He Is Not Here

"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, 'Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.'" --Luke 24:1-6

C.S. Lewis on Jesus

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.

Jesus and Elijah

Passover begins tonight at sundown. Passover is a Jewish feast that is celebrated according to God’s command in Exodus 12 and 13. When God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, he sent the death angel to kill all the first born children in Egypt including the first born of Pharaoh. However, he gave specific instructions to the Hebrews about how He would save them. They were to kill the Passover lamb, apply some of its blood to the door posts of the house with a bunch of hyssop, and stay inside the house. When the Lord passed through, He did not allow the destroyer to touch the houses where the blood was applied and seen. As a result the children of Israel were saved and God commanded, “And you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever.” (Ex 12:24)

At the seder meal which is eaten on the first night of Passover there is the tradition of pouring wine and eating certain foods that have been prepared in a certain way. There are also acts that are performed according to God’s commands and according to tradition. One of those acts has to do with the Prophet Elijah. During the meal five cups of wine are poured but only four cups are drunk. There is a question in the Talmud about whether there should be four or five cups at the meal. So five are poured and four are drunk. The fifth cup is not drunk and is called Elijah’s Cup.

Elijah’s Cup is poured at the end of the meal, the front door is opened, and several verses from the Psalms is recited. The open door is an invitation for Elijah to enter the home. It is believed that at that moment Elijah does enter. According to tradition Elijah is always present when male children are circumcised. So at the seder meal Elijah is invited in to testify that all the males in the household are circumcised according to God’s command. Since only circumcised males were allowed to partake in the Paschal Offering it is important that only circumcised males participate in the Passover meal.

It always amazes me how Jesus fulfills all the Law and the Prophets. In this instance I am referring to Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me.” It sounds a lot like what happens at the seder or Passover meal, that the door is opened and Jesus comes in and eats with us. As Jesus often does He takes what God has commanded of his children and changes the meaning in order for us to understand that it was all about Him!

Not only do we see Him in the Paschal Lamb that was slain, that shed its blood to be spread on the doorposts to save God’s people, but He was also the one at the door waiting to come in and eat with us. The fact that only the ones that have been circumcised are allowed at the meal should not be missed either. Be aware that everything changed when the Lamb was slain. The apostle Paul explains it very well in Romans 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter...”

So when Jesus is standing at the door knocking, He is the fulfillment of what the Prophet Elijah comes to do. Elijah comes to make sure all the males are circumcised in order to partake of the meal. But Jesus comes to make sure all the people are circumcised in their hearts by the Holy Spirit in order to partake in the heavenly banquet. Yes, we have been passed over by the death angel because of the blood of the Lamb. Now all we must do is to pour the wine in the cup and open the door to Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior not only during this Passover and this Easter season but every day.

Copyright 2011 Gloria Fisher.

Silence As White Space

Did you ever notice that someone can mention one little idea, and your mind just takes flight? Maybe it was just a hint of an idea they had, and they share it with you, and your imagination immediately grabs hold of something and off it goes. I’ve observed that sometimes it’s what they said. Other times it’s not what they said. It’s what they didn’t say.

If they had kept talking and not stopped, the moment would have been lost. If they had laid out the whole thing before you, that would have been it. Over. Done. Nothing else to think about. But because they left space to think, your imagination latched onto something, and the ideas gushed in like a flood.

I love to visit art museums. They are a well spring of creativity. The colors are better than wine for my thirsty palette. Lines, form, medium, and color stir my right brain like a recipe for nectar. But it’s not only those elements that intrigue me so. It is also the white space on the canvas or on the watercolor paper. The white space is where the painting or the drawing is not. And where the art is not is where the imagination fills in the blanks.

The place I notice white space the most is on watercolor paintings where the artist did his or her artistic magic right up to the edge of the message and stopped. They didn’t finish the edge. They left the edge to the mind of the viewer. The viewer looks at that edge and wonders: what goes there? What would I put there? Why did the painter stop? Somebody hand me a brush, and I’ll finish this!

I’ve often thought that is why God gave us silence. He didn’t want to tell us everything. It would have left our imagination hanging out there with nothing to do. As it is the silences in the artwork of our lives are white spaces where God stopped and said, “There. Now you finish the painting.” He wanted our imaginations to come to silence, pause for a moment, and ponder what might belong in that white space. If He had told us the answer there would be no need to stop and think at all. As it is we can be creative. We have free will and experiences to draw from. We can create the painting of our life with brilliant color or with dark color. We can create beauty or tragedy. But the artwork is ours.

How do we know what the painting of our life should look like unless we stop and contemplate the white space? We must, I feel, in order to let our imaginations go to work on the forms, the colors, the message we want the viewers to see when the painting is finished. We must listen to the silence and not fill it in. We must let it stand alone and appreciate it for the rich source of creativity it is. We must leave some white space and silence in order for the message of our lives to become the intriguing and beautiful painting God intended.

Copyright 2011 Gloria Fisher.

Abiding in Him

Recently I’ve been wondering about abiding in the Lord. Am I doing it? Are you? If we abide in Him, are we aware of it or is it like breathing, it just happens. In this time of computers, iPads, 4G cell phones, social networks, flat screen tvs that let you watch 6 screens at once, how can we possibly find time to abide in Jesus?

The first conclusion I came to is that in order to abide in Jesus first you have to belong to Him. So, if you haven’t invited Jesus into your life, you should take that step first. After you are sure that you have made Jesus the Lord of your life, then you should give Him permission to change you. When you do that, slowly you’ll realize that your life is being refined for the better. What used to be important may not be so important. Your priorities will begin to line up in a more workable fashion. The old will fad away, the new will come.

When you think about the word abide, what does it mean? I looked it up just to make sure I knew myself. Sure enough it means to stay in, to continue firm in, and to continually reside in. In order to stay in and continually reside in Jesus what must we do? Do we sit and think about Him? Do we contemplate a picture of Him? Do we meditate on Him and what we know He did from the Bible? Maybe. Any of those things would be good to do.

But what does the Bible say about abiding in Him? 1 John 3:24 says, “And the one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by this that He abides in us by the Spirit whom He has given us.” Okay. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him. So what are those commandments? 1John 3:23 “And this is His commandment, that we: (1) believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and (2) love one another, just as He commanded us.”

John goes on to say in 4:12 “...if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.” That’s pretty clear then. Love one another. Not always easy to do. But it’s not a suggestion from Jesus. It is a command. Therefore, we need to take heed and be obedient. It doesn’t mean that we should be all warm and fuzzy about everybody. It means that we should want the very best for whomever we’re trying to love.

Here’s another good thing that John has to say about abiding. In 1 John 4:15 he says, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.” Does that mean confess this when you’re first saved and then never again? No! It means confess Him all the time–every time you get a chance.

How do we know that we’re abiding in Jesus? 1 John 4:13 says, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” When you hear someone say something that you know is evil, does something inside you reject it? That’s the Spirit speaking to you. When given two choices between good and evil to do, and something in you tells you to pick the better way, that’s the Spirit speaking to you. When you go somewhere questionable and you get an uncontrollable urge to get out of there, that’s the Spirit speaking to you. Stop wondering if you have the Spirit in you. If you only pay attention to your thoughts and your urges, you’ll realize that the Spirit in you is talking to you all the time. All you need to do is slow down long enough to pay attention to Him.

If you abide in Jesus Christ, there are many, many benefits that are yours. More than I can list here. But Jesus Himself tells us plain and simple what the greatest benefit is. “If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” (John 15:7) Whoa! Wait a minute! Whatever I wish? But you may say, “My mother always told me that God provides for my needs but not for my wants!” I’m sorry to tell you but your mother was wrong. These are the very words of Jesus Christ. If He says “ask whatever you wish”, He must mean it. He doesn’t lie to us, His children.

Let the truth of what Jesus said then and keeps saying today soak in with you. It is an important thing to abide in Jesus. It is simple. Maybe not easy but simple. Believe in Him and love one another. Abiding is another by-product of being in a relationship with Jesus, like salvation, healing, eternal life, sonship, etc. It is there if we pay attention to it. We need to slow down from time to time and examine ourselves to see how we’re doing. Try to be aware of your priorities and your love. Learn to abide in Jesus. When you do, the benefits are greater than you can imagine.

To the Older Generation

"Brothers and sisters of the older generation, you are a treasure for the Church, you are a blessing for the World! How often you have to relieve the young parents, how well you know how to introduce the youngsters to the history of your family and of your home country, to the tales of your people and the world of faith!

You are a necessary complement in a world which shows enthusiasm for the vitality of youth and for the power of the so-called “best years,” in a world where what can be counted counts so much. You remind it that it continues building upon the diligence of those who have been young and strong earlier, and that one day it, too, will place its work in younger hands."

Pope John Paul II to the elderly in the Cathedral of Our Lady, Munich, Germany, November 19, 1980.

True Interior Silence by Mother Teresa in Total Surrender

To make possible true interior silence we shall practice:

Silence of the eyes, by seeking always the beauty and goodness of God everywhere, closing them to the faults of others and to all that is sinful and disturbing to the soul.

Silence of the ears, by listening always to the voice of God and to the cry of the poor and the needy, closing them to all the other voices that come from the evil one or from fallen human nature: e.g., gossip, tale-bearing, and uncharitable words.

Silence of the tongue, by praising God and speaking the life-giving Word of God that is the Truth that enlightens and inspires, brings peace, hope, and joy, and by refraining from self-defense and every word that causes darkness, turmoil, pain, and death.

Silence of the mind, by opening it to the truth and knowledge of God in prayer and contemplation, like Mary who pondered the marvels of the Lord in her heart; and by closing it to all untruths, distractions, destructive thoughts, rash judgment, false suspicions of others, revengeful thoughts and desires.

Silence of the heart, by loving God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and one another as God loves, desiring God alone and avoiding all selfishness, hatred, envy, jealousy, and greed.

Our silence is a joyful and God-centered silence. It demands of us constant self-denial and plunges us into the deep silence of God where aloneness with God becomes a reality.

"When solitude and silence are joined together, they produce a sacred stillness that permeates every aspect of our life." --John Michael Talbot, The World Is My Cloister