Make Known the Paths

Considering the large number of fellow Americans who are suffering from floods and fires (remember Appalachia?), I thought about the mindset it takes to sit in ashes and debris and not despair.

I think of my own life that still has debris shoved into corners from disasters years old. Some essentials are up and running - shelter and job - but many other things are covered in tarps.

So, what does it mean to know the paths that God has for us?

We can look at the general arc of God’s action through history to see how He has behaved over time. In other words, we can know the scriptures.

We can listen each day for what others are saying and pay close attention to our circumstances. Don’t just drift through the day. Do it on purpose.

We can read other spiritually nutritious material like the lives of other Christians (people like Corrie Ten Boom or lives of the saints). Reading them adds flavor and diversity to our spiritual meals and expands our knowledge of the holy spirit.

These four things - know scripture, listen to others, keep your eyes on your circumstances, and read the lives of Christian examples - these four work together to gradually change our minds. We can change. We can know. We don’t have to feel lost or powerless.

I believe it may begin and end with humility and letting go.

Humble yourself. You don’t know scripture like you should. Humble yourself. Your neighbor may be the voice of God. Humble yourself. Your circumstances may have much to teach you. Humble yourself. You are not the first person to struggle, so let your heart take in what previous Christians have been through and listen to what they say.

Become sober-minded. Get quiet. Make time. Life is short. You can become the faithful person that the enemy has said you cannot be. The devil is a liar. Be the one who does faithful things in secret. Pray in secret. Give in secret. Re-envision what is left of your time.

We do not get a map for life.

We get an inheritance of life.

It isn’t claimed by the haughty or perpetually busy, but by the lowly. Is the Holy Spirit important to you? How would you prove it?

David, in all his sin, loved God and poured his heart out. He made time. He kept watch. Even in sin and disaster, his thoughts went heavenward. His entire life was based around the forgiveness and faithfulness of God.

Listen to what he says below:

PSALM 16

ESV - (the blue links are live if you want to click them…)

Preserve me, O God, for in you I ⁱtake refuge.

² I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

^jI have no good apart from you.”

³ As for ^kthe saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

in whom is all my delight.²

⁴ The sorrows of those who run after³ another god shall multiply;

their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out

or ^ltake their names on my lips.

⁵ The LORD is ^mmy chosen portion and my ⁿcup;

you hold my ^olot.

^6 pThe lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I bless the LORD who ^qgives me counsel;

in ^rthe night also my ^sheart instructs me.⁴

^8 tI have ^uset the LORD always before me;

because he is at my ^vright hand, I shall not be ^wshaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my ^xwhole being⁵ rejoices;

my flesh also dwells secure.

¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to ^ySheol,

^zor let your ^aholy one see ^bcorruption.⁶

¹¹ You make known to me ^cthe path of life;

in your presence there is ^dfullness of joy;

at your right hand are ^epleasures forevermore.

 

LIVES OF THE FAITHFUL

Corrie Ten Boom:

"You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have."

“Today I know that such memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work he will give us to do. ”1

St Mark The Ascetic - Philokalia, Vol. 1 p.142

When something accords with God's will, all creation aids it. But when God rejects something, creation too opposes it.2

Gerondissa Makrina (Vassopoulou) -Words of the Heart | by Gerondissa Makrina (Vassopoulou) p.116

In sorrows, pain, and trials, God will reveal Paradise to the prayerful soul, and the soul will see itself kneeling before God's royal throne.3

NEWS

A widely seen video of people singing in the remains of their fire-gutted home has been on my mind. Even if you are not Roman Catholic (I am not), we can all agree that singing in bad times is a thoroughly Christian thing to do.4 (I was in this very area only a short time ago. It was a lovely place.)

HINDU NATIONALISM

We never hear about this, but a coworker has visited India several times and can report that Hindus in India can be violent. Click below to read a short story on Hindu violence against Christians.

Here is how it ends:

The Washington Post and New York Times have both covered the story. Here is a link to another story about this rising tide.

LINK

Click image below for another story.

 

John Lennox

is a brilliant man. He has recently taken on the mantle of presidency at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA).

Just look him up on YouTube when you have 10 minutes, maybe while eating breakfast. You won’t regret it.

Here is a link to a very short clip (about 60 seconds) to give you a taste:

John Lennox

But THIS YouTube clip is really, really worth your time. Please watch HERE.

ART and HISTORY

A detail isn’t important until you are challenged. Christ was considered GOD from the beginning. It wasn’t just decided later. The more we learn, the better, and a mosaic from an early Christian church gives us another important detail.

“Museum experts believe this to be an early confirmation of Christ’s divinity, about a hundred years before the Council of Nicea.”5

100 years before Nicea - May 325. So that puts this church at roughly 225 years after Christ.

For perspective - America will be 249 year old this year (2025).

This is an important detail.

See the site here!

That’s all I have this time.

Thank you for reading TENTMAKER here on the Sacred Summit blog. Originally published on Substack