Everything new!

But God’s work is beautiful May 16, 2024

Revelation 21:3 Look, I am making everything new!

Ecclesiastes 3:11 God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart.

Genesis 1:31 God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!

I find nothing so refreshing as a walk in the woods. The rhododendron blooming all over Pittsburgh right now remind me of a walk I made when I was trying to complete—in sections—all 70 miles of the Laurel Highlands Walking Trail. On a previous hike, Dave and I noticed the buds covering the rhododendron plants along the trail. This time, they were in full bloom, stretching as far as we could see through the trees in every direction. Breathtaking.

I would not have seen this had I sat at home.

As gorgeous as our world is now, something even more beautiful awaits us—a new creation, unspoiled by the events of millennia and the impact of billions of people. I can’t wait! CS Lewis in The Weight of Glory and The Great Divorce imagines our need to grow our souls to be able to coexist with such intense beauty. One way to do that must be to open ourselves to the beauty we already have available to us.

God also does beautiful work in our lives. I would love to see and share this beauty! With Pentecost this Sunday, we will enter what the church calendar calls “Ordinary Time.” It’s in our day to day “ordinary” living that God enters and does extraordinary things. I would love to “see” and share the beauty of what he’s done for you! When have you seen God intervene and make something beautiful from a difficult situation? Don’t keep this loveliness to yourself! Honor God’s power and love by sharing your “But God” story.

Here’s how: write your story in one page and send it to me: debrakornfield@gmail.com. I post twice a week and will let you know when I post your story. If you like, you’ll be able to share the link with others.

If writing isn’t your thing, you can text me to schedule a time for you to tell me your story (by phone or by Zoom), and I’ll write it for you. Don’t worry—I’ll send it (or read it to you) before I post to be sure I have the details right. You’ll have a written record of an important moment in your life. And you’ll encourage other people who need to see evidence that God is still alive and well and active in our world today.

Will you accept the challenge to remember and tell how God turned crisis into beauty in your “ordinary” life?

A new heaven and new earth

But God says, “Make every effort”

2 Peter 3:13 But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth God has promised, a world filled with his righteousness. And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.

The most memorable statement in the sermon about Jesus’ ascension yesterday, I think, was “Jesus decided to work from home.”

One day, we’ll share his Home (Revelation 21). Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit, first poured out to the believers on the day we celebrate next Sunday, Pentecost, joins us in the trenches as we stay the course, faithfully pursuing “long obedience in the same direction,” as Eugene Peterson so famously put it.

Like perennials, Jesus will come back!

Jesus warned us there would be bumps and bruises along the way. “Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows” (John 16:33). Why are we surprised and resentful when this proves to be true? Could it be that we’re seduced by the idea that this is all there is, that life ends with death?

I had the interesting experience Saturday of attending a memorial service immediately followed by a birthday party. Funerals, of course, always make me think of Karis. Perhaps that’s why I found myself telling someone at the birthday party that Karis longed to go Home. In her last year of journaling, she wrote repeatedly, “Father, I can’t do this anymore. Please take me Home. Please.”

So in our sorrow and missing her, we know Karis is exactly where she wanted to be, living her best life. Glimpsing ahead of time the “new heavens” promised to us.

The writer of Hebrews tells us the heroes of faith “agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. … they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland” (11:13, 16).

I think the promise of a new heaven and new earth, where there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain (Revelation 21:4) gives us perspective on our trials and motivation to make the most of our time here, doing with the energy the Spirit gives us whatever God has asked us to do. Peter and other New Testament writers liked the phrase “make every effort,” or “work hard” as some versions translate the phrase:

Make every effort to respond to God’s promises (2 Peter 1:5—see also 1:10, 1:15).

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone (Hebrews 12:14).

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3).

Make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification (Romans 14:19). … Never pay back evil with more evil … If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone (Romans 12:17-18).

Some versions use the word “harmony” instead of peace. Peace, of course, begins in our own hearts. Worth thinking about, for as long as we’re on this side of the story.

This World Is Not My Home, by Albert Brumley, sung by Jim Reeves.

A new nature

But God forgives sin; he doesn’t excuse it.

Ephesians 4:21-24 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Colossians 3:10 [see 3:1-17] Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.

I’ve enjoyed watching a bed of ferns at my daughter Valerie’s house this spring, and wish I had taken pictures of each stage. After frost killed last year’s growth and the dry stems were cut away, the patch looked dry and dead, not at all pretty. Before we traveled in March, tiny green shoots appeared. In April, the ferns looked like balls, with a few beginning to uncurl. Now, the ferns look like this, fresh and lovely in their new life. An analogy for me of renewal and transformation.

Our pastor in Brazil, invited to speak in another church one Sunday, asked his adolescent son to tell him about the sermon Vini had heard at home. Having spent the sermon time messing around with his friends in the balcony, Vini scrambled for an answer and finally responded, “It was about sin!”

“What did the preacher say about sin?” asked Vini’s father.

“He was against it!” replied his resourceful son.

God is too. Because sin harms his beloved children and it harms those around us. Colossians 3 lists the kinds of attitudes and actions God opposes: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, idolatry, anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, dirty language, lying …. (v. 5-9).

In stark contrast, the new nature Christ offers looks like this: tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, love, harmony, peace, thankfulness, wisdom (v. 12-17).

Which of these takes more strength and courage? Destroying something beautiful is always easier than creating it. Anyone can blow something up, including someone else’s reputation.

Still, God forgives our sin, when we name it, confess, and turn away from it. Jesus gave his life to make this possible.

God doesn’t, however, rationalize, gloss over, condone, excuse, or justify sin, any more than a loving parent would laugh and pat the head of a child getting into trouble, or an oncologist would ignore a cancer in order to not cause pain and distress to his patient. Nor does God say, “It’s OK to do wrong as long as you achieve good ends.” He says, “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.” (See the rest of that passage too, Galatians 6:7-10.)

Forgiveness isn’t the same as excusing. It’s costly. It says, “This is wrong, and deserves punishment. I accept the punishment in your place, to free you from sin’s power over you.” That freedom often comes, though, with discipline, through experiencing the consequences of what we’ve done.

During our long trek through the world of transplant, I saw a patient recovering from lung transplant outside the hospital, smoking.

In those years, people waited two to three years for a lung transplant. While waiting, around 20% of them died. (See the statistics here.)

So you can imagine my feelings when I saw this patient. I felt it as a punch in the gut, as a slap in the face of each person still waiting for a lung, or for two lungs, as well as to the family of her donor. As total disregard for the preciousness of the gift she had been given.

Is God unkind and unreasonable when he asks us to honor and nurture our new nature, the new abundant life his Son died to offer us?

P.S. This article prompted some of the thoughts in this post. I have no idea how true the author’s premise is, but the question he addresses is one I hear often from puzzled observers.

Create in Me, The Acappella Company

New birth

But God shows his kindness and love May 6, 2024

Titus 3:4-5 But when God our Savior revealed his kindness and love … he gave us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 5:1-2 Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ.

Our extended family keeps growing! With Gavin’s birth a month ago (see photo), if I counted right, on my side we now number 84 living descendants of Ray and Helen Elliott, plus the two, Karis and Gordon, who are with Mom and Dad in Heaven. (This doesn’t include our Michael and others who were miscarried before they were viable on earth, though perhaps we should include them.) On Dave’s side, descendants of Bill and Gloria Kornfield add 17 (not re-counting our family).

Despite the size of our family, we’re as excited about Gavin and Hannah and Bennett (the three born in the last few months) as about each family member of their generation. Each new life is precious. We pray that each of them will grow up feeling dearly loved, by their family, their extended family, and by God.

I’m writing to you just home from southern Indiana, where we enjoyed a rare Kornfield reunion before Dave’s sister Kathy and Tom return to their home in Bolivia. Such a lovely time, including delight in our grandniece Bella and our two grandnephews, Andrew and baby Bennett (and their wonderful parents and other family members).

Dave’s brother Bill, whom you may have prayed for when his leg was shattered in a bike accident in December, and his wife Jennie, delighted us in another way. Yes! He’s WALKING! With just a cane. And swimming! He has accomplished all this in literally half the time expected, by enduring huge amounts of pain AND finding joy and strength in God.

In the verses quoted above, Titus wrote about new birth into God’s spiritual family, a miracle which makes us kin to millions of believers around the world and through time—a family we’ll have eternity to get to know. This family includes people on every side of the conflicts the world struggles with today. Every war is therefore a “civil war” in terms of God’s Kingdom, which doesn’t recognize this world’s political boundaries.

So, I cringe when I hear folks condemn people groups en masse. I’m sure this hurts God’s heart as well. We forget, sometimes, that this world is not our forever home. We’ll be living for eternity with people beloved by our Father against whom we’ve nurtured prejudices and desired injury.

Something to think about.

A new commandment–illustrated by pancakes!

But Jesus adds the essential ingredient

1 John 2:7-8 Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment for you; rather it is an old one–to love one another. Yet it is also new. Jesus lived the truth of this commandment.

John 15:9, 12, 26 [Jesus said] I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. … This is my commandment: Love each other just as I have loved you. … I will send you the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me.

And they’re off on the thousand-mile drive to Oklahoma: Linda, my brother Dan, his wife Diane, and friend John, sharing the driving of the moving van and Linda’s car. The end of a chapter in Linda’s life, and the beginning of a whole new adventure.

Saturday I made pancakes for the crew. I doled out the first six pancakes on the griddle and placed toppings on the table while the pancakes cooked. They looked weird, though, flat and rubbery. I stared at them, puzzled, and suddenly realized I hadn’t put baking powder or soda in the batter.

Everything there except one essential ingredient.

The difference between the first batch and the second was notable enough to take a photo.

It occurred to me that my pancakes could be an analogy of trying to love in our own power vs. including the Holy Spirit to help us love like Jesus did. On my own, my love for others can be flat and flabby. When the Holy Spirit is in charge, though, everything changes: gentleness, beauty, and good humor take the place of tension, stress, and conflict. Have you noticed that?

So now I have another image to remind me of the Holy Spirit “essential ingredient”: pancakes WITH leavening. “Don’t try harder,” they remind me. “Try smarter. Invite the Spirit to work his magic. Then relax into Jesus’s gracious love; his understanding of what each of us needs.”

A new way of living

But the Holy Spirit prays for us

Romans 7:6, 8:26 Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit. … And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us.

We got home at midnight last night from our mission retreat in Colorado, where we focused on the theme of aging faithfully. Since the age range of our mission team is from early 60s to mid-80s, this was appropriate! We studied the wonderful book Aging Faithfully by Alice Fryling as preparation for the retreat, which allowed us to go deeper under the leadership of our facilitators.

I have a lot to continue thinking about, but one highlight for me was realizing I’ve tried to do marketing of my books within a transactional framework (if I do this, I will get that result), rather than transformational, in which I depend on the Spirit’s leading and don’t get stressed over the kinds of results most marketing approaches work toward. As a start, I’m switching in my own mind from using the term “marketing,” to the word “sharing” of what God has given me. I feel hope about an area of my life that I’ve found extremely stressful. Hope for a new way of living guided by the Spirit.

This weekend our family will be saying goodbye to my older sister, who will be moving from a town an hour north of Pittsburgh to a retirement village in Oklahoma. So I’m thinking about the “new way of living” she will soon undertake. There are obvious benefits—like being able to simply open her door to be with people and participate in activities, in contrast with the increasing isolation she’s felt as her vision limits her ability to drive.

At the same time, she’s leaving behind so much that is dear to her, from possessions to people whom she loves. Starting over in a place where no one knows she was a college professor, published author, chaplain, ordained deacon in the Anglican tradition, and cared for 23 foster children over the years—along with her skills in so many areas, her creativity, her wisdom about surviving trauma, and so much more … Well, it’s daunting, to say the least.

A planter Linda built last spring–just one of so many things she’s leaving behind.

As I feel with her the stress of this move and grieve for myself the distance that will shortly exist between us, I am comforted by these words from Romans: the Holy Spirit, so attuned, so active, so perceptive of what God wants for us and what we need. I hope thinking about this will comfort you too, especially if you are in the throes of embracing any kind of “new way of living.”

A new grip

But God’s discipline is good for us April 22, 2024

Hebrews 12:10-13 Our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us … there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.

I’m writing to you from the beautiful mountains of Colorado, where the new life of spring looks a bit different from Pennsylvania.

My takeaway today from thinking about this passage from Hebrews? God’s discipline is not just for my personal growth, but even more, for those around me. My right living can open a pathway of peace and strengthening for others. And so can yours.

It’s not just about “me”—it’s about us. We’re all influencing each other.

Sometimes I’m the weak and lame one who needs extra support.

And sometimes, because God gives me the extra infusion of perspective I need in order to keep hanging on when things are tough, other people can say, as many told me after Karis died, “If she could find grace to not give up, with all she had to deal with, I can too, with what I face.”

Sometimes, when I “strengthen my weak knees” through prayer and worship, the Holy Spirit can transform my pity party, as Karis called any kind of griping, into the ability to shift my focus away from myself to listen, understand, and pray for others.

This idea of “new grip” reminds me of a Notre Dame football story. Karis innocently sat at the football players’ table in the dining hall while they were all getting their food. The team “adopted” her, and she helped tutor some of them so they could stay academically qualified. One Saturday morning she was still in her PJs when she heard a knock on her dorm room door. One of the football players filled the doorway.

“Karis, hurry and get dressed. We’re playing touch football and I want you on my team. I promise, I won’t let you get hurt. I’ll wait for you in the common room.”

This is a funny story for so many reasons. Little Karis, who didn’t even understand the rules (that’s another story!) playing in any meaningful way against massive opponents? Without getting hurt?

What the football player did during play was hand Karis the ball, tell her “Hold it tight,” pick her up, and race for the touchdown.

I think you can tell where I’m going with this. Karis had only one task: hang on to the ball. The rest was all about trust.

We’re all team players, in some way influencing the outcome of the game we’re playing. The “ball” God is asking me to hold on to has everything to do with trust in his game plan and in the other players. I don’t even fully understand the rules, and the opponents I face are way too big for me. My part? Strengthen my grip and trust him to carry me.

Broken Vessels (Amazing Grace), Hillsong

Like newborn babies

But God offers spiritual milk

1 Peter 2:1-2 Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.

My granddaughter scrunches her face. “Yuck!”

“But you haven’t even tasted it! I promise you, this tastes good. I’m quite sure you’ll like it.”

She pushes the plate away. “I won’t. I can tell.”

“Just a tiny taste.”

“No!”

I sigh. Is this battle one I want to fight today? I finally convince her to try a tiny taste. She makes a horrible face and spits it out.

“See? I told you I wouldn’t like it.”

“Then what do you want?”

“Cucumber slices and baby carrots and tomatoes. And sweet peppers. Four of each because I’m four.”

I can live with that.

The next week I serve the yucky food and don’t say anything about it. She eats it with gusto.

“How often am I like a four-year-old?” I muse. “The struggle isn’t really about food. It’s about whether she gets to choose for herself. Like she used to say, I can do this ‘my byself.’”

You too? From the overflowing table of God’s provision for us, what nourishment do you crave today?

I crave words of kindness and gentleness. Understanding. Hope. I want to know the Lord is with me; that he perceives the weight of my concerns and is willing to share them. Today, I am drawn to drink from Psalms 145 (one of Karis’s favorites), 146, 147:

The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love … The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does. The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it. … The Lord is close to all who call on him (145:8, 13-15, 18).

Joyful are those who have God as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God. … The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down (146:5, 8).

The Lord heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds. … His understanding is beyond comprehension! … The Lord delights in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love (147:3, 5, 11).

I feel the Lord’s benevolent smile as I savor this spiritual milk, relaxing into his love and kindness. And in the fact that though he gives me choices, he is in control; I’m not. All will be well.

What will you drink today? It’s your choice!

An anchor for our souls

New birth into a living hope

1 Peter 1:23 (Titus 3:5) Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Romans 6:18-19 It is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.

So, I’m curious: Have you tried the “new song” idea from my last blog—applying praise to whatever is going on in your life today? I would love to know! I sang a “new song” as I found reasons to praise God as our family absorbs the reality and implications of our six-year-old grandson’s Celiac Disease diagnosis.

I’m quite excited about this understanding of “new song,” in part because it takes me back to a vow I made to the Lord while Karis and I were jetting to Pittsburgh from South Bend in the middle of the night in response to the first intestinal transplant call she was ready to consider.

I vowed to find something to praise God for every day of this upcoming adventure. I had no idea at the time how life- and hope-giving that practice would be. Keeping that vow forced me back to the Lord time after time when otherwise I could have floundered in the excruciating disappointments and reversals we experienced. Hope became for me–for us–a lifeline, an anchor, a safety rail, a source of strength for not giving up as Karis faced death day after day after day. I am deeply grateful to the Holy Spirit for prompting me to make that vow.

There are so many wonderful references to hope in the New Testament that I had trouble choosing, even from the book of Hebrews. The Greek words translated as hope are elpis (noun) and elpizo (verb), from the root elpo. They mean to anticipate (usually with pleasure), to trust, and to expect with confidence (and the corresponding nouns).

Peter emphasizes the fact that our hope is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus, whose victory over his own death extends to us in ours. That’s why we don’t grieve when a loved one dies or in thinking about our own mortality with the same despair as those without the hope of new life after death (1 Thessalonians 4:13).

In thinking about this, I remember Karis’s brilliant smile after she wrote in big scrawly letters with her left hand, “I love ____” each one of us. At the end she wrote, “Call the doctor. I can’t breathe,” just as a team burst into her ICU room to induce her last coma to give time for the antiviral to work (it didn’t, but this gave our family time to gather and to prepare ourselves as well as we could for her death). I believe Karis knew she was going Home, which we learned later through her journals she had been pleading with God to allow her to do.

This isn’t Jesus’s tomb, but it is a preserved tomb and round stone from the first century, like his might have been. Thanks to Marilyn Chislaghi for permission to use her photo taken in Israel.

Living hope: an empty tomb. A brilliant smile. An anchor for our souls through terrible times.

The Anchor Holds, by Ray Boltz

A new song

But God reveals himself to us a day at a time

Revelation 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. (See Revelation 14:3, Psalm 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9, 149:1, Isaiah 42:10.)

We have several gifted songwriters in our congregation, nourishing our worship with their beautiful praise, in a variety of styles and traditions. I can picture one of them composing an amazing anthem for the “thousands and millions of angels around the throne” in Revelation chapter 5.

Can you imagine hearing that mighty chorus? One day, we will!

Meanwhile, though, how can I, with my limited musical gifts, respond to the psalmists’ repeated invitation to sing a new song to the Lord?

It occurs to me today, just off the phone with one of my daughters discussing a challenging medical diagnosis one of our grandchildren has just received, that a “new song” for me today would be to praise God for who he is for us in the middle of this new situation. I have never before worshiped God in the face of this particular circumstance—that’s what makes it new.

That means every day offers an opportunity to sing a new song—even if for some of us it sounds more like joyful noise (Psalm 100:1—apparently that’s OK too!). Each day brings its own joys and sorrows, never exactly like the day or week or month or year before.

What circumstance in your life is calling for a new song of trust today?

Let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God” (Hebrews 13:15).

Don’t these anemones look like they’re singing? Shutterstock: LedyX

In light of our Revelation text, here’s a “new song” from Africa:

Sing Unto the Lord a New Song, by Newlove Annan, sung by One Voice Choir, Ghana,