Oil of Zarephath

My friend, she says, is sustained day by day,
Just like the widow in Lebanon.
Polio, yes, takes all her strength away,
Health’s not what she’s depending on.
 
The widow, she scrapes, together one last potpie,
Convinced her son won’t go on living.
By famine, true, means they both will die,
Biscuits and oil are life-giving.
 
The prophet, thus says, shall put end to the fast,
With challah bread from oil and flour.
Her only son, gasp, breathes away his last,
Crushed beneath deaths’ dark power.
 
Holy man, I’m marred, sin is brought to light,
Is it your plan to kill or set free?
“Thy beloved, see, alive and alright,”
She glimpses Him from Galilee.
 
Oh Lord, we sing, how long these bitter pains?
Drought of oil while famine breaks and mars,
He will provide, trust, hear the gentle rains,

Oh Lord fill these our earthen jars.

Photo by Roberta Sorge on Unsplash

Prone To Wander

Prone to wander Lord I feel it

Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above

Prone to wander is quite the understatement. Prone to rebellion works, prone to self, prone to divination all fit. Looking back on these days I think my life like the Judges doing right in my own eyes one moment then calling out to God for help the next breath. I find however that in the midst of all my ups and downs God has given grace. I count three specific tools that God encourages me to make use of while His hand draws me back.

First I count on the Bible to renew my embers. I have favorite authors whose lives rooted in scripture never cease to inspire. I turn to Spurgeon, to Piper, to Lewis to remind me of the deep things of God, the beauty of His Son and the effect of clean, cold water to a thirsty soul. It seems the Spirit nudges me toward these along with time in the Bible and my heart aligns with true North again.

Fellowship is amazing. How God set kindred souls in place to correct and console boggles my little mind. We have acquaintances that get their Sunday worship from the television set. That is a sad state of affairs. The television doesn’t laugh with you or make physical contact. My tv doesn’t give hugs or pats on the back. The thing about friends is they provoke you to push your own envelope (‘Provoke one another to love and good deeds’). Electronic devices are content to leave you as you are or worse, encourage you in your downward spiral.

Music points to beauty that is higher than us. When sung in praise it puts mood to the grandeur of the God we worship. That is the key. Music changes my focus from me to God, from lowly to high and lifted up.

These are the graces that God has seen fit to use in my life to draw me back to him. These are the anchors that lead to hold fast and lead into the Holy of Holies.

This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary—Heb 6:19.