He is faithful.

Posted on March 24, 2016 by Sara McKeefer

Hard to believe it’s been six years since I wrote this. How my world has changed, but that’s another story for another time.

Feb. 22, 2010
So this a.m. in the midst of checking out the news online before getting started on the multitude of writing I have to do this week, my mouse quits working … splat! nada! no mouse trails when I move it back and forth or in circles, nothing! So being the techie cretan I am, I wake my son Darin up (and I feel bad about it too!), but he groans a couple of times and emerges from his man cave to help his panicked mother, who by this time has managed to push ctrl-alt-del and has that weird screen up but can’t shut down the computer and is further panicked.

Darin sits down to undo my failed attempts at making this contraption work but this time, can’t do it … it’s stuck and won’t go anywhere, but he does manage to get the computer to shut down and disappears back into the darkness where, hopefully, his mother won’t disturb him again.

I fix myself another cup of coffee and wait patiently in front of the computer while it comes back up but, of course, with me at the helm the mouse is still dead. I manage to push ‘mail’ on my keyboard, but Outlook, not Yahoo comes up, and naturally, I am stumped.

Then I hear his door open and listen as he rummages in the junk drawer in the kitchen before returning to his mother, who is telling him that it still won’t work and she is going to have to go to Staples (in this bad weather, I’m thinking) and get another mouse … as he picks up the mouse, opens the battery compartment, inserts a new battery and brings my mouse back from the grave.

As I continue apologizing to him for not thinking of the battery, Darin pats me on the head and says “That’s okay, mom — it took me awhile for my fuzzy brain to work too” and disappears once more to the other end of the house.

So you’re probably wondering why, with all the work I have to do, that I’m taking the time to write all this down to email to you. Here’s why… there are a couple of lessons for all of us in this. The most obvious lesson is never to overlook the obvious, which means you first have to identify the obvious.

How many times do we do this? Yes, I had asked God in the midst of my panic to help me, but it seemed that He hadn’t, because I had jumped to worrying about having to drive in this weather to Staples! It took God nudging Darin with the obvious when I was too busy worrying to even think of the obvious.

The second lesson is I need to be more like Darin. He was willing to wake up from a deep sleep to try to help, and he knew he didn’t have to either. He could have stayed in bed, and I would have just waited until 9 and driven up to Staples to explain my mouse problem to some young guy, who would have wisecracked, “Did you check the battery?”

But Darin responded to my apologetic plea, because, well, that’s just in his nature. And, even when he himself was stumped and returned to his room, he was still thinking about my problem.

So, I’m going to get back to my writing, and you’re going to get on with your day, and God probably is going to personalize all this to your life, if He hasn’t already done so.

He is faithful … wow, is He faithful! And He loves us with an everlasting love! Did you hear that? An everlasting love! It will not end! We are caught up in His arms at the moment we believe and He never lets go!

We may squirm to free ourselves from His grasp to do things our way. We may even forget He has a hold on us. We may get so wrapped up in ourselves and our own troubles that we don’t hear His voice. We may even think He doesn’t care … or worse, has failed us, but, Praise His Holy Name, He holds on to us, waiting for the moment we will realize with the clarity that only He can give, that we are there, safe and secure, in His arms!

Hallelujah, He is Lord! And He’s waiting.

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Sara McKeefer

I posted this on my Facebook page this morning: Pray for Brussels, for those injured by the attacks, for the families of those who lost their lives, for the rest of Europe, which is on high alert because of the possibility of other attacks, and for our own country that seems to have grown complacent.

And then I got to thinking about 2 Chronicles 7:14, which is the scripture Christians seem to use the most to call the Church to pray for our country. But have you ever read it in context?

The Lord Gives Solomon a Promise and a Warning
After Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple and the royal palace, and accomplished all his plans for the Lord’s temple and his royal palace, the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and said to him: “I have answered your prayer and chosen this place to be my temple where sacrifices are to be made. When I close up the sky so that it doesn’t rain, or command locusts to devour the land’s vegetation, or send a plague among my people, if my people, who belong to me, humble themselves, pray, seek to please me, and repudiate their sinful practices, then I will respond from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. Now I will be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place. Now I have chosen and consecrated this temple by making it my permanent home; I will be constantly present there. You must serve me as your father David did. Do everything I commanded and obey my rules and regulations. Then I will establish your dynasty, just as I promised your father David, ‘You will not fail to have a successor ruling over Israel.’

“But if you people ever turn away from me, fail to obey the regulations and rules I instructed you to keep, and decide to serve and worship other gods, then I will remove you from my land I have given you, I will abandon this temple I have consecrated with my presence, and I will make you an object of mockery and ridicule among all the nations. As for this temple, which was once majestic, everyone who passes by it will be shocked and say, ‘Why did the Lord do this to this land and this temple?’ Others will then answer, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors, who led them out of Egypt. They embraced other gods whom they worshiped and served. That is why he brought all this disaster down on them.’”

The message is sobering. I don’t think the majority of Americans appreciate ‘sobering’ messages. It’s just not in our DNA, which is more about the good guy winning, getting the pretty girl, and riding off happily into the sunset.

I used to think like a lot of Christians do that America isn’t mentioned in the Book of Revelation, until I read about the church in Laodicea in the 3^rd chapter.

“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write the following: “This is the solemn pronouncement of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the originator of God’s creation: ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth! Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, and need nothing,” but do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked, take my advice and buy gold from me refined by fire so you can become rich! Buy from me white clothing so you can be clothed and your shameful nakedness will not be exposed, and buy eye salve to put on your eyes so you can see! All those I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent! Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me. I will grant the one who conquers permission to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Hmm… If John was referencing the present-day Church, particularly in America, then, at the very least, we’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do! And even if he wasn’t specifically talking about the Church today, John’s description should be a little too close for comfort!

Seriously, is there any question as to whether or not the Church in America has grown soft? We ARE the Church! Look around you, and don’t forget to look within too. Have we become as self-obsessed as the society we live in, only concerned about what affects us personally and/or our churches corporately? Do we as individuals and as organized groups of Christians have poor and unhealthy behaviors and attitudes, which, by the way, is the very definition of dysfunctional? Is that perhaps why so many groups of believers have become ineffectual, no longer able to attract people to fill the pews, much less want to know the One who died for them?

Are we more concerned about how we look to the world on the outside than how we look to God on the inside? Are we buying into the lie that looking thinner, younger, prettier/handsomer, wealthier, and even more spiritual—is what’s really important in this life?

For the record, our priorities do matter to God. It really does all comes down to what our primary focus is. What do we put first? Knowing God or knowing others? Hearing from Him or hearing from others? Talking to Him or talking to others? Looking good for Him or looking good for others?

We talk a lot about what we’re sick and tired of these days, but I find myself wondering what God might be sick and tired of. I think His list has little to do with ours and is a whole lot longer too. Do you suppose God might be sick and tired of us—so sick of our self-obsession that He’s about ‘to vomit us out of His mouth’? Personally, I think He might be getting close.

There’s only one way to win, to overcome, and it will come when, individually, we Christ-followers are willing to humble ourselves before God, confessing and repenting of our sin, and seeking to please God instead of self or others. It is then and only then, when the spirit of humility invades our hearts that He will forgive us and heal our land.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, because “to whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12:48) Are you up for it, every single day of your life and not just for a few hours each week? If you are, this would be a good time to read 1 Timothy 4, especially verses 11-16, because Paul pretty well sets out what we have to do.

“Command and teach these things. Let no one look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in your speech, conduct, love, faithfulness, and purity. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.Do not neglect the spiritual gift you have, given to you and confirmed by prophetic words when the elders laid hands on you. Take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that everyone will see your progress. Be conscientious about how you live and what you teach. Persevere in this, because by doing so you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.”

Therein lies the test questions for each of us:
* Am I setting an example for other believers in my speech, conduct, love, faithfulness and purity?
* Am I studying the Word of God and encouraging and teaching others about Christ?
* Am I neglecting the spiritual gifts God has given me?
* Am I focused on what God wants me to do to the extent others notice and want to do the same?
* Am I conscientious about how I live and what that says about my relationship with Christ?
* Am I ‘at it’ for God and ‘in it’ until the end?

We can do nothing without God, but with Him, we can change the world, because with God, all things are possible.

Mark 10:23-27 reads: Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but not for God; all things are possible for God.”

I am assuming that you, too, would like to see our world, and particularly our country, change for the good. It won’t happen by electing a new president. We should know by now what putting one’s hope in a man who promises hope and change produces. The kind of change we really need will only happen as we humble ourselves and put our faith in the Person of Jesus Christ.

It really is up to us.

If you wonder how to be ‘at it’ for God and don’t know who to ask, you will find what you need to begin pursuing the only life worth living at this website: http://www.gospelway.com/christianlife/change_yourself.php

However, please don’t stop there. Ask God to bring Christ-followers into your life who are taking seriously the Great Commission that Jesus gave us in Matthew 28:18-20: Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

My brother, Ronnie…

Image

Leaves set free by rustling winds float down through blue sky to the green carpet below, splashed with crumpled bits of gold, red and brown. Whirlpool-swirls form and just as quickly blow themselves out, adding further evidence of autumn’s glory to the scene outside my window….

I am a child running down the steep hill at Francis Slocum State Park, my papoose doll flying as fast as I can run in a vain attempt to keep up with the ragged rush of pretend-Indian children fleeing from the settlers who are making their way up the other side of the hill–cap pistols drawn, stick rifles raised in anticipation of the Miami Indians lying in wait for them.

My brother runs out and grabs me, pushing me behind the sassafras seedlings where the warriors, along with their women and children, are waiting to ambush the enemy now cresting the hill. Heart pounding, I press myself to the carpet of leaves, head raised just enough to peer through the tribe’s tangle of skinny legs to see the settlers advancing from tree to tree in a fruitless effort to see and not be seen. Blue jays scream overhead as they move into the small clearing, blind to the pounding hearts that wait, concealed from their searching eyes.

A sudden rustling from off to the side, and they turn as one to see an almost unheard of spectacle–a large doe crashing through the brush across the hill. Laughing in relief, the settlers do not hear the low bird-call signal before the blood-curdling war-cries of jean-clad boys with bandanna loin cloths who surround them, merrily snatching their guns in the gathering darkness.

A call, accompanied by another and another and another echoes up through the woods. “Ronnie Lee… Carolann… Sara… Tommy… Sam… Rita… Time to go!”

“Race ya’,” someone yells. “Last one to the parking lot is a rotten egg!”

Out-distanced, I slow down to walk the last gentle slope and grab the hand of my brother, who is waiting for me.

Ronnie's keepsakes Small bits of a life gone way too soon decorate a shelf in my bookcase, and it seems so odd to have only these mementos plus a fully complete Erector set that still looks ‘too good to play with’ some 60+ years later as the only physical reminders of my brother. But then I do have the wealth of memories of the kindred spirit I built stone dams with and swam beside in the rain-swollen creek, returning again and again to catch bluegill and catfish at the deep fishing hole in the woods.

Every inch of the farm was our playground. The haymow where every summer we built a hidden fort of bales, secret to everyone but Daddy; the long chain swings in the mulberry trees where we played ‘what if’ on long summer afternoons; the basement where we played roller skate tag in the winter, the bins in the granary where we developed our circus act by walking on the edges of the bins, whether full or empty. We believed in each other’s dreams of traveling as far as it would take to find the families who gave us away and the brothers and sisters we imagined we might have.

My brother would have been 74 today. It’s been 44 years since a crazed wife he moved halfway across the country to get away from hunted him down and shot him. Yes, shot him and then got off scot-free because charges were never filed, even though the authorities thought it should have been otherwise. Perhaps if Daddy had been alive, it would have been different. The news came three days after Christmas that my brother would come home one last time.

The news of his death did make it back to our hometown–despite no announcement, no wake, no funereal words of comfort, just clicking tongues and a prayer before we followed the hearse to the cemetery and watched his casket descend into the earth he loved. I will never forget that day because of the stark reality of my anger because no one there had ever bothered to know the little boy who came to live with us at four years old–a package deal along with me because he needed a home where he would be safe from foster parents who left scars on his head.

So he came to live with us and left this world just 30 years later with no scars that anyone could see. I don’t know what my brother might have been one day; but then I don’t need to, because he’ll always remain the brilliant, kind, savvy boy, with the wry sense of humor and slow smile that he had always had, like that day and many others when we roamed Francis Slocum’s hills.

You died for me…

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Sara McKeefer

You died for me,
I whisper into this silent morning,
You died for me.
You took my sins on your shoulders
and paid the ransom
that I might walk free.
I scarce can take it in,
Your sacrifice
intentional
without measure
irrevocable
unending.
I look at my horizon
concealed by clouds
and wonder at what You did
willingly, for me.
You could have called 10,000 angels
but you looked at me.
You saw me.
You knew me
and said “It is finished.”
Three days you were there
for me.
There is no way to pay you back.
Oh but there is, I hear You say.
“Go and do likewise,
go into all your world,
make disciples
teaching them to obey my commandments
and I will be there with you
until the end of the age and beyond.”

06-09-2015

Sometimes, God…

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Sara McKeefer

Sometimes, God has to take us beyond our four walls and put us in a place where our path crosses someone else’s who, like Peter, has been unshackled from man’s constraints by a quake of such spiritual magnitude that the very walls that are obstacles to freedom are leveled by the uncompromising Word that proceeds from his mouth.

I have heard Kyle Lance Martin speak before thousands, and I have heard him ignite–with as much passion–the dying embers of hope in a solitary person. I have seen the passion of this man, who leaves home and wife and children to go into all the world where people are bound by unbelief, tradition, misinformation.

I have heard him offer hope to a woman who learned to pray as a child while hiding from an abusive father and now flees from an abusive husband.
I have seen him show up and give a woman a reason to believe again in a God who loves her despite the ill-chosen words of her desperate plea just hours before.
I have seen him lead with humility those who lead others, purposely sharing the vision of bringing revival to their community, their area, their state–not through one man, one church or one denomination but through the Body of Christ working together.
I have seen that his passion for souls is not diminished one iota by someone spitting expletives at him.

Sometimes, God even says to look beyond the Peters of this world and just be one.

Note to reader: Check out http://www.reviveindiana.org/ and be encouraged.

You have today…

Image

The blue white of winter’s early morning extends its comfort
like a monochrome blanket, protecting me from threatening elements
that have the power to maim and kill.
I am at once both life and death, alive to the potential before me,
dead to the spent behind me. Does it matter what transpired yesterday?
In God’s scheme of things, does it really?
Forget not the former days, its lessons learned in reality’s grip.
But do not hold on, let it go to Me, I hear You say.
You have today, a day of promise, unknown to you but known to Me.
Take from My hand all that you will.
Take from its bounty before you, until
the dawn of tomorrow breaks forth from My hand,
revealing the strength that allows you to stand.
Take from this day promise fulfilled.
Open your heart and let it be filled
with all that I am and forever will be,
Lord of your day for eternity.
Father, fill me this day with Your love unabated, that it cannot help
but spill over and onto the lives of those I touch.
Use me as a fountain to refresh the weary with life-giving water
that cannot be contained in the cistern of Your love.

02-17-2015

A cookie sort of Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Sara McKeefer

I wish Christmas gifts were defined as ‘cookies of any shape, size and flavor’ to include:

Grandma Powell’s iced honey cookies
Darin’s oatmeal chocolate chip
Ruth’s lemon bars
Jacquie’s shortbread
Mary Catherine’s butterscotch bars
My own buttery sugar cookies
Vera’s banana raisin oatmeal
Mother’s refrigerator cookies

One bite and I would be there, watching:

Grandma rolling the dough and me cutting the rectangles in her tiny kitchen
My son making the dough into balls and giving me one with a smile
Ruth opening her cookie containers in the church foyer
Me diligently watching Jacquie’s cookies so they don’t brown
Mary Catherine passing the plate laden with scrumptiousness
Cookies cooling just enough to enjoy a warm one with a glass of milk
Carolann stirring up Vera’s recipe and sneaking me a spoonful
Mother wrapping cookies in wax paper for me to take to Daddy in the field

Yes, cookies would be quite enough for me for Christmas.

Growing up…

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Sara McKeefer

God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in a crisis they are the ones upon whom He can rely. ~ Oswald Chambers

For approximately 25 years, I’ve been reading the same book almost every morning. More than anything, it has been responsible for my growing up in the reverential awe and admonition of the Lord. That last part is a mouthful, but that’s what growing up in the ‘fear of the Lord’ means. The book is Morning & Evening Devotions with Oswald Chambers, which comprises two books, My Utmost for His Highest and Daily Thoughts for Disciples.

I was one of those kids who loved Jesus from an early age. My favorite song as soon as I learned it, probably at four years old, was ‘Jesus Loves Me,’ and somehow even at such a tender age, I began to believe it. So it was only natural that I would respond to an altar call at our church when I was six. From that time on, I came to understand more and more about how Jesus loved me, mainly from my Sunday school teachers.

My family went to church every time the doors were open, but, until I was 12 and received my own Bible, no one read the Scriptures in my home except on Christmas Eve. That’s not an indictment, just a fact. Mother’s Bible was precious to her, so it was kept on a shelf in the living room unless she had to prepare devotions for a club meeting or if it was Christmas Eve.

However, that was not the case at the home of my grandmother, who read the Bible every day and often would read it to me when I was at her house. I faced some harsh realities as a child, but because of my relationship with Jesus Christ, those hardships only drew me closer to Him. And, in the process, though I was still a child, I began to grow in my understanding of God–and in my faith in Him.

Please know, I am not saying my childhood was dreadful. It wasn’t. I grew up on a farm with an older brother and sister, and a dad who was an encourager and advocate, so there were times of laughter and fun as we explored woods, creek and barns with the freedom few kids enjoy nowadays. There were, however, big challenges of discrimination because we were adopted–even from those who were supposed to love us–as well as harsh discipline by a mother who had been raised with the ‘spare the rod, spoil the child’ mentality. Couple that with her fear that we three kids might somehow disgrace her by what others might judge as merely childish behavior, and unreasonable discipline was bound to become the norm at our house.

My life as a kid growing up in the 50s and graduating in the early 60s was pretty normal for a kid raised on a farm in Indiana. Field trips and concert band in the fall, pep band and basketball games in the winter, band contests and track in the spring, and instrumental lessons in the summer, along with Bible School and church camp, swimming at Matter Park, day trips to places like Lake Maxinkuckee and Mounds State Park, and frequent Sunday afternoon picnics at Francis Slocum. Around home, there were always chores to do–chickens to feed or butcher, eggs to gather and clean, gardens to weed, produce to can, and 4-H projects to work on–all before we could go fishing, climb trees or read.

Although we were maturing physically, in many ways we weren’t really growing up, mainly because of my mother’s fear of letting us make our own decisions, and, likewise, learn from the consequences of our choices. I was married at 19, because that’s what most girls did, continued with college, and had my first child at 23. However, it wasn’t until I began to face the experiences of my childhood in the Light of God’s Word that I even began to grow up emotionally and spiritually.

In Genesis 22:2, God’s promise to give Abraham a son has been fulfilled, but God tests Abraham: “And He said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and get you into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”

God’s command (to Abraham) is,“Take now,” not later, Chambers writes. It is incredible how we debate! We know something is right, but we try to find excuses for not doing it immediately. If we are to climb to the height God reveals, it can never be done later—it must be done now. And the sacrifice must be worked through our will before we actually perform it.

“So Abraham rose early in the morning…and went to the place of which God had told him” (Genesis 22:3). Oh, the wonderful simplicity of Abraham! When God spoke, he did not “confer with flesh and blood” (Galatians 1:16). Beware when you want to “confer with flesh and blood” or even your own thoughts, insights, or understandings—anything that is not based on your personal relationship with God. These are all things that compete with and hinder obedience to God.

Please listen carefully. There are some of you who are right where Abraham was. You know what you should do, but you’re trying to find excuses for not doing it immediately; and all that stands in the way of you obeying God is your will. You can think and think and think about what you know you ought to do, and you can talk and talk and talk it over with others, but just know that all of your thinking and talking puts the focus on what you want and not on what God wants.

Remember the story of Jesus sleeping in the boat as the storm rages? Even though Jesus said they were going to the other side of the lake, when the storm came up, fear rose up in the disciples, and they woke up Jesus. Listen to this from Chambers’ Daily Thoughts for Disciples:

When we are in fear, we can do nothing less than pray to God, but our Lord has the right to expect of those who name His Name and have His nature in them, to have an understanding confidence in Him. Instead of that, when we are at our wits’ end, we go back to the elementary prayers of those who do not know Him and prove that we have not the slightest atom of confidence in Him and His governing of the world. He is asleep–the tiller is not in His hand, and we sit down in nervous dread. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in a crisis they are the ones upon whom He can rely.

1 Corinthians 13:11 says, “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.…”

What childish things are you refusing to abandon? Are you taking responsibility for your choices? Are you insisting on your will, or do you want His will?

You can hold tight in your fist what you want, but just know this: If you hold onto what you want, ignoring what He wants, yet praying for His will to be done, God will pry open your hand and remove it from you–and with a whole lot more pain and trauma than if you just willingly open your hand and surrender to His will.

Prayerfully… Sara

In the stillness…

Posted on October 16, 2014 by Sara McKeefer

In the stillness of this autumn morning, a single leaf falls,
let loose from the mooring that birthed it, gave it life.
In abandon, it falls to take its place on the carpet below,
no longer one alone but one of a myriad, its identity seemingly lost.
But it is not lost.
It is seen by the gaze of the Creator-God Who knows even now
if it will be gathered to burn in the pungent fire
or find its place on the fertile soil of tomorrow’s garden.

Sara McKeefer, October 16, 2014

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