I live just a few miles from Amish country. On a recent sojourn there, I was amused (and a bit dismayed) by the incongruous nature of modern Amish life:

• The satellite dish on the Amish home
• The gaslights on the walls near the Japanese-built electronic cash register
• The handmade Amish furniture trucked down from Holmes County, OH by some long haul freight company, but the lack of local delivery of purchased furniture because “our horses won’t go that far”
• The handmade clothing paired with Air Jordans

It’s easy to be critical when the inconsistency is so glaring, and there is much to be admired in the fact that the Amish still live more simply than most, but I had to wonder.

What about us? How incongruous is our living as Christians in a World that hates us, desires to control us, and does a pretty good job of derailing most of us? How are we pairing the handmade work of Christ with the mass-produced worldly nature of Belial (2nd Cor. 6:15)? Or what rigid, dead legalism do we uphold when we should be living under Spirit-filled grace?

I think a large part of it comes down to models. The Amish kids model what their parents do even as we hope to model our Christian walk on the Christians we admire. I know that I keep searching for Christians who are “doing it right,” but they are painfully few and far between.

Leonard Ravenhill once said that one day someone is going to open the Bible, truly believe it, and then we are all going to be ashamed. I don’t ever want to be ashamed because I got distracted, or misunderstood what I saw or read, or didn’t even bother at all. Too much is at stake.

So how do we live congruous lives? Lives that live out the fullness of the Gospel? Lives that daily make a difference in other people’s lives? Lives so harmonious that the lost stand up and take notice?

Folks,

I just wanted to let you know I didn’t die—at least not yet!

My wife and I are playing catch-up for having put our lives on hold for several months; we have just been overwhelmed with work and life as a result.

I promise some new posts will go up soon. Till then, check out one of the fine links on the right and read someone new today!

Blessings,

Dan

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Preparing to be married eight years ago, my future wife and I discussed music for our wedding. Millions of songs, thousands of hymns, but which to choose? One hymn was certain, Chisholm and Runyan’s “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

I’m an emotional guy, but as time has unwound I find myself crying less and less. On that day in May as I stood before the woman I loved, this hymn played, encapsulating every thought I had about God’s goodness. I bawled out the words somehow. How wonderful they are! The witnesses of God’s own making, His very creation, each man and woman, all attesting to the faithfulness of the Lord—a God who never changes, never fails, who has been and always will be.

Yesterday I wrote about dust, and that we are. But even as God breathed life into the dusty bones lying strewn across a terrible battlefield (Ezekiel 37:1-14), He can take us, dead and destroyed as we are, and breathe His vital Spirit into us, raising us up and making us to stand, redeemed and ready.

God took a weeping prophet, whose lamentations stained the earth with tears, and allowed him to see that nothing and no one is too far gone for Him to resurrect. And so in his wailing, God showed Jeremiah that His faithfulness is great:

My soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the LORD.”
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.
—Lamentations 3:17-33 {emphasis added}

We who are dust, are born from dust and return to dust, have a hope. That hope lies in God’s great faithfulness. He does not cast off forever, and though He may seem far away in times of trouble, His compassion is boundless, His forgiveness limitless, and His peace enduring.

So let us praise Him! All we have needed His hand hath provided. The strength we need for today is there for the taking. His hands are open with blessings—all mine and all yours—with ten thousand beside.

Thank you, Jesus, thank you!