. Angels ascend and descend on Him and by Him to our aid.

In the spirit of this Gospel of John, let’s get busy introducing people to Jesus. You could start right where you are. You could say something like, “Let me introduce you to a download from heaven, share a link to a great God, befriend the friend of all sinners and tell you the name that is above all names. Jesus descended the ladder from heaven and offers to give you access to God in heaven. He will take you to heaven. Like Nathaniel, He sees you sitting there in front of your computer. He even knows if it’s an Apple.

Martin Luther said it well. “Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”

“Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?” The watchman said, “The morning comes, and also the night” (Isaiah 21:11–12).

During my Advent readings prior to Christmas this year, one description of our Lord in his incarnation flared off the page with fresh meaning. The character of Simeon is one of my favorite characters in the cast surrounding our Lord’s birth. The Gospel of Luke introduces this good man by stating “…and behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him (Luke 2:25).

Here was a saint whose chief occupation was looking for the Kingdom of God to come. In prayer the Lord had promised this faithful Jew that he would see the Messiah before his eyes closed in death. Simeon was waiting for God’s Consoler. On the day Mary and Joseph brought their infant son to the Temple to be circumcised as the Jewish law commanded on his eighth day of life, Simeon was alerted by the Holy Spirit that the Anointed One was in the throng that day. He soon located the holy family and took the child in his arms and blessed God for the answer to his prayers. “Lord now You are letting you servant depart in peace according to Your word for my eyes have seen Your salvation.”

There are many wonderful names attributed to the Messiah. Just in Isaiah 9:6 in one prophecy alone Jesus is called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God and Everlasting Father. There are so many others so full of  comfort and promise like Good Shepherd and Sun of Righteousness risen with healing in His wings. But somehow I had never really considered the name and role of Consolation or Consoler.

In the Dictionary the definition of the word “Console” is “to alleviate or lessen the grief, sorrow, or disappointment of; give solace or comfort.” In my own experience of losing my mother and father and my husband in death, I found few people could console me. My children were some considerable comfort because in my husband’s case, they were parts of him that were still present with me. However in the loss of my parents, I found small comfort in people as much as they tried to assure me that they had loved Mama and Papa Lou and would treasure the memories of them.

In large measure my best consolation came from the Word of God and its precious promises of the new body that they would receive like the Lord’s resurrection body and that they would be welcomed to their forever home by the Lord Himself who had promised in John 14:1 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.…

A very dear friend of mine needs consoling today. She checked on her mother earlier in the week and found her dead in her chair in the living room. What a shock and what a terrible blow to find your own dear mother already gone from her earthly body. This image of Jesus the Consoler leapt to mind. Jesus came as the ultimate Consoler.  Jesus is the One who was sent by the Father to console us.  How precious indeed. Our loving Lord makes it his business to console us in our worst losses and griefs. He is not only the Comforter but the Consoler.

Whenever I seek to console a friend who has suffered a hurtful wound to his or her heart, I remember President Reagan after the Challenger tragedy as he spoke to the families of the astronauts so suddenly snatched from the lives of mothers, fathers, children and spouses. He quoted a poet whose words soar as high as the astronauts had flown and even higher. The author is John Gillespie Magee Jr. His posthumous fame rests mainly on his sonnet High Flight, which he started on 18 August 1941, just a few months before his death in a air collision over England.

Here are the lovely verses of the poem which appears on many tombstones in Arlington National Cemetery especially those of aviators and astronauts.

“Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds –
and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of –
wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlit silence.
Hovering there I’ve chased the shouting wind along
and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.“Up, up the long delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
where never lark, or even eagle, flew;
and, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
the high untrespassed sanctity of space,
put out my hand and touched the face of God.

     Jesus came as the ultimate Consoler; only He can promise to pilot a flight to touch the face of God for each of His own. This is a consolation worth waiting for. With Simeon let us rejoice and say, “Now you are letting me (or my loved one) depart in peace for I have seen the face of my Consoler.”

As a new year begins, I ask myself “Is this a new opportunity to trust in my Father God who had led me faithfully since I burst on the scene over sixty-six years ago? Or will the prospect of this untried path produce new fears in me?” One comfort that springs to mind is a poem popularly titled “God Knows” by Minnie Louise Haskins. I have read it and passed it on to others many times as the new years have rolled over on the calendar of my life. Let me cite just a few of the best lines here.

God Knows

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”
So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night.
And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

The poem, published in 1908, was part of a collection titled The Desert. It caught the public attention and the popular imagination when the then–Princess Elizabeth gave a copy to her father, George VI who quoted the inspirational verse in his Christmas radio broadcast in 1939 to the whole of the British realm.

Please take it to heart as you return to work and your day to day duties in the household and community after the end of year celebrations. You have something -actually Someone- who is better than any physical light or familiar pathway. You have the faithful Paraclete. The Holy Spirit of the Living God. The One Jesus calls along side you and even places with in you as a Guide and Teacher.

Rest in Him and trust Him in the New Year 2016. He knows you and He knows what is to come. He will hold your hand and be your companion on the journey as well as your pathfinder. You will have the pleasure of His company and the wonderful knowledge that He who created you and knows you better than any other one is with you.  Like a Good Shepherd He has prepared the pasture where you will feed, cleared it of harmful underbrush and potential dangers. He rejoices over you with singing as you move ahead in pasturage chosen for your health and growth and to bring you closer to Him who leads you and provides for your life. Just know “God knows.” He does. He really, really does. And that is enough. Those words spoken by a king brought an entire nation through the second World War, and they will bring us through the present crises we face in the time just ahead of us today.