09242022 Not Always Roses

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the God who rescues. God sees His children in their need, and He does what is necessary to help them. Face it, life is not always perfect.

Sometimes we fall. We don’t have the strength to go on, or we trip over something in our path.

“The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down” (Psalm 145:14).

Sometimes we’re hungry. Our souls cry out for something to sustain and satisfy us.

“The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing” (Psalm 145:15-16).

Sometimes we’re in trouble. Life just isn’t going well. We are being oppressed, pursued, attacked, overwhelmed.

“The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The LORD preserveth all them that love him” (Psalm 145:18-20a).

When life isn’t all roses, God is the answer. When life is filled with struggles, God is the One who can help. By the way, do you realize how many times the words “all” and “every” are in the above verses? (6 and 1, by my count)

How grateful I am for the God who is perfect in my imperfect world. May He meet whatever needs you have this week. God bless.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

09172022 Included

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our loving God. This God of love has extended His offer of salvation to all peoples. All of humanity has the possibility of a relationship with Him. I am so thankful that God included you and me in His great plan.

As I have read through the Psalms, a certain instance of parallelism has intrigued me. I find this particular “trio” three times, and the fourth time it becomes a quartet.

“O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield”
(Psalm 115:9-11).

“He will bless the house of Israel;

He will bless the house of Aaron.

He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great” (Psalm 115:12-13).

“Let Israel now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

Let the house of Aaron now say, that his mercy endureth for ever.

Let them now that fear the LORD say, that his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalm 118:2-4).

“Bless the LORD, O house of Israel:

Bless the LORD, O house of Aaron:

Bless the LORD, O house of Levi:

Ye that fear the LORD, bless the LORD” (Psalm 135:19-20).

The same three groups of people are included each time: the house of Israel, the house of Aaron, and those who fear the LORD. These three groups are instructed to trust God, because He is their help and shield. These three groups are assured of God’s blessing. These three groups can attest to the everlasting mercy (lovingkindness) of God. These three groups are to bless God.

Here's what I love about this. We would expect each of these for the first two groups: the house of Israel and the house of Aaron. After all, God singled out the people of Israel. Almost the entirety of the Old Testament is dedicated to His interactions with Israel. This people is special to God, and He went to great lengths to call them, preserve them, guide them, correct them, restore them.

What about the third group? Those who fear God. While the first two are narrow and exclusive, the third is wide open. It is for people of every tribe, of every nation, of every time period. There is no requirement based on ethnicity, language, gender, age, social status, or era in history. This includes us today. God wrote these words thousands of years before our existence, thousands of years before He turned His attention toward the church and the Gentile people. Yet even when those words were written, God allowed for us and included us. God made provision for us.

If we fear God, we can trust Him just as confidently as Israel could. If we fear God, He will be our help and shield just as He was for Israel. He will bless us as He blessed them. We can enjoy His unending lovingkindness just as those people did. Indeed, we have reason to bless Him just as Israel did.

“Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles” (Acts 28:28). Thank God that He included us. All we have to do is the same as what He asked of Israel. To fear Him. To trust Him. To follow Him. To believe in Him. To rely entirely on Him. Those who do this, both Jew and Gentile, both men and women, both young and old, both rich and poor, both privileged and deprived, will find Him to be a sure refuge. Those who do so will enjoy His blessing and will taste His lovingkindness. Those who do so will find abundant cause to bless His matchless name.

May God encourage you this week with His love that included you, and may He bless you with opportunities to see others embracing that same love.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

Archived letters: www.dearmissionarylady.blogspot.com.

09102022 Compassion and Mercy

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of the God of purposeful outcomes. God always has a plan, and He is always working toward that plan.

While giving a Bible study, a former student of mine once said, “It doesn’t make sense when you’re there; it only makes sense looking back.” (That’s from human perspective, not divine.) When things don’t make sense to us, we can have a tendency to think unhealthy thoughts about God and His treatment of us. We might even acknowledge that God has a good plan in the end, but we sometimes complain about the unpleasant methods in the present, methods that might suggest to our minds that God is unfeeling, insensitive, and utilitarian.

There’s a wonderful verse that refutes the possibility of God’s being callous or cruel. “Ye … have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy” (James 5:11).

“End” obviously doesn’t mean the end of God’s existence, but rather the end/conclusion of His actions in human interventions. We might better understand it to be the goal that is aimed for, the conclusion of a matter, the termination or result or outcome. “Outcome” is a good understanding in this context. We are talking about the outcomes of God’s interactions with people.

Two outcomes are mentioned. First, God is “very pitiful.” This is best understood as compassionate, when someone’s insides respond to the sad or troubling situation of someone else. In this verse, the compassion is intensified by a compound form to raise it to mean extremely (abundantly, plentifully) compassionate. When I think of God’s compassion, I think of two key verses. Psalm 103:13-14 says that God has compassion for us because He understands how frail and weak we are as vessels of dust. In Hebrews 4:15-16, this compassion leads to an invitation for us to come boldly to God for grace in our time of need. When Jesus experienced compassion in the Gospels, it was always accompanied by action – healing, resurrecting, teaching, feeding.

The second outcome is “tender mercy.” This is also in the realm of compassion, but mercy deals with misery, and it involves action to relieve that misery. The misery can be spiritual, as it is in regard to our need for salvation, forgiveness, and restoration. The misery can also be physical or circumstantial, independent of any wrong-doing by the sufferer. When the blind men called out to Jesus for mercy, He healed them. The Good Samaritan showed mercy by carefully treating and selflessly caring for the wounded man. The king had mercy by forgiving an impossible debt.

The context of James 5:11 is the account of Job’s suffering. It tells us to look at the end (outcome) of Job’s story. When we do, we vividly see the character of God: compassionate and merciful. God delivered Job from his horrible illness. God blessed Job with new children. God gave Job twice as much bounty as he had before. God sent Job’s friends and family to graciously and generously renew their relationships with him. God had compassion on Job’s broken state, his suffering without a cause. God responded to Job’s misery by relieving it and lifting Job far above it.

Question. Did God suddenly become compassionate and merciful in Job 42:10? Or was He compassionate and merciful continuously from Job 1:1 through 42:17? We can answer the question simply by recalling the truth that God never changes. God is always compassionate. God is always merciful. “And the LORD passed by before [Moses], and proclaimed, The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). “For I, the LORD, do not change” (Malachi 3:6). We can also see hints of God’s compassion and mercy throughout Job’s story. In God’s interactions with Satan, it is clear that God cares about the unwarranted suffering of His dear child. “For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men” (Lamentations 3:33).

Just like life doesn’t always make sense until we are looking back, so also we do not always see the compassionate and merciful character of God until we look back. However, after we have passed through the trial, and when we do look back, we see that His compassion and mercy were there all the time. We often do see them poignantly and powerfully in the "end,” in the outcome, but they are also continuous ribbons of beautiful light that are woven all through the fabric of the entire experience. When we are in the middle of the trial and we don’t see them, all we need to do is wait. We will see them, because they are always there. Just as we will see His goodness, because it is always there. “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:13-14).

What we do not currently see with our eyes, we must believe by faith. We can rest confidently in the knowledge that God always is who He always is. We may not see God’s abundant compassion and mercy break through in the fulness of their splendor until we reach the outcome, but they are most surely there all along. God does care deeply about our hurts and struggles, and He does respond by lifting us from our misery. Just wait, and we will see that He has been constantly doing it until the time that the deliverance reaches its apex.

May you be filled with the comforting knowledge of God’s mercy and abundant compassion.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA

09032022 No Matter How Long

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our constant God, the one who has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

David wrote, “O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again. Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment” (Psalm 60:1-3). Life is sometimes like Psalm 60. Like David, we realize that all the crazy and oppressive events of life, which seem abundant and overwhelming, are ultimately from God’s hand.

No matter what happens in life, and no matter how confusing or troubling things may seem, God loves us and cares about us. He is always available and always concerned. “Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice” (Psalm 55:17). As often as we feel the need to pour out our hearts, so often will God be available to listen. There is no limit to how much or how often we can ask Him for help. He will hear us every time.

It isn’t just for a single day that we can enjoy such access. “Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast” (Psalm 57:1). Until the calamity has ceased. In the words of the Gaithers’: “’Till the storm passes over, ‘Til the thunder sounds no more, ‘Til the clouds roll forever from the sky, Hold me fast, let me stand In the hollow of Thy hand. Keep me safe ‘till the storm passes by.” Some storms are short, and some storms are long. Some seem that they will never end. But God offers His shelter, His refuge, until the final thunder rumbles and until the final drop of rain has fallen. God will be a shelter until the sky brightens and the sunshine streams in.

At any time throughout the day, and for as many days as it takes, God is there. At any time throughout the day (or night), and for as many days (and nights) as it takes, God is listening and loving, compassionate and caring, supportive and sustaining. May we not forget nor neglect to go to Him often and to trust Him completely.

Love in Christ,

Peggy Holt

member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA