Letters of Hope

Dear Friends,

In my kitchen I have Butterflies!  On my walls, fridge, dishes, plants, bookmarks – and stickers for everything!

The reason I love Butterflies is that I love what Butterflies represent.  The saga of a Butterfly has always fascinated me and, since I found that the word, metamorphosis, comes from a Greek word that describes MY saga as well, I was more than fascinated;  I was captivated!  The fact that a tiny, often ugly, earth-bound, limited, caterpillar could ever become the beautiful air-borne butterfly that we all love to watch, is almost beyond comprehension.  I’ve tried to imagine what changes must take place inside that hard, dead chrysalis hanging from the branch.  It is inconceivable that it could contain anything living, and that such enormous changes could be happening inside.  Yet, in due time, that exquisite creature emerges, dries its new-formed wings, and flutters away into the blue yonder!

This transformation is described as “metamorphosis” from the Greek.  It is used  four times in the New Testament.  Both Matthew and Mark use it to describe the transfiguration of Jesus when His appearance was changed in the company of Peter, James and John on the mount.

Paul, writing to the Church at Rome, admonished them to “be not fashioned according to this age, but be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your mind…”  (Rom. 12:2)

This is the verse that captivates me:  “Now WE ALL with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are CHANGED – TRANSFORMED – into the same image from glory into glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  “WE ALL” includes YOU!  And ME!  As we behold God’s glory, in whatever form it is presented to us, it changes us.  (2 Cor. 3:18)                                                                

You see, God set out in the beginning to “make man(kind) in His image.”  He has not changed His mind, nor His plan, nor His determined purpose to accomplish this most incredible, miraculous undertaking.  As the Master Planner and Designer that He is, He is steadily and faithfully working to complete the work He began.  We are assured that God has “subjected” His creation to the vicissitudes of this Chrysalis of Time in order to develop His highest creation.  Of that creation, you and I, in a living relationship with Jesus Christ, are individual members in which He has placed His Spirit.  We have been “foreordained to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.”  (Rom. 8:29)

We are told that we are “His Workmanship” into which He is infusing His “Divine nature.”  And it is being done “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little” … “till we all come…unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”  We are promised that “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” 

“Beloved,” says the Apostle John, “now we are the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that, when He shall appear,” (and we emerge from our ‘chrysalis’ in resurrection life) “WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, for we shall see Him as He is.  And every one that has this HOPE in him purifies himself, even as He is pure.”  (1 John 3:2,3)

Something that I just discovered:  in the metamorphosis of the caterpillar to the butterfly, only the internal organs remain the same!!  That lends new meaning to:  “Wherefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new.”  Being “new creations in Christ Jesus” and having His Spirit dwelling within, only that new nature of Christ will remain, while all the old shall be done away!  (2 Cor. 5:17)

Charles Wesley put it well in this verse from his well-known hymn, Love Divine:-

Finish then Thy new creation, pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see Thy great salvation perfectly restored in Thee.
Changed from glory into glory, till in heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee, lost in wonder, love and praise.

Understanding that we are presently in the process of that grand Spiritual Metamorphosis, being transformed from earthy to heavenly, we should not then be surprised when we sometimes feel imprisoned by the circumstances in which we find ourselves;   when we feel restrained by our human limitations;   when we greatly desire to be liberated from the chrysalis that confines us;   when our hearts long for something more than our minds can define.

I have tried to express the thought in the following lines which I call “The Chrysalis of Time:”

You have confined me in this Chrysalis of Time
To work Your Sovereign will and purpose so sublime;
To give to me Your life, my spirit to renew;
To change me from within;  to make me more like You;
Transformed by Grace Divine into Your image fair,
I shall come forth at last, Your Glory then to share

So, lift up your heads and “rejoice in HOPE (expectation) of the Glory of God.”  (Rom. 5:2)

In Agape, Eulene

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Hello, again. Following the theme of our last posting, let us consider more very significant statements in Scripture concerning the ultimate ROCK: 

“…ascribe greatness unto our GOD;.  HE is the ROCK;  His work is perfect;  for all His ways are just;  a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.”  (Deut. 32:3b,4)   

We have seen this Rock as a SHADE from the heat and calamities of life, and a Source of THE ‘WATER’ OF ETERNAL LIFE through His Calvary Sacrifice.  Now there are two more aspects of the ROCK which are worthy of consideration:-   

First,  He is a refuge and a place of protection:  “The LORD is my Defense, and my GOD is the ROCK of my REFUGE.”  (Ps. 94:22;  Deut. 32:3b, 4) No human being could ever survive full exposure to the Glory of God;  no man could ever “see the face of God and live.”  But God did something very special for Moses.  He “set him upon a rock,” and “put him in a cleft of the rock,” covering him with His hand while He passed by.  What a marvelous experience that must have been – to be hidden by God and covered with His hand!!   (Exod. 33:12-23)  And what a beautiful picture of our own relationship with Him:-            

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry thirsty land; 
He hideth my life in the depths of His love, and covers me there with His hand. 

The Psalmist found in Moses’ story a blessèd promise for one whose trust is in the Lord:  “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion;  in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me;  He shall set me up upon a ROCK.”   And he prayed, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed;  lead me to the ROCK that is higher than I,”  (Ps. 27:5; 61:2)   

Many wonderful hymns have been written about the ROCK OF OUR REFUGE, and melodies composed to sing the same theme.  Many of them have been inspired by David’s psalms:            

O, safe to “the Rock that is higher than I”
My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly;
So sinful, so weary – Thine, Thine would I be;
Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee.             

In the calm of the noontide, in sorrow’s lone hour;
In times when temptation casts o’er me its pow’r:
In the tempests of life, on its wide, heaving sea,
Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee.            

How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the foe,
I have fled to my Refuge and breathed out my woe;
How often, when trials like sea-billows roll,
Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul.         

Secondly,  the LORD is the SOLID ROCK FOUNDATION of our faith, our life’s experiences, and our HOPE. David declared, “Jehovah is my ROCK – and my Fortress – and my Deliverer – my God – my Strength in Whom I will trust – my Shield -  the Horn (symbol of power) of my Salvation – and my High Tower.”  (Ps. 18:2)  

Each of these expressions describes a special aspect of our relationship with God. “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry.  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a ROCK, and established my goings.  And He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God…  Blessèd is the one who makes the Lord his trust.” (Ps. 40:1-4)            

He brought me out of the miry clay:
He set my feet on the Rock to stay;
He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, Hallelujah! 

“O, come, let us sing unto the Lord;  let us make a joyful noise to the ROCK of our Salvation.”  (Ps. 95:1) 

The metaphor in Scripture is very clear, and so we do sing:          

My HOPE is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.
On CHRIST, THE SOLID ROCK, I stand – all other ground is sinking sand! 

In Agape, Eulene 

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Dear Friends,

I have often been impressed with the pictures I have seen of the Ayers Rock, a massive loaf-shaped rock formation in the desert area of central Australia.  The Aborigines call it “Uluru” meaning “the Red Giant.”  It is about one-and-a-half miles long, 1,000 feet high, and six miles around at its base!  The flat terrain all around the Rock looks utterly barren and dry, with the temperature sometimes soaring to 120°F (49°C) and no rain for six months of the year.  I can quite imagine the relief that may be found in the shadow of that rock.

It is interesting to note how often the Scriptures refer to our Lord God as a Rock.  “There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside Him, neither is there any Rock like our God.”   “As for God, His way is perfect…For who is God, save Jehovah?  And who is a Rock, save our God?”  (1 Sam. 2:2;  2 Sam. 22:31,32) 

You will recall the miraculous provision made by God to Israel in their journeying through the wilderness.  The whole congregation had come into the desert of Zin…and there was no water!  The people began to complain.  Again!  God’s answer was to provide an abundant supply of water – out of a rock!!  When Moses struck the rock with his rod, “the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.”  (Num. 20)

In recalling the wondrous story many years later, the Psalmist sang  “(God) clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.  He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.”    And again, “He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;  they ran in the dry places like a river.”  The Prophet Isaiah, too, recalled the miraculous event:  “And they thirsted not when He led them through the deserts;  He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them;  He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out.” (Ps. 78:15,16; 105:41; Isa. 48:21)

In his letter to the Corinthian Church, the Apostle Paul draws from that incident the Spiritual truth that is applicable to the New Testament Church.  He says that “they all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”  (1 Cor. 10:4) 

From the Rock, our Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom the Church is built, flows the Water of Life which He promised to all who thirst for it.  He is the Rock of Ages from Whose piercèd side flowed the water and the blood that “saves from wrath and makes us pure.”  It was from His riven side, as He hung upon the cross of Calvary, the cleansing Stream of Salvation flowed for all.

Sometimes our life’s journey takes us through the “wilderness.”  We experience disappointments, discouragements, doubts, fears, trials and pain.  But let us always remember that our Lord Jesus is a Mighty Rock that follows us also, and provides all that we need to sustain us and encourage us.  He provides shade to relieve us from the heat of the day.  He supplies the refreshing Water of Life to satisfy our deep spiritual thirst.  He affords protection from the onslaughts of the enemy.  He overshadows us with His mighty love.

These beautiful words are worthy of deep meditation and understanding:-

Beneath the Cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand;
The Shadow of a Mighty Rock
Within a weary land;

A home within the wilderness,
A rest upon the way
From the burning of the noonday heat,
And the burden of the day.

            (Elizabeth C. Clephane, 1830-1869)

He is as “rivers of water in a dry place, and as the SHADOW OF A GREAT ROCK in a weary land.”  (Isa. 32:2)

In Agape, Eulene

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