faith

Anointed with Oil

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Have you ever wondered why Psalm 23 talks about anointing the head with oil? I guess I always assumed it had something to do with David being anointed king or maybe it was a symbolic gesture. Here’s something I found that explains it quite well. It’s also a good word for those of us who have intrusive thoughts that won’t go away:

“I always wondered what this part of Psalm 23 meant. I thought ‘He anoints my head with oil’ was figurative language to refer to God keeping the psalmist healthy. I never knew this parallel.

Sheep can get their heads caught in brambles and die trying to untangle themselves. There are horrible little flies that like to torment sheep by laying eggs in their nostrils that turn into maggots and drive the sheep to hit their heads on a rock, sometimes to death. His ears and eyes are also susceptible to tormenting insects.

The shepherd then anoints his entire head with oil. Then there is peace. That oil forms a protective barrier against the evil that tries to destroy the sheep.

Do you have moments of mental torment?

Do worrying thoughts invade your mind again and again?

Are you banging your head against the wall trying to stop them?

Have you ever asked God to anoint your head with oil?

It has an infinite supply! His oil protects and makes it possible for you to fix your heart, mind and eyes on Him today and always!

There is peace in the valley! May our good Father anoint your head with oil today so that your cup overflows with blessings! God is good and faithful!!” (Francisco J. Toledo).

40 Days of Prayer

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Last year, my church participated in a Chronological Bible reading plan that involved all nine campuses. This year, we’re starting off 2025 by doing a 40 Days of Prayer initiative where we focus on specific local, national, and global partners in the gospel going forth to all nations in all the world.

I’m also doing my own personal prayer focus with books like the Book of Common Prayer and The Orthodox Christian Prayer Book. I’ve always believed in the power of prayer, but this year I’m trying to be more intentional and not just haphazardly praying whatever comes to mind.

I truly believe that the greatest and most underutilized weapon in the Church’s arsenal is prayer. We very rarely spend any significant corporate time in prayer other than between the worship set and the sermon. For those of you who remember the old Wednesday Night Prayer Service, you know that most of the time that ended up being just another regular church service with full sermon and not a lot of actual praying.

There’s something powerful about agreeing in prayer as a body of believers. Samuel Chadwick once said, ““Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.”

William Cowper also said, ““Satan trembles, when he sees the weakest Saint upon his [or her] knees.”

There is untapped power in prayer as both individual believers and together as the Church of Almighty God. I’m convinced that if Satan can keep us busy doing anything and everything but praying — even if that is worship and preaching and evangelism — he will have succeeded, because nothing is more impotent than prayerless worship, prayerless preaching, and prayerless evangelism. We end up going through the motions with nothing to show for it.

I confess that I’m not very good at praying. My mind wanders all over the place and it’s easy for me to get distracted by social media or a song on the radio or something on TV. Many times I will fall asleep in the middle of prayer.

But even my weak attempts at prayer are better than not praying at all. Satan trembles when any of God’s children — including me — get on their knees to pray because He knows the power is not in the pray-er or even the prayer but in the One who hears. Satan knows that we have not because we ask not but when we do ask, the heavens are opened and God’s riches and blessings are unleashed.

So I’d love to pray for you this year. If you want to email me your prayer requests at gmendel72@icloud.com, I’d love to pray over you in 2025.

Those Two Little Words

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If I were to quote a passage, do you think you’d catch it if I left something out? Like this:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your considerate spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:4-7, Legacy Standard Bible).

Did you notice anything missing? Now let me quote the verse with the missing part put back in:

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your considerate spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:4-7, Legacy Standard Bible, emphasis added.

I added the bold to make it obvious. Two little words “with thanksgiving” were missing from the first quotation. But that’s what is missing in a lot of our prayers and petitions. At least I can speak for myself and say that I go through a lot of requests in my prayers without ever giving thanks. But I think that’s the key.

I’m not saying that a few magical phrases will automatically make God grant you everything you ask for. But I wonder if sometimes if the gratitude part is what keeps us from seeing God at work in our petitions. Maybe the giving thanks part is like praying in faith believing you have already received what you ask for.

The answer may not always look like what you expect. But you can be sure that God honors His promises to give us what we ask when in faith with thanksgiving.

And note that it does not say that we’re ever to give thanks FOR everything but IN everything. We shouldn’t be thankful for cancer or car wrecks or wildfires. But we can give thanks in the midst of those things because God is working even in those cases for good. Out of those ashes will come something beautiful.

But let us be thankful people, regardless. Even if God did nothing else for us from here until eternity, we’d still have a million reasons for gratitude and thanksgiving. We could still give thanks if for nothing else than salvation and the next breath.

So let’s not leave those two little words out next time. Or, maybe I shouldn’t leave out those two little words next time.

Five Helps for the New Year

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I found this on the interwebs and thought I’d share. It’s something to work on if you haven’t already made your new year resolutions. In fact, these are things you can work on at any time and at any point of the year, new or old.

“1. Thank God. Often and always. Thank him carefully and wonderingly for your continuing privileges and for every experience of his goodness. Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.

2. Take care about confession of your sins. As time passes the habit of being critical about people and things grows more than each of us realize. …[He then gently commends the practice of sacramental confession].

3. Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly but they can help to keep you humble. [Whether trivial or big, accept them he says.] All these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our Lord. There is nothing to fear, if you are near to the Lord and in his hands.

4. Do not worry about status. There is only one status that Our Lord bids us be concerned with, and that is our proximity to Him. “If a man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am there also shall my servant be”. (John 12:26) That is our status; to be near our Lord wherever He may ask us to go with him.

5. Use your sense of humour. Laugh at things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh at yourself.

Through the year people will thank God for you. And let the reason for their thankfulness be not just that you were a person whom they liked or loved but because you made God real to them” (Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury, 61-74).

Grace (by Frederick Buechner)

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“After centuries of handling and mishandling, most religious words have become so shopworn nobody’s much interested anymore. Not so with grace, for some reason. Mysteriously, even derivatives like gracious and graceful still have some of the bloom left.

Grace is something you can never get but can only be given. There’s no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can deserve the taste of raspberries and cream or earn good looks or bring about your own birth.

A good sleep is grace and so are good dreams. Most tears are grace. The smell of rain is grace. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. Have you ever tried to love somebody?

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the assertion that people are saved by grace. There’s nothing YOU have to do. There’s nothing you HAVE to do. There’s nothing you have to DO.

The grace of God means something like: “Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you.”

There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it.

Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too” (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking).

I always like the acronym for GRACE – God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.

That means it is undeserved.

It’s the flip side of mercy. If grace is getting what you don’t deserve, then mercy is not getting what you deserve. And salvation involves both.

May we be a people of mercy and grace in 2025.

All I Needed to Say

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I know several people who are dealing with grief and the loss of a loved one. It’s never easy, especially with the recent end of the Christmas season that makes loss even more difficult to bear. I found a post with the lyrics from a Michael W. Smith song from his second album. Let these words sink in and express your own grief and loss:

“Sad goodbye
Never quite got said
Now the time is gone
We’re moving on
Even though it hurts so bad

If I could
I’d turn back the days
And I’d love again
To be your friend
In a hundred different ways
But we can’t turn back the time
The days

So if I never said, all I needed to say
I’ll say it now
You know I loved you once
I love you stronger today
Please love, find me a way
Words, I still need to say
But I don’t know how

Can’t stand still
Still I can’t move on
Lord, I need your strength
Need you and me
‘Cause a part of me is gone

In time, I will know
What I’ve yet to see
That through all the pain
You hurt the same
And you’re standing here with me
More than anything it’s you
I need

So if I never said, all I needed to say
I’ll say it now
You know I loved you once
I love you stronger today
Please love find me a way
Words, I still need to say
Please show me how

Words, I still need to say

So if I never said, all I needed to say
I’ll say it now
You know I loved you once
I love you stronger today
Please love find me a way
But I don’t know how
Please love find me a way
Please show me how” (Amy Grant / Michael W. Smith).

Glory in the Skies

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“God’s glory is on tour in the skies,
    God-craft on exhibit across the horizon.
Madame Day holds classes every morning,
    Professor Night lectures each evening” (Psalm 19:1-2, The Message).

This afternoon, I drove down I-840 from Christiana to Brentwood to get to Room in the Inn at Brentwood Baptist Church. I was a little anxious about facing 4 pm traffic, but I shouldn’t have been worried in the least. It was such a peaceful drive.

As I drove toward the sunset, I could see the sun peaking out from behind the hills in the distance as it was sinking toward night. Everything around me took on a kind of golden glow as the daylight faded away.

I do think that dusk is my favorite part of the day. It almost always makes me feel relaxed and calm, reminding me that despite anything that I may be worried about, creation is a classroom where the glory of God is the subject and I am the student. I need to be reminded that just as God displays His majestic wonder every morning and every evening, so will He show Himself mighty in taking care of my needs.

Also, it’s a helpful lesson in humility to recall that in the grand scheme of things, I am very small and all my problems aren’t all that dire in the light of creation and the universe and the story that God is unfolding across time and history, yet He cares for me as one of the little sparrows.

I wonder if God orchestrates history for moments like these for me to be driving down the interstate and see a beautiful sunset. Not that I am super important or influential but just because maybe God knew I needed it.

The Greater Light of the Ancient Flame

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“Give Santa Claus a place at Christmas, so long as it is not the highest place. Sing songs about flying reindeer, but let them fly lower than the angels. Set cookies and milk out on Christmas Eve, but remember that flour and sugar and cream are of lesser value than gold and frankincense and myrrh. String colored lights on every house, hang them from every tree, so long as they are lesser lights, and the greater light of the ancient flame burns brighter still” (Winter Fire: Christmas with G. K. Chesterton, Ryan Whitaker Smith).

As I’m learning, it doesn’t have to be either/or when it comes to Santa Clause or Jesus Christ, the North Pole or Bethlehem. Just as long as you keep the star of Bethlehem that shone over the place where Jesus lay in the manger over the star on your tree, you can celebrate both. At least, that’s my understanding.

What Santa represents is the spirit of giving and generosity which finds its ultimate fulfillment in the gift of Emmanuel, God with us. What the lights and decorations represent is joy, which stands on the final victory of Jesus at the cross. Every Christmas tradition points to the original Christmas story, which always points to Jesus.

And I still think the best way to celebrate Christmas is over 12 days instead of just one. But I won’t hold my breath. I won’t get upset when everybody takes down all the reminders of Christmas by the first of the new year, because I know that the real Christmas is what lives in my heart, and nothing can ever take that away.

An Evangelistic Prayer

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“DAILY PRAYER (BY SPURGEON)
Lord Jesus, reign in the hearts of our young children, of our husbands, wives, brethren, friends, and families. Lord, rule in the hearts of our neighbors. Lord Jesus, save London! Lord Jesus, look at this United Kingdom [and United States]. Look at all the kingdoms and republics of the earth. May the whole earth know you, exalted one. By the merit of your passion, we beg the Father to glorify you. Father, glorify your Son, that your Son also may glorify you. And unto Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be glory forever and ever, world without end.
Amen.
VERSE OF THE DAY (COMMENTARY BY SPURGEON)
“Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)
The most earnest and faithful minister of the gospel must ever remember that humbling truth. He has this precious treasure of the gospel entrusted to his charge; he knows he has it, and he means to keep it safely; but, still, he is nothing but an earthen vessel, easily broken, soon marred,—a poor depository for such priceless truth.
If angels had been commissioned to preach the gospel, we might have attributed some of its power to their superior intelligence; but when God selects, as he always does, earthen vessels, then the excellency of the power is unquestionably seen to be of God, and not of us.”

Maybe this coming year of 2025 is when all believers commit to praying earnestly for their lost family, friends, and neighbors. Maybe this is the year that all of us (including me) will pray for opportunities for gospel conversations wherever we live, work, and play. I have a small group of people that I’m praying for that they’d come to know Jesus in a saving way. I’m sure you do, too.

The older I get, the more I am convinced that what we need is spiritual and not political. As much as we want to believe it, another Republican president isn’t going to fix what’s wrong with the country or the world. Only Jesus can do that. And only Jesus can fix the hurt and brokenness in each of us.

So I’m praying more than ever in 2025 for a mighty work of God in those who don’t know God. But first, we need a mighty work of God for those who DO know God so that they can be the earthen vessels to convey the gospel wherever we go whenever we go to the very ends of the earth.

More of a Dog-Sitter’s Life

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Currently, I’m staying over and dog sitting three very friendly pups. They’re all so amenable and are no trouble at all. I like dogs. More specifically, I like other people’s dogs.

I think that’s because I get to play with the dogs and pet them and give them snacks and then go home to my very low-maintenance cat who I don’t have to let out at 2 am to go potty. All I have to do is make sure her food and water bowls are full and life is good. Oh, and emptying out her litter box every so often is essential.

But I’m thankful for both dogs and cats. I’m glad that in this world there are both. I just wish that they all lived longer because when they go, they take a little part of us with them, don’t they? The world is a little less joyful and sunshine-y when they depart.

I guess one other reason I like other people’s dogs is because puppies are sweet and cute but also crazy. They have energy for days, don’t know personal space, and tend to do specifically all the things you tell them not to do like chewing on things and people and other animals. Or tearing up stuff. Or generally being a nuisance. But they’re still cute. That helps a lot.

Older dogs are more my style. They’ve reached that stage in life where they have nothing left to prove and can just chill. Plus there’s a gentleness and a sweetness to an old dog that only comes with time and age. When you see a dog with grey on his muzzle and all throughout his body, you know he’s going to be a good boi. It’s inevitable.

But I’m thankful for dogs and for getting to take care of them occasionally. Even if they don’t live long enough and some of them don’t get treated right. I can be eternally grateful for dogs that belong to other people and then go home to my cat who will be grateful in her own right to see me again.