Category Archives: Religion

Tom Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky.

He worked on the family farm and didn’t finish high school. But Tom was a smart boy and by 16 was hired to teach at his school.

He discovered that he loved to write and practiced his talent by composing poetry. Some of his poems he submitted to the local paper. The ambitious young man was associate editor of The Franklin Favorite by the time he was 21.

He had his mind set on a career in journalism.

When he gave his life to Jesus Christ at a revival service Tom ended up attending seminary and entered the pastoral ministry. But poor health forced him to resign his church. He moved to New Jersey with his family and became an insurance salesman.

It wasn’t easy. Tom Chisholm had answered God’s call. Now circumstances beyond his control had changed the direction of his life entirely. What was God doing?

Tom was heartbroken but trusted God and carried on.

This wasn’t the end of Tom Chisholm’s story – it was just the beginning.

Still determined to serve God in some kind of ministry, Tom now turned back to his true passion – writing. He submitted religious poetry to Christian publications such as the Sunday School Times, Moody Monthly and Alliance Weekly.

One day he was reading a passage in the Old Testament book of Lamentations. He was struck by its beauty and power. Tom reflected on his own life, the ups and downs; the moments of exhilaration and seasons of deep despair; times that were good and those that were tough.

Like a mighty river, one grand theme coursed through all the experiences he’d had. Whether it ran through tears of joy or sadness, achievement or disappointment; on the mountains or through the valleys, it ran strong and crystal clear in his life.

Tom Chisholm knew it. It could not be denied.

He wrote a letter to his friend Bill Runyon in Kansas. Bill was a music composer. Tom told Bill that God “has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness”.

It was 1923 and Tom Chisholm was 57.

“Please see what you may be able to do with this,” he wrote his friend.

Bill Runyon carefully unfolded the enclosed paper and slowly read the lines.

“Great is Thy faithfulness, O God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not; as Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be”.

In the midst of his sorrow, “remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall” – the unmitigated bitterness of his suffering – the prophet Jeremiah was humbled by a reality that transcended it all (Lamentations 3:19-20, KJV).

Crying out from the very epicenter of his lamentations, this weeping prophet grasped the truth that could not be denied.

“I will never forget this awful time … Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this” (verses 20 -21, NLT).

What was it you remembered, Jeremiah? What was it that, for all his disappointments and trials in life, gripped Thomas O Chisholm so profoundly that he penned immortal words of beauty in its praise?

What is it that we should never forget?

“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness” (Lamentations 3: 22-23, KJV).

In spite of everything that may sometimes assail us, you and I may “still dare to hope” when we remember this:

God’s compassions fail not – great is his faithfulness!

Whatever else you and I may face at the dawn of a new and uncertain day, of this we may be sure:

God bestows upon each of us fresh mercy and abundant grace.

“They are new every morning”.

His creation itself proclaims God’s faithfulness. Chisholm wrote:

“Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest; sun, moon and stars in their courses above; join with all nature in manifold witness to Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love”.

The Bible proclaims the joyful glory of God’s awesome handiwork. Nature is the divine witness.

Listen to the voices.

“Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice … the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Psalm 96: 11-12; Isaiah 55: 12, KJV).

It’s no wonder we love the outdoors. That’s where God and the angels laugh and dance.

Tom Chisholm also wrote of God’s intimate faithfulness. He wrote as one who knew.

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth; Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow; blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!”

Is this not the shared experience of every follower of Jesus? Is this not the beautiful rejoicing testimony at every Thanksgiving table?

What was that mighty river that ran through Tom Chisholm’s life for 94 years?

“Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed Thy hand hath provided; great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!”

Amen Tom! And pass the pie!

My Uncle George hunted bobcats.

He also hunted bear, deer, rabbits and most anything else that lived in the woods and had four legs.

Uncle George loved the outdoors and was more at home there than in his own living room.

George was also a Maine hunting guide. He was well-known and respected for his skill in navigating the backwoods of Northern Maine – no small area.

Once, when a hunter was lost deep in the woods and game wardens had just about given up, George was summoned. He found the hunter, who told him he was on the verge of taking his own life, despaired of ever being rescued.

If you’re hunting or fishing in the wilderness, having a reliable and experienced guide is pretty important. You could take the wrong turn, become disoriented, wander to exhaustion; you might panic which would only make things worse.

With a guide you can trust – so long as you listen and follow – you’re safe. No matter how deep in the woods you may be.

You can’t get lost. Your guide knows the way. Follow him (I know, I’m making this analogy way too easy).

If you think this past year was an unpredictable Nantucket Sleigh Ride (a whaler’s term for what happened immediately after you harpooned a whale in the middle of the Atlantic in the 1850s), you haven’t seen anything yet.

We have a new president who will be unlike any in history. The world is a fiery cauldron of instability and danger. Natural catastrophes and weather-related events will rock the earth. Terrorism will continue to pose a constant threat. The economy is always anyone’s guess.

None of this includes the panoply of things that may happen to you, me and those we love in the coming year – or the personal decisions we may have to make.

Yes, we need a Guide.

Fortunately, we have One. He’s experienced. He’s knowledgeable. He sees the road ahead. He understands the terrain – he made it. He cares about you and me and wants to lead us through whatever the future holds.

He knows that too – the future – very handy when you’re the guide.

God not only knows the future – he thought it, planned it, choreographed it, ordered it and completed it before he created a single star.

We’re continually surprised by the course of human events. God never raises an eyebrow.

God’s a lot more than a very lucky fortuneteller gazing into his crystal ball.

The problem is not that we don’t know what God can do. The problem is we refuse to trust him to do it. That’s always the issue isn’t it? It’s not that we don’t know – it’s that we don’t believe.

The poet T.S. Eliot summarized the Christian dilemma this way:

“The greatest proof of Christianity for others [and for ourselves] is not how far a man can logically analyze his reasons for believing, but how far in practice he will stake his life on his belief”.

It may be the difference between faith and trust.

Faith is often abstract and safely theological. Good to embrace in calm weather. Trust, as the late Brennan Manning put it, is a “ruthless” practical choice you and I make every day of our lives.

Faith interprets circumstances – trust takes them by storm – and in the storm.

Have you ever wondered why the Twenty-Third Psalm is the best-known and most loved?

Because it speaks of an unforeseen and very personal journey and a faithful loving Guide. It’s the shepherd’s song about the ultimate Good Shepherd Who leads his sheep through all manner of circumstance – the divine Guide Who never leaves, never forsakes, is always very present.

In the green pastures and beside the still waters, but especially in those dark valleys.

No wonder it’s the psalm the dying saints turn to most.

Isaiah tells us that “the Lord shall guide thee continually” (Isaiah 58:11, KJV).

“The Lord”. Not an angel but the Lord God omnipotent Who reigns over all. God himself shall be our intimate Guide. When the Lord told Moses he would send an angel to lead the people of Israel through the wilderness because he’d had it up to his royal diadem with their stubborn and faithless rebellion, Moses balked.

“If you don’t personally go with us, don’t make us leave this place,” Moses pleaded with Jehovah (Exodus 33:15, NLT).

Without God, Moses wouldn’t go across the street. With God, he’d cross the earth.

“The Lord shall guide thee …” God’s promises are sure, his covenant certain. We can count on him. He will never go back on his word to you and me. People’s wisdom, predictions and advice fail us. But the God Who loves us is the God Who shall surely guide us. He’ll never fail – and he’ll never fail us.

“The Lord shall guide thee continually”. God’s guidance is not a sometime thing. In every situation, at every time on every day of our lives God directs our steps and guides our choices.

No matter how difficult or complex things may become for us – no matter how desperate or alone we may feel, God is with us. He will be a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet.

Always.

Do you trust him – really?

In 2017, how far in practice will you stake your life on your belief?

It was a feat like no other ever achieved in the history of the world.

Only once had it even been attempted – in 1960.

Felix Baumgartner, a 43-year old former paratrooper from Austria, decided that he would travel above the earth in a capsule, under a balloon. Wearing a special suit, Baumgartner would jump out of the capsule and fall back to earth.

He would jump from 24 miles up. It would be the highest manned balloon flight ever.

Why would anyone do this?

Baumgartner wanted to see if he could break the sound barrier. It would just be him, alone, falling through the sky. NASA, anxious to make improvements on its “space-wear”, also wanted to see how his suit held up. So on a Sunday, up went Felix. Eight million people worldwide tuned in via the internet (by way of cameras mounted on the capsule) to see him jump.

When the capsule reached an altitude of 128,100 feet, Felix went to the doorway, gave a thumbs-up, and jumped into the inky blackness of the stratosphere. Baumgartner reached a speed of 833.9 miles an hour on his way down. He broke the sound barrier, becoming the first human to reach supersonic speed without the added benefit of a jet or spacecraft.

Amazingly, Felix Baumgartner, parachuting in, landed on his feet in the dessert near Roswell, New Mexico. After falling to his knees and lifting his arms in victory, Baumgartner spoke of his extraordinary experience.

“When I was standing there on top of the world,” he said, “you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive.”

Perspective helps us focus on the important things in life.

Then Felix smiled and told the reporters:

“Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are.”

Perspective also gives us a new attitude – a new way of seeing ourselves and the world around us.

I’m guessing that Felix Baumgartner saw what we saw through the camera when he stepped to the open doorway of that capsule in space. It was the earth, round, blue and beautiful; and, yes, incredibly, awesomely majestic.

Getting a glimpse of the cosmos, we suddenly realize how insignificant we truly are.

Yes, altitude changes attitude.

The universe has that effect.

Appreciating its surreal vastness reminds us of our mortal limitations. It reminds us, too, of the infinite greatness of our Creator. To see what Felix Baumgartner saw that Sunday is to see our world and to see ourselves as God sees us.

It is to capture – for an imperfect instant – something of the divine perspective. It is to step back and see ourselves, not for what and who we think we are in all our foolish strivings and vain ambitions – but rather to see ourselves for what God knows us to be in the truth of his sovereign reality.

“For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.” (Psalm 103: 14, NLT).

Few things are as healthy as getting in touch with our own mortality and the fragile fallibilities of our nature.

God watches the people of the earth scurrying about as ants seeking dominance on a small mound of dirt and he smiles the omnipotent smile of a beneficent Maker. From where God sits – from the heavenly throne on which he rules – “all the nations of the world are but a drop in the bucket. They are nothing more than dust on the scales. He picks up the whole earth as though it were a grain of sand.” (Isaiah 40: 15, NLT).

This is the way God sees us. This is the divine perspective.

“How small we are … you become so humble.”

In a few days, many will wring their hands over the outcome of a national election that didn’t go their way. We’ll forget for a moment that to the Lord God of the universe, “all nations before him are as nothing; they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.” (Isaiah 40: 17, KJV).

The psalmist knew.

“When I consider thy heaven, the work of thy fingers, the moon and stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him?” (Psalm 8:3-4, KJV).

Only a God of unconquerable mercy and grace could display so great a love upon so infinitesimal a creature as man. We may be eternally grateful that something more than God’s glory ascends to the heavens. God “does not deal harshly with us as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.” (Psalm 103: 10, 11, NLT).

Few of us will ever see the earth from 24 miles up. Yet we should still seek a perspective of God and ourselves that reflects a true appreciation of both.

“Put them in fear, O Lord; that the nations may know themselves to be but men.” (Psalm 9: 20, KJV).

God help us to “see how small we are.”

His dad ran a hardware store in the small town of Indiana, Pennsylvania.

When war broke out in Europe young Jim was eager to enlist. Even though Pearl Harbor was months away, he knew he had to do something.

Jim was 32 and had already earned a degree in architecture from Princeton. He talked with his dad, himself a veteran of the Spanish American War and World War I.

The father understood – they had come from a long line of soldiers and patriots. He didn’t try to talk Jim out of it.

When he flunked his physical because at 6’ 3” and 138 pounds he was five pounds under the weight requirement, Jim went home and ate everything in sight. Even then, he had to have a friend tip the scales in order to make it.

On the day Jim shipped out for the Air Force as a B-24 bomber pilot, his dad, a staunch Presbyterian, quietly slipped a note and another piece of paper into Jim’s uniform pocket.

After he left home, he opened the note from his dad:

“My dear Jim-Boy, soon after you read this letter, you will be on your way to the worst of danger. Jim, I am banking on the enclosed copy of the 91st Psalm. The thing that takes the place of fear and worry is the promise of these words. I feel sure that God will lead you through this mad experience. I can say no more. I only continue to pray. Goodbye, my dear. God continue to bless and keep you. I love you more than I can tell you. Dad”

Jim read the psalm.

“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.” (Psalm 91: 1-2, KJV).

These beautiful words, rendered more so in the King James Version, are among the most beloved and familiar found in the scriptures. They have comforted millions for centuries. Jim found comfort in them now – and in his dad’s love and prayers.

“Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler”, the psalmist writes, “and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (verses 3- 4).

Throughout these 16 verses are found strong encouragement and confidence for every man, woman and child who places his full trust in the Almighty God. It is the most glorious song of Divine protection and security in the Bible. It is bold and unequivocal in its declarations.

We find no hedging qualifiers anywhere in this great psalm.

You may be surrounded by terror at night and dodging fiery arrows by day. Yet even with danger all around you, “thou shalt not be afraid” (verse 5). Though thousands may fall to the right and left of you, “it shall not come nigh thee” (verse 7).

Why?

“Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation” (verse 9).

In the daily spiritual wars of our souls and our lives and in the wars of our world, El Shaddai, the Almighty God Who sustains and protects, will protect and sustain you and me.

No matter what we’re facing.

No matter how terrifying the foe or frightening the crisis, the God Who protects “shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone” (verses 11-12).

At God’s command you and I are supported by the angels of heaven.

Jim carefully folded the psalm up and placed it back in his pocket.

Through 20 combat missions in some of the fiercest fighting the world had ever known, Jim carried that 91st Psalm with him. When the war was over, he had earned six battle stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Croix de Guerre with Palm.

He was uninjured.

Reflecting on his war experience years later, Jim said of the Psalm:

“What a promise for an airman. I placed in His hands the squadron I would be leading. And, as the psalmist promised, I felt myself borne up.”

After the war, Jim served in the Air Force Reserve, rising to the rank of Brigadier General. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1968 and in 1985 President Ronald Reagan presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The irony of it all is that Jim Stewart didn’t need to serve in World War II. He had already been nominated for an Academy Award in 1939 for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and won it in 1940 for his role in The Philadelphia Story. 

America and the world will always remember James Stewart. He never referred to himself as Jimmy, but we did and always will. When he died at the age of 89, the President of the United States hailed him as “a national treasure … a great actor, a gentleman and a patriot.”

On Jimmy Stewart’s gravestone are carved these words:

“For He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways”.