Friday, January 4, 2019

Christ Is My Castle - Dinner #94


CHRIST IS MY CASTLE



December 24, 2018 “The kinglet on the suet.  The rays of sunshine flooding the bedroom just so.  The pine straw covering the ground outside like a blanket.  I reminisce of days gone by when I sat on this very front porch penning historical fiction as a teenager, creating lesson plans for preschoolers, and telling a skinny, dark-haired college boy that I loved him.  It is pretty incredible returning to a home where you spent so much of your youth.  I never knew that feeling when I was little – we moved often during my younger years.  But this was where Dad had his final tour of duty for the Navy.  This was the home where he retired.  And this is where I return now for the holidays.  A place of familiarity.  A haven.  A refuge.”
 
Our family traveled over 32,000 miles in 2018.  I have learned to enjoy certain aspects of being on the road, but for me, a truly fabulous day is one in which we never leave the parameters of our own house and yard.  By nature, a woman’s home is her refuge.  With her family and the familiar about her, she feels SAFE.  Certainly the schedule can go awry, the laundry can pile up, and the toilet can overflow, but this is HOME.   She is the wife, the mother, the queen, and this place is her domain.  Deputation, however, takes much of that kingdom away.  The missionary wife finds herself without the security of personal decisions regarding meals, schedules, or sleeping arrangements.  She has no choice but to hand a million unknowns to her Savior on a daily basis. 

This past fall, a pastor’s wife took several of us missionary wives aside and prayed for us, “as they do that which is not natural – leaving their homes behind.”  It struck me, as she prayed, that this is why life on the road is so difficult at times.  Quite simply, it isn’t NORMAL.  As much as I sometimes long for my own routine; for my own stove, and bed, and bathtub; to be surrounded by the familiar four walls of my own “castle”; there are weeks and even months when God is the only fortress in sight.  And the truth of the matter is, HE is all I need.  CHRIST is my castle in my changing world.  And HE remains ever the same.

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.”

Deuteronomy 33:27 “The eternal God is thy refuge . . .”
My refuge; my “strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort” (Ps. 71:3) When my day is hard and my circumstances challenging - over, and over, and over again - I can run to Him and be safe (Prov. 18:10).  As the hymn by William O. Cushing states so perfectly, “Hiding in Thee, hiding in Thee, Thou blest ‘Rock of Ages,’ I’m hiding in Thee.”

David understood a transient lifestyle.  The vast majority of his early adulthood, he was running from King Saul; living in caves; living with the enemy . . .

In Psalm 142:5, David wrote: “I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.”

As we enter another year of deputation, this is my personal prayer – that I allow God to be my REFUGE like never before.  “You are my castle, Dear Jesus.  YOU are my home and my security.”    
Perhaps you pull into the same driveway every day; you check your mail at the same mailbox; you use the same key in the same front door every time.  You do not feel you need God as your HOME, in quite the same way as a traveling missionary wife.  But we all struggle with the human need to feel SECURE.  It may be that there are new health issues on your horizon, or the “sands are shifting” at your workplace.  You may find yourself facing many unknowns in the year ahead. 

The Bible tells us that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea . . .” (Ps. 46:1-2)

Though the “earth be removed” – though my world be shattered - and though the “mountains” – all my personal strongholds – “be carried” away, God is always with me – “a very present help in trouble.”

Psalm 91:1-2 “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.   I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”

When every other fortress seems fallen, He is there for you, Dear Sister!  And He is there for me . . . Do you need to cling to God as YOUR refuge in 2019?? May Christ be your castle – your stronghold against every changing wind and every foe.  And in every storm that comes, may you find Him to be the Rock that is ever so much higher than yourself (Ps. 61:2-3).  

Oh, safe to the Rock that is higher than I, My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly . . . In the tempests of life, on its wide, heaving sea, Thou blest Rock of Ages, I’m hiding in Thee.”

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