Call Back

This has long been one of my favorite readings in "Streams in the Desert".  Let's not get so wrapped up in the joy of Christmas that we forget those around us that are hurting from the blows they have received this year, especially from loss of loved ones.  Christmas is one of those "hard" holidays when you have lost someone dear to you that would make the season more special.  We need to look around us and see if there is a visit or two that we might be able to make or an invitation we could send to someone going through some hard times.  God bless your efforts!  And Merry Christmas to any who read my blog and thanks for your support!:-)  ~Teresa



"It shall turn to you for a testimony'' (Luke 21:13).

Life is a steep climb, and it does the heart good to have somebody "call back" and cheerily beckon us on up the high hill. We are all climbers together, and we must help one another. This mountain climbing is serious business, but glorious. It takes strength and steady step to find the summits. The outlook widens with the altitude. If anyone among us has found anything worth while, we ought to "call back."

If you have gone a little way ahead of
me, call back--
'Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perchance, Faith's light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you when the forest's roots were torn;
That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill,
He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.

Oh, friend, call back, and tell me for I cannot see your your face,
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;
But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

 But if you'll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you'll say He saw you through the night's sin-darkened sky
If you have gone a little way ahead, oh, friend, call back--
'Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.
--Selected

Send me a message!
Visit our church web site

In Memory of Paul Wesley Green

Paul is our grandson.  He was born with an encephalocele.  There are some who think that children like this should be aborted while still in the womb.  We know that God gave life, every life, for a divine purpose.  Our daughter, Sarah, went through a radical cesarean section to give him the best chance of life she could.  It was the most difficult time that she and her husband, Ryan, have ever experienced.  The Lord let us know him for almost two years.  Today marks two years that he has been in Heaven.  His blind little eyes have enjoyed the greatest wonders of all time and eternity.  Although we miss him very much, there are many things that the Lord gave us while he was here and even after his death.  I thought the reading this morning in "Streams In The Desert" very appropriate for the day.  I wanted to share it with you.

"For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble ..., that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead." 2 Corinthians 1:8-9


"Pressed out of measure and pressed to all length;
Pressed so intensely it seems, beyond strength;
Pressed in the body and pressed in the soul,
Pressed in the mind till the dark surges roll.
Pressure by foes, and a pressure from friends.
Pressure on pressure, till life nearly ends.

"Pressed into knowing no helper but God;
Pressed into loving the staff and the rod.
Pressed into liberty where nothing clings;
Pressed into faith for impossible things.
Pressed into living a life in the Lord,
Pressed into living a Christ-life outpoured."

The pressure of hard places makes us value life. Every time our life is given back to us from such a trial, it is like a new beginning, and we learn better how much it is worth, and make more of it for God and man. The pressure helps us to understand the trials of others, and fits us to help and sympathize with them.

There is a shallow, superficial nature, that gets hold of a theory or a promise lightly, and talks very glibly about the distrust of those who shrink from every trial; but the man or woman who has suffered much never does this, but is very tender and gentle, and knows what suffering really means. This is what Paul meant when he said, "Death worketh in you."

Trials and hard places are needed to press us forward, even as the furnace fires in the hold of that mighty ship give force that moves the piston, drives the engine, and propels that great vessel across the sea in the face of the winds and waves. --A. B. Simpson

"Out of the presses of pain,
Cometh the soul's best wine;
And the eyes that have shed no rain,
Can shed but little shine."

This song, though written about a little girl, reminds me of Paul. 
"In God's Hands" by the Rochesters