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A Five-Minute Portrait of God’s Providential Means

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book cover of Not by Chance by Layton TalbertHave you ever had your portrait done at a fair or festival by a speed artist? I haven’t, but I have watched one at work. The result may not be something you’d frame and hang in your living room or pass down to future generations as a treasured family heirloom. Nevertheless, a skilled artist has the knack of capturing your most prominent features so that, in about five minutes, you have a remarkably recognizable representation of yourself.

Jonah presents a five-minute portrait of providence. Have you ever noticed the tools of providence employed in the story of Jonah, and how explicitly each incident is connected to the direct intervention and activity of God?

After Jonah’s initial disobedience to the Lord’s call (when he took a ship sailing in the opposite direction God wanted him to go), “the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea,” a “mighty tempest” that threatened the ship itself and the lives of all those on it (Jonah 1:4). Once Jonah was cast overboard (“and the sea ceased from her raging”), “the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (Jonah 1:17). When that encounter had accomplished its designed effect, “the Lord spake unto the fish” and it unceremoniously deposited Jonah onto a nearby beach.

Jonah finally made it to Nineveh. But he still balked at what God wanted to do through him, so God wanted to make a point. Consequently, “the Lord God prepared a gourd” (Jonah 4:6), a plant to shade Jonah from the heat. But the very next day “God prepared a worm” (Jonah 4:7) to eat the plant and destroy the very gift He had just given to Jonah. To make matters worse (and to make His point more keenly), “God prepared a vehement east wind” to chase away the clouds so that the hot sun “beat upon the head of Jonah.” There are a number of implications and applications of what God was doing in Jonah’s life. But our primary interest here is in God’s providential use of means to accomplish His will.

The Holy Spirit’s inspiration of the wording of this story is not accidental or insignificant. God directly, personally, and providentially employs such common, “natural” means as weather (Jonah 1:4), whales (Jonah 1:17, 2:10), weeds (Jonah 4:6), worms (Jonah 4:7), and winds (Jonah 4:8). (I know Jonah 1:17 says “great fish” and not “whale,” but I needed a w. Besides, if God providentially controls “great fish,” He certainly providentially controls whales too.)

[Excerpt adapted from Not by Chance by Layton Talbert (Chapter 7, pp. 114-15). ]

The Servant Father

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book cover of Family: The Making and Remaking of a Christian Home by Ronald HortonIt is the father’s responsibility to rule his family in a loving, considerate way while maintaining the necessary firmness. He leads in sacrifice. He asks more of himself than of his family. He leads in love. He is energetic in generosity, delighted to provide those extras he knows will please his family as he is able and to the extent he can.

He also leads in sensitivity. A wife needs continuing reassur­ance of her husband’s love and of his appreciation of her role. Children need continuing reassurance of their parents’ love and of their own importance in the family. The father leads as a pro­vider of the physical and emotional needs of the family but also of its spiritual needs, situating his wife and children agreeably in a church where they can spiritually grow and be blessed. Wise fathers are sensitive to these needs and endeavor to satisfy them.

In the family order described by Paul, who then serves? The children serve upwardly. They are charged with obedience to their parents. They must serve their parents if their parents are to serve them. The wife serves both upwardly and downwardly. She is charged with submission to her husband and with the care of her household. The father, the earthly head of the family, serves upwardly his divine Head and reports to Him directly. But he also serves downwardly. He serves his wife and children and the family in aggregate. He is charged with their well-being.

His obligation rests mightily on his shoulders. It includes more than his family’s subsistence. He is its giver-in-chief. To serve his family as he should he will need to join with his mate in seeking the help of the greatest Servant of all.

That great Servant put the question of service and status bluntly to His disciples, who from their behavior to one another needed to ponder it. “Whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:27). Jesus shamed them by washing their feet, a lowly task they would not have considered doing for one another. To resist service for the sake of status is to resist the example of God.

[Excerpt adapted from Family: The Making and Remaking of a Christian Home by Ronald Horton (Chapter 6, pp. 27–28).]

Sustaining Grace

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In my determination to sort out and simplify my life, I decided to have a yard sale. While excavating through my mounds of boxed treasures, I found a plaque that had been a gift from a woman whom my children lovingly call “Grandma Mary.” The words once again challenged my heart.

The will of God will never lead you
where the grace of God cannot keep you.

book cover of A Life Exalted: A Women's Bible Study by June KimmelI have desired to walk in God’s will since I was a little girl. Being saved at a very early age, I grew up wanting to know and obey God’s will for my life. But there have been times that in spite of my confidence that I was in His will, I felt the burdens seemingly overwhelm me. During a particularly difficult time, I was unable to define God’s grace. Yet this grace of God was what I heard would carry me through whatever I faced. I began a study—a searching—to understand what the sustaining grace of God really meant. I found many—sixty-three definitions—all of which described this commonly used biblical term. But my inquiring heart was settled when I put the various definitions into a nutshell: God’s grace is His enabling power that is given to me, His undeserving child.

Now as I read the words on this forgotten little plaque, the meaning is deeper. I realize that He’s proven it again and again in my life. I may not think He’s keeping me in the midst of the trial, but never has He forsaken me, never allowed me to be crushed by the burden He has permitted. He is there moment by moment—guiding me. Keeping me. Sustaining me. In spite of my resistance and fear. The words on this plaque are unchanged as they hang on the wall of my office. But the meaning is clearer to me now than ever before.

The will of God will never lead me
where the . . . [power] of God cannot keep me.

[Excerpt adapted from A Life Exalted by June Kimmel (Lesson 8, pp. 62–63).

Poets You Can Count On

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To be a poet—at least a very good poet—one has to be more than a little “disturbed,” or so it would seem. After all, the biographies of a number of the greats form a litany of dysfunction and instability. But such is not the case when you consider the lives of Victorian poets Robert and Elizabeth Browning.

two painted portraits of Victorian poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning
Portraits of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning by Thomas Buchanan Read/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

The casual observer might be skeptical at first given that the couple eloped because Elizabeth could not secure the blessing of her father. Robert was six years younger than Elizabeth and had significantly less income. Though sickly and frail, Elizabeth upstaged Robert in poetic reputation. Robert revealed to her that he had fallen in love with her poems before he met and fell in love with her! Nevertheless, their romance proved to be the stuff of legend—as enduring as their pens prophesied it would be. Despite their love’s somewhat difficult beginnings, the couples’ biography bears the scrutiny of curious students much better than the scandal-ridden profiles of a number of their contemporaries.

The Brownings’ poems reflect the Victorian culture into which they were born, with its strict adherence to poetic forms and strong emphasis on morality. However, their verse is not without innovation and drama. In the following two lines, from her most famous poem, “Sonnet 43” in Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth exalts both purity and faithfulness in love:

I love thee purely, . . .
I shall but love thee better after death.

Robert embraces a fortitude and optimism towards death that resonates with the Christian’s confident hope in a future resurrection. He ends his poem “Epilogue” with this conviction:

Never doubted clouds would break,
Never dreamed, though right were worsted,
wrong would triumph,
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake.

With passion and skill equal to that of their more controversial counterparts, the writings of the Brownings are a worthy and relatively wholesome consideration for young students of poetry. They bring a God-fearing steadfastness to the checkered world of troubled artists. A welcome and colorful study, they and their works await discovery by a new generation.

Links for further study:

Community Service? Not as Scary as You Think

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Mention “community service,” and some of us get weak in the knees. Suddenly all our other commitments begin to protest inside our heads, and we find ourselves thinking—if not saying—“I simply don’t have the time or the energy.” We feel guilty because we know teaching our children to give back is important, but our feelings of intimidation cause us to opt out of opportunity.

The problem could be that we just aren’t aware of the breadth of the community service umbrella. We may be thinking evening-news-making, grand-scale projects such as feeding a hundred homeless people every night of the year—an admirable accomplishment, don’t get me wrong.  But there are myriads of projects in the category of “back up” or “support” that would qualify as community service. When we place the emphasis on thoughtfulness rather than on mobilizing a large group of people or racking up hours, sharing becomes not only feasible but a valuable exercise in creative ministering.

WP-Free-Lemonade-2015Ideas of how to be a support and encouragement to volunteers already in the trenches are limited only by our imaginations. Do you know someone who delivers food for the Meals on Wheels Association of America™? Could they use a meal now and then after a busy day of serving others? Would your local fire station welcome a few gallons of homemade lemonade on a hot summer day? Do you have a regular magazine subscription causing clutter around the house that a literacy volunteer could use in an adult reading class? Are diapers on sale at a store in your community that volunteers at your local pregnancy crisis center would gladly receive?

It goes without saying that community service affords us the opportunity to let our light shine.  Even if we have only a small portion of time and energy to invest, simple acts of kindness will serve to heighten our children’s awareness of the needs around them and the rewards of being an encouragement. If the perceived level of involvement is what is scaring you away, take heart: Creativity and thoughtfulness are the real keys to making a difference.

Have you found ways to help out in your community? How have you been able to involve your children?