Heart to Heart with Cheri

This week I discovered we were victims of identity theft and credit/debit card fraud. Besides being enormously distressing and financially impacting (negatively, of course), I began a journey with our very helpful customer service rep at our local bank to call online companies, airlines, hotels, and other businesses to attempt to recover funds, fill out dispute forms, report to police department and other agencies.

Since according to a recent study, a consumer spends approximately 240 minutes resolving a complaint with one company, you can imagine how much time I have spent on the phone trying to get through to “Abuse Departments” (new term) and fraud supervisors. Apparently there is so much online and credit card abuse and fraud that this has provided new job opportunities and departments to deal with the epidemic. The problem is, they rarely answer their phones.

The same thing happens when you try to call a phone company, credit card company, or business. Over and over I got an endless string of voice prompts: “If you want to hear this message in English, press 1, Spanish, press 2…If this is about a lost or stolen card, press 3; billing issue, press 4; want to hear your balance, press 5; need new services, press 6; abuse or fraud, press 7….”

The one thing I needed was difficult to impossible: getting a real person on the line.

It got me thinking. There’s not a lot of difference when we call churches. Here’s what I got when I called one recently: If you want service times, press 1; directions to the church, press 2; have a prayer request, press 3; for ministry, press 4, financial assistance, press 5, emergencies, press 6 (of course, if you had a real emergency, you’d hope to get through to a person not a voice mail message!); upcoming events, press 7.

It’s easy to imagine that God treats our calls that way when we pray: If you need angelic protection, press 1; if you want to confess a sin, press 2; if you want to leave a message, do so at the sound of the harp.

But God doesn’t treat our calls that way. His Book, the Bible, says that He listens. He answers. And He acts on behalf of those who seek Him. He even reveals knowledge and information which we wouldn’t otherwise know but need in specific situations, as Jeremiah 33:3 says: “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” God gives wisdom to those who ask and shares His secrets with people who pursue relationship with Him.

What situation are you dealing with that you are fresh out of answers? Maybe it’s not identity theft, but there is a teenager in your life whose behavior baffles you or a problem you are facing that’s mind-boggling. This is an absolutely great invitation God gives us: “Call to Me!” He won’t put you on hold or leave you a generic voice mail message. He is up all night when you can’t sleep (see Psalm 121) and He is attentive to your cries. Let me encourage you to pray (that’s how we call God; we don’t have to send an e-mail or fax to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem).

As Eugene Peterson said in A Year With Jesus, “We pray because it is the only language we have for speaking to the God revealed in Jesus. It is also the only language we have for listening to the commands and blessings and guidance that God provides in Jesus…Prayer is the street language that we use with Jesus as he walks the streets with us…It is the only language available to us as we bring our unique and particular selves…into daily, hourly conversation with God.”

So call on God often, and don’t forget to listen and wait for His answer!

By the way, several friends have asked me how they can AVOID identity theft and fraud, but I don’t know enough yet to do so. I’m in the damage control phase of the journey. However, I’m taking notes, and at some point down the road will make what I learn available to those who are interested. Have a great week! And thanks for reading my eNews!

Quotes to Ponder

If you keep watch over your hearts, and listen for the voice of God and learn of him, in one short hour you can learn more from him than you could learn from man in a thousand years.
--Johann Tauler (1300)


God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know
One from the other.
--Reinhold Nieburh (1892)
 

 

             


Marriage Toolbox

Pray this Biblical prayer daily for a month and watch what God does in your heart and marriage.  As I’ve prayed this over the last three years, I have found it a truly life and heart-transforming prayer for our marriage.  No matter if stressful life circumstances or irritations, busyness, his mistakes or yours have caused your natural “loving feelings” for your spouse to run dry (I know it’s only a few days after Valentine’s, but it happens in the best of marriages.) The great thing is that God’s love for your mate hasn’t changed or diminished a bit. He is a God of affection and lovingkindness. He still loves your husband with an everlasting, unconditional love regardless of his choices, his spiritual growth, blunders, good performance or lack of it. And you can tap into this love, God’s love, for your mate, by asking Him to love your mate (or child, difficult person, friend) through you. This prayer is a great place to start:

Lord, help us to love each other with a genuine affection and to delight in honoring each other. Romans 12:10, NLT

 

Book & Movie Reviews

Waiting on God
By Andrew Murray
Whitaker House
$6.99

This is an understatement, but few of us today are very good at waiting. We don’t like waiting in check-out lines, waiting at stop lights or in traffic, at airline gates especially if there are delays, or waiting on our child to finish his latest Lego creation and get out the door into the car for the next scheduled activity.  Most things we want right now.  I know I’m good at waiting. Born with a rather impatient nature (my mother would have called that an "understatement", God has had me on a long journey with some trials and misadventures thrown in to help me learn the virtue of patience (I’ve still got a ways to go). As someone once said, “Lord, give me patience and give it to me right now!”

Andrew Murray’s treasured wisdom in a small, inexpensive paperback, Waiting on God, has much to teach us on the subject.  In each chapter Murray explores Scriptures that direct us HOW and WHY we are
to wait on God. He articulates aspects like: how waiting on God is the
keynote of life; benefits such as: God draws near to those who wait and
those who wait on God will NEVER be ashamed, Ps. 25:3--what a promise!, their strength will be renewed (Isaiah 40) and they'll gain the instruction, supplies and provision they need. Most of all, they will know God not just know about Him as they learn to wait on the Lord. I highly recommend this little book!  

You can purchase this book for $6.99 by using our special order form or by visiting your local bookstore.

Recommended Reading

This issue, I also want to share with you a few of my recommended reading list of favorites, “can’t miss” treasures to add to your bookshelf, books which have shaped and encouraged my spiritual life.  Most are in print, but if they are out of print because of being an older (and thus classic) book, you can search on Amazon or other websites for used and out-of-print often at very good prices.  A few of these I have already written a review in a past issue and in future issues I’ll review others, but here they are for your consideration:

Corrie ten Boom, Reflections of His Glory, The Hiding Place

Ole Hallesby, Prayer

Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing

Fenelon, Let Go; Talking With God

Richard Foster, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home

Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life

Hannah Hurnard, Hinds Feet on High Places

Madame Guyon, Experiencing God in Prayer

Catherine Marshall, Adventures in Prayer

John Piper, The Godward Life; Pierced By The Word

Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer; Abide in Christ, and Waiting on God.

Elisabeth Elliot, A Chance to Die; A Lamp Before My Feet

Edith Schaeffer, What is a Family?

Paul Billheimer, Don’t Waste Your Sorrows

Calvin Miller, Into the Depths of God

Brent Curtis and John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance

For more information on purchasing any of these titles, you can contact PC Publications  or visit your local bookstore.