MARTHA VANCISE

Writing for 21st Century Pilgrims

Why Bother?

Why Bother?

by | AprThu2015 | SIGNPOSTS

The Bible clearly teaches that doing good deeds or works will not get us into heaven. The Apostle Paul said, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

If “good deeds” don’t count as currency to enter heaven, then why bother? Why should we —

Give to rescue people from human trafficking
Spend an evening ladling food in a soup kitchen
Prepare a casserole for a recuperating neighbor
Mow an elderly person’s lawn
Coach a Little League baseball team
Help clean up a tornado-ravaged town
Sweat in the sun to build a church in Africa
Run a 5K to help fund a pregnancy center
Write encouraging letters

WHY BOTHER? 

Why use our time, energy, and money to do good deeds when our resources and time could be spent on hobbies and entertainment that would bring pleasure to us? As long as we don’t do bad deeds that hurt others, why bother with the good deeds?

God’s plan for our life includes doing good works.
Our good deeds glorify our Father in heaven.
Works of service build up the body of Christ.
We show God’s love, through good deeds rather than words.

Good deeds will not give us a pass through the pearly gates, but they are essential for a strong vital Christian life.

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)
Let your light shine before others , that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)
…to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up… (Ephesians 4:12)
My little children, let us not love with words or tongue; but with actions and in truth
(I John 3:18)
…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:17)
Martha Hawn VanCise©
Pauses

Pauses

by | AprThu2015 | SIGNPOSTS

In both manned and unmanned space launches, pauses are built into the launch time clock. The clock stops, giving launch specialists time to check, recheck, review, activate, test, and begin new steps in the launch procedure. During these pauses, fuel is carefully loaded without the pressure of watching time on the countdown clock. The capsule is cleaned and vacuumed one last time to eliminate earthly contamination, and final briefings on weather conditions are given.

Just as pauses are built into the countdown of rocket launches, God inserts pauses in our lives. Sometimes the pauses provide essential refueling times after a long spiritual battle, illness, or an exhausting stretch of work. More often, pauses halt the forward progression of our well-ordered life in areas of employment, family relationships, church involvement, or ministry.

We usually view pauses as delays. We chafe at the halt to our plans, but progression will only be made as we make use of these schedule-stopping pauses and accept them as part of God’s plan.

Pauses are times:

To review and thank God for the journey so far
To do an unhurried spiritual life inspection
To check the motives in all areas of our life
To look for contamination from the world and  our culture
To confess hindrances to spiritual growth
To reaffirm our commitment to walk in obedience to Christ.

Nothing delays God’s schedule,

but pauses are built into God’s plan for our life.

 

Martha Hawn VanCise© 

Voices

Voices

by | AprWed2015 | SIGNPOSTS

We lived in Haiti in 1986 when the country exploded with riots and demonstrations that culminated in the departure of Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. When the unrest began, the government blocked CNN television and destroyed radio stations that dared broadcast news about the turmoil. At that time there was no internet, text messaging, or reliable phone service. We had no way of knowing if the rumors we heard were true or not. Our only source of truth was the Voice of America short-wave radio transmission.

As in VOA commercials that appeared during the Cold War, we huddled around our short-wave radio to hear the TRUTH about what was really happening in Haiti. At 7:00 p.m. we strained to hear the music of Yankee Doodle that announced the start of the English version of the news. We trusted VOA to bring us the Truth without the distortion of opinion or pressure from governments or outside sources.

Finding VOA, however, was very difficult on our small, short-antennaed radio. Amidst the shrill and hiss and sounds of multiple languages, I would move the dial in hair-line increments to catch the first strains of Yankee Doodle and hope I could connect with the station before the news began. To make it easier to find, I marked the dial with a thin line of red nail polish. Even though the sound of the news sometimes roared in and out like the tide, we listened intently because the truth we heard on VOA often determined our travel and activity schedule for the next day.

Today, we live in a world where truth in broadcasting is hard to find. Politics, advertisers, governments, cultural pressure, and personal opinion shape the news. Tragically, these elements are also shaping the message of the Church. There is only one source of Truth and that is the Voice of God through the Word. The Voice of God will not be found through a casual scanning of your Bible. Tuning in to the Voice of God requires effort to tune out the hissing and shrilling voices of surrounding messages. It requires focusing, looking intently into the Word, and then ordering our activities according to the Truth that we find.

Jesus prayed, “I’m not asking that you take them out of the world But that you guard them from the Evil One. They are no more defined by the world Than I am defined by the world. Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth; Your word is consecrating truth.” (John 17:15-17 MSG)

Martha Hawn VanCise©

No License To Kill

No License To Kill

by | MarThu2015 | SIGNPOSTS

The faculty of faith is not meant to kill the faculty of criticism and the instinct of curiosity, but rather to keep them keen and alive, and prevent them from dying of despair.  Faith is the mark of those who seek and keep on seeking, who ask and keep on asking, who knock and keep on knocking until the door is opened. The passive, weak-kneed taking of everything on trust — which is often presented as faith — is a travesty of its truth.  True faith is the most active, positive, and powerful of all virtues. It means that a [person], having come into spiritual communion with that great personal Spirit who lives and works behind the universe, can trust Him, and, trusting Him, can use all [his/her] powers of body, mind, and spirit to cooperate with Him in the great purpose of perfection. It means that the person of faith will be the person of science in its deepest, truest sense, and will never cease from asking questions — never cease from seeking for the reason that lies behind all mysteries.
… G. A. Studdert Kennedy (1883-1929), The Hardest Part

Praise be to the name of God forever and ever; wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons; he deposes kings and raises up others. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. (Daniel 2:20-22)  … in whom (Christ) are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  (Colossians 2:3)

Martha Hawn VanCise©

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Timpani and Triangles

Timpani and Triangles

by | MarThu2015 | SIGNPOSTS

 

I first heard a live performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony when I was in college.  The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel produced a memorable experience. Yes, the violinists were impressive, but I was mesmerized by the timpani player. Before his entry, he would slip from a high stool and with a flip of tuxedo tails lift the mallets in preparation for his part. With blurred hands, he made Beethoven’s storm come alive with the thundering timpani.

When I looked ahead at the part I hoped to play in God’s plan for my life,  I had in mind a timpani part. I wanted to shake my world and make people feel the sense of God’s power. I knew I fell short of the ability to be a first violinist, but perhaps I could make the world take notice with a missionary career or a Christian best-seller – all for God’s glory of course. God, though, had another instrument in mind for me – the triangle. The triangle seldom appears in classical or even contemporary symphonies. The player of the triangle must often wait through many movements of a symphony before playing a single solitary note, but following the director and coming in on the right beat is essential for a well-performed concert.

Most of us are triangle players.

Sometimes we feel as if we wait forever to make a difference in our world. We must stay alert, though, for our part and pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s prompting. Our note may be to stop what we are doing and take time to pray for someone that God brings to mind. It may mean sending a card, an email, a text message, making a phone call, taking time from our schedule to visit someone, handing a $20 bill to someone in the supermarket, or giving someone a homemade glass of strawberry jam. Every note, played in God’s time and for his glory, contributes to God’s great symphony of love to this world. Stay alert to that subtle move of the Conductor’s hand that signals

“It’s time for you to play your note.”

Martha Hawn VanCise© 2021

Leave It Alone

Leave It Alone

by | FebThu2015 | SIGNPOSTS

So you don’t understand what happened to the dinosaurs. In your search for answers don’t pull out “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Yes, it takes faith to leave that thread alone. We cannot prove God created all things but “by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.” God as Creator of all is not a loose thread that can be tugged out and discarded. Pull on that thread and your faith will unravel and end up in a pile of jumbled and tangled ideology. Throughout the Word, God emphasizes his role of Creator. Confirmation that God was creator of heaven and earth, animals, birds, sea life and humans is found from the first verse of the Bible to the last book of the Bible.

Two millennia after Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden, “The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth …” God said, “I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth — men and animals and creatures that move along the ground and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them.” Centuries later, Abraham and the mysterious King Melchizedek met, and both spoke of the “God Most High Creator of heaven and earth.”

The Psalmists wrote about the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth, and Our Maker. The prophets faithfully gave God’s message, “It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens….” The Apostle John spoke of the Word (Jesus) “being with God from the beginning. Through him all things were made: without him, nothing was made that has been made.” At the dawn of the Church Age, the Apostle Paul told a crowd at Lystra, “turn to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.”

 Creation Is a Reference Mark On God’s Timeline. 

Jesus spoke of future events saying, “…those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world.” Jesus also spoke of his relationship to God before creation. “…you loved me before the creation of the world.” The Apostle Peter said that God’s plan for our salvation from sin was developed “before the creation of the world.” According to Revelation, the book of life was started at the creation of the world.

Thread Pullers

Paul spoke to Roman Thread Pullers. “For since the creation of the world God has made his eternal power and divine nature clear, and people have no excuse for unbelief.” Paul goes on to describe the chaos and debauchery that follows when people pull that thread and “begin to worship and serve created things rather than the Creator…” The Apostle Peter also warned about those who treat God’s promises lightly and “deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.”

An End-Times Reminder – God Created …

The book of Revelation tells of elders falling before God and saying “you created all things.” In chapter ten we see an angel who “swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it …” A flying angel cries out “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.” From beginning to end, the Word confirms and emphasizes that God created the heavens and the earth and seas and all that was in them – including humans.

Go ahead.
Dig for the truth about dinosaurs and fossils and
strange-looking bones to your heart’s content.
Just don’t mess with the thread of God as Creator.

Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:2; Genesis 6:6-7; Genesis 14:19, 22; Psalm 95:6; 115:15; 121:2; 124:8; 134:3; 146:6; Isaiah 45:12; Mark 13:19; John 17:24b; I Peter 1:20; Romans 1:18-32; II Peter 3:5; Revelation 4:11; Revelation 17:8b; Rev. 14:7

Martha Hawn VanCise©