Tag Archives: Loving God

discipleship, Uncategorized

Learning From My Mom in ICU

RoyGLRetrSep2010dIt is Labor Day weekend.  I have joined my Dad and other family members in and around ICU since Friday.  My Mom had a brain bleed Thurs afternoon. She has been in a deep sleep broken by short periods of wakefulness with her eyes open, no speech, little recognition and limited responses.
Because of personal circumstances in my own life over the last 4 months I have been doing a Bible Study on God’s Comfort. This study has led into many passages but Isaiah 40-66 and 2 Corinthians have been central stopping points.  The question driving my reflection: “How does God comfort His children?”
Sunday I sat with my Mom and read my Scripture reading out loud with her.  Somehow I understand things differently when I also hear myself read them out loud, slowly and with feeling.
When I read Isaiah 46:3-4 I paused and almost laughed out loud —
“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb. . .
The place of comfort for us is resting in the arms of the God who made us, bears us along, carries and saves us.
I don’t remember my time in the womb of this woman to whom I am reading.  I don’t remember being ushered into this world from her body. BUT I have been blessed to worship the God who knows all those events in my life.  They happened on his watch; under his leading and strength.
Isaiah continues, “even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save.”
Now I stroke my Mom’s snow white hair and my own hair is getting more and more like hers.  I paused in my reading and with a smile (yes, a smile in ICU) I whispered in her ear, Mom our Lord God is still carrying you.
Comfort is knowing He has never left us.  He has delighted to save us rebels, not unlike our distant cousin, Jacob. He MADE, BEARS, CARRIES AND SAVES us all of our days!  What a great place to be.  It invades all of the places of this world — ICU included— with his glorious hands and love.  Comfort fills the spaces in our hearts as we give ourselves to adoring our God.
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discipleship, Healthy Leaders, Prayer, Uncategorized

How to Love God Every Day!

Robertson McQuilkin accepts Lifetime of Service Award

It was FALL 2012 — I was teaching a course at Columbia Int University entitled: Principles of the Christian Life: Ethics and Sanctification.

Robertson McQuilkin created this course during his presidency and his book on ethics and his book on the Holy Spirit came out of class handouts used with several generations of students.  I had the privilege of being one of those students in 1978.

Now, 2012, I was asked to teach the course — a double honor.  Robertson believed that ethics, what we should choose, and sanctification, walking in the power of the Spirit so we can choose well, needed to be together in one course.  As far as I know CIU is the only school that frames the teaching of ethics in that way.

I invited Robertson to come as a guest to share how he practiced his daily love time with God and to answer questions from the students at a halfway point in the course.  This 13 minute video is lifted from that class.  Enjoy — and think about your alone time with the Grand Lover of your soul.

Click Here To View Video

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