Fresh and Green

by Holly Moulder

The righteous will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,
 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

 –Psalm 92:14, 15

 

            Today is my husband’s 62^nd birthday.  A very big deal in our house because this day heralds the beginning of the golden age of Social Security!  We’ve looked forward to this period of our lives with great anticipation and have spent that first government check a thousand different ways.  My list includes new furniture, a trip to the beach, a new bedspread with matching curtains.  Don’s list is much less practical in my view (well, maybe the beach trip isn’t exactly practical), but it is HIS check after all, so he should have some say in deciding how that first one is spent.  He’s mumbled something about a new truck or a 1966 Ford Mustang, preferably in a shiny shade of Acapulco blue.  We’ll see, dear.

 

            According to the world, we are now officially old.  AARP has sent us an avalanche of letters and magazines.  Our junk mail advertises special prices on prescriptions and products for the elderly:  walkers, hip replacement surgeries, and discount dentures.  Local retirement homes are calling to check on us regularly, just to keep us informed of the spaces that may be coming available in the very near future.  (Just think about that one for a minute.  I mean, HOW do they know that ‘spaces may be coming available in the very near future’?  I find these calls particularly horrifying.)

 

Sage advice from John Wayne:  “Don’t let aging get you down.  It’s too hard to get back up.”

 

            Yes, the world would have us strapped in rocking chairs, wrapped in shawls, smiling toothless smiles and dreaming faded dreams of long-ago youth. 

 

But not God!  To Him, we’ve just begun! 

 

The psalmist shouts, “They (the righteous) will still bear fruit in old age!  They will stay fresh and green!”  Fresh and green?  Huh?  We don’t usually think of the well-over-fifty crowd as ‘fresh’, do we?  And ‘green’, in the context of society’s view of seniors, does not conjure up pleasant images.  But to God, we’re young whipper snappers! 

 

In the life of a Christian, there is no retirement on this earth.  There is no heavenly social security check in the mail, no eternal life old age home, no pension from paradise.  We’re still on the job and punching that time clock every morning. 

 

“A man is not old as long as he seeks something.”—Jean Rostand

 

So, we continue to seek His Kingdom, look for the lost, witness to those who need to know the Savior.  Every day that we’re still here provides us with another opportunity to serve, and we’d better not waste it!  Even in our knee-creaking, hip-popping, deaf-ear shouting, gray-headed old age, we are to proclaim:

 

The Lord is upright!  He is our Rock! Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness!

 

By the world’s standards, we’re all decaying little by little, minute by minute.  Those of us who have reached some of life’s significant milestones are viewed as not just old, but as climbing-up-over-the-hill-and-slip-sliding-down-the-other-side old.  Thankfully, that’s not how God views His children.  Instead, He sees our sin-ridden, decaying souls and loves us anyway.  And to prove it, He sent the sacrifice of the ages, Jesus Christ, to climb a very different hill.  The change-the-course-of-our-eternity hill.  He sent His only son, Jesus, to climb the hill of Calvary.  Just for us.

 

Even to your old age and gray hairs,

I am he, I am he who will sustain you. 

I have made you and I will carry you,

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.—Isaiah 46:4

 

*

 

Father, thank you that, regardless of the number of birthdays, I’m still Your child. You don’t see my gray hair or my wrinkles.  In Your eyes, I am precious.  Keep my spirit fresh and green, ready and willing to serve You!

 

 

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

by Holly Moulder 

“For you created me in my inmost being;

You knit me together in my mother’s womb,

I praise you because I am fearfully and

wonderfully made.”—Psalm 139:16

 

          I saw an advertisement in a magazine for a company that was selling “birthday plaques”.  A pretty neat idea, actually.  They looked up your birthday in the Bible, using your special day as chapter and verse.  Intrigued, I started to do a little research about my day, April 19 or 4/19. 

 

John 4:19 was kind of a let down.  My birthday fell smack dab in the middle of the story of the woman at the well.  Too much sin, there.  Not something I’d want to hang on my wall.  So, I took that as a cautionary tale and went hunting in another Gospel. 

 

          Mark 4:19 wasn’t a whole lot better.  It appeared in the parable of the sower.  “but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”  Ouch.  Although vines twisting and weaving their way around the edge of a pretty oak plague was appealing, the verse just wasn’t.  Deceitfulness, etc.   Don’t particularly care for that one.  Let’s move on.

 

          Luke 4:19 had things looking up.  Jesus is quoting a verse from Psalm 91.  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Sounds promising.  I like this one better than the other two!

 

          And then, it hit me.  All of those verses do apply to my life!  I was that woman at the well, lost in my sin and shame.  I did receive the message of Jesus’ love for me, as the parable of the sower tells, but have I allowed the things of this world to distract me?  Have I allowed the Spirit of God to be choked, making me unfruitful?  Finally, reading Luke 4:19, I remember the author of my salvation, the One who was sent to release me from sin, and—as my birthday verse joyously announces—proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor!

 

          But the best was yet to come.  Matthew 4:19.  “Come follow me”, Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  He found me in my sin, He fed me His Word, freed me from my guilt and shame, and now He sends me out to share this wonderful news with the whole world. 

 

(Did I mention that my maiden name is Fisher?  Coincidence?  Nope!)

 

“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”—Psalm 139:16

 

          He knew my birthday before I came to be.  He’s known me forever.  He knows me through eternity.  Thank you, Father.

 

          Father, I praise You that I am so wonderfully made, that you have known me since before time itself began.  In the words of the psalmist, “Lead me in the way everlasting.”  Send me into the world to share Your wonderful news with those still in darkness.

 

         

A Simple Prayer

by Holly Moulder

 

…your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Matthew 6:10

 

Father, let your will be done. The simplest, yet most powerful prayer we can pray. 

I’m often overwhelmed with fear for my family. At times my children are in scary situations, far from home and the protection of a mom who loves them more than life.  I can’t be with them every moment of every day, so I pray:  Let Your will be done in their lives, Father. 

And peace fills my heart.

The money is tight again.  Bills are due tomorrow, and the paycheck won’t come for another two weeks.  What am I going to do?  How do I buy groceries, gas, medicine?  I pray:  Let Your will be done with my finances, Father.

And suddenly, my world feels much richer.

 

Illness is taking the life of someone dear to me.  There are probably only days, maybe hours, left for him on earth.  Oh, grief saturates my spirit, and words won’t come to my lips.  Silently I pray:  Let Your will be done in his life, Father. 

And comfort washes over me as warm as the tears that fill my eyes.

Anxiety about world events consumes me.  Wars in the Middle East, starvation in Africa, droughts and disease rampant around the globe.  I turn off the radio, the tv, the computer.  Put down the newspaper. And I pray:  In this confused and dark world, Father, let Your will be done.

All at once, my mind is quieted, and my soul soars with hope.

Listen.  Can you hear His voice?  The Prince of Peace calls to us.

 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petitions with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

--Philippians 4:6

 *

Father, I come to you today humbled by your love for me.  The entire universe rests in the palm of Your hands.  I trust You with all my worries and concerns.  Oh, Father, let Your will be done.

 

 

 

 

Would Jesus Blog?

Would Jesus Blog?

by Holly Moulder

 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

--Hebrews 13: 8

 

          Today I started a new blog.  For most people, this would seem like a simple endeavor.  But to me, modern technology is one of the great mysteries of life.   I just don’t have the brain power to figure it out.

 

          So, this was big deal.  The video narrator exclaimed, “You’ll have your very own blog in 20 minutes or less!”  Obviously, this person had never dealt with anyone like me.  Six hours later, I was ready to snap my Toshiba in half and send the parts to the happy little voice on the other end of the website.

 

          While I waited for my computer to download the next page of instructions, I thought about how Jesus would deal with this computer age.  When I picture the Savior, He’s in a long white robe with full sleeves, sandals on his feet, his face peaceful and calm.  Holding to that image, I have to wonder:  if Jesus had come to earth in this era of high rise offices and tiny cubicles, would He struggle with this age of technology like many of us do?  Would He get confused setting up His Twitter account?  Would He get frustrated when the server crashed or His inbox filled up with spam?   And consider Matthew 28:31.  If a hungry Jesus cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit, what could the God of the Universe do to a laptop that had frozen up?

 

          Oh, how arrogant we humans can be!  Do we dare to forget who He is?  He alone created the world.  He alone made us in His own image.   He didn’t need a how-to DVD or an internet podcast to form the earth and everything on it!  Isaiah 45:18 exclaims—

 

“For this is what the Lord says—
he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited —
he says:
“I am the Lord,
and there is no other.”

         

          He’s here with us now, in the midst of tv shows and rock stars, internet moguls and email.  Fox News and CNN hold no surprises for Him.  He knew about Facebook, Apple, and Youtube long before Steve Jobs dropped out of college or Mark Zuckerburg started kindergarten.

 

So, to answer my own question:  yes, I think Jesus would blog.  I think He’d do anything and everything to reach out to his children.  Even in our puffed-up self-importance, He’d still come looking for us, drawing us to Him.  Whatever it took, He’d do it.  Because He already did.  At Calvary.

 

 “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

--Matthew 28:20