God's peace key to life

Since returning from a short trip to Chicago in August (my dentist installed a permanent crown), I haven't been out of town AT ALL!!!! For me, this is something that hasn't happened since forever! Now that I live in Ohio, I don't even have trips to Ohio for holidays to look forward to. Anyone who knows me knows I'm the rambling odyssey road-trip queen of the asphalt!

Thankfully, my sister-in-law, an extreme hiker who was actually deep in the Sierra National Forest when the historic Creek Fire broke out Labor Day Weekend and had to be led out by firefighters to safety, has invited me along on a 26-mile group hike at Sheltowee Trace Trail in southern Kentucky/northern Tennessee.

We leave at noon today. It involves two nights of camping in a tent, something I've only done twice in my life and the last time was soon after 9/11 when I was on a business trip in San Francisco and a college friend in Hayward took me camping at Big Sur.

Safe to say it will be a challenge for me to finish the hike, let alone sleep on hard cold earth through it.. I have a new Bible study to post on Monday for sure. In the meantime:

Last night, a YouTube video randomly popped up about a 105-year-old Scottish woman celebrating her 105th birthday. The tag line read, "What she credits her longevity to." You watch for 5 minutes before you hear her give her one-word answer: "Peace." The camera pans her little nursing home room to reveal an open Bible on a table. She goes on to give the gospel and encourage others to enjoy the health gift of forgiving and understanding God's forgiveness.

An online story reveals that Jessie Jordan's life (she died in 2011) was "marked with a profound Christian faith and she really lived that faith. Her faith brought her peace, and she recognized how precious peace of heart is in life. Even in her advanced age, she easily recited a handful of Bible verses."

An article at Toronto.com informs:

" 'Yes, I've always been active and always eaten my porridge,' " she said in between receiving birthday wishes from friends.

"An avid swimmer, she began the sport at 14 and continued swimming, in fact she didn't stop until just a few years ago. She taught her children how to swim and was an instructor at the YMCA.

"Jordan was born in Scotland on Oct. 4, 1905. Seeking an adventure, the 16 year old decided to come to Canada. She wasn't planning on staying, she just wanted a boat ride. She arrived in St. John's, Newfoundland after 22 days at sea and from there took a train to Toronto where she met her husband Charlie and settled in what is now North York.

"In addition to swimming, Jordan knitted, enjoys poetry and attended church regularly. She also likes hockey and can remember the winning goal in the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and Russia. She can't quite recall the player though."

*****

When Ruth Hilliard of Northhampton County, N.C. turned 106 years old in 2019, the national Christian media picked up on it. On TV, radio and in Christian publications, the career school teacher and Sunday School teacher readily credited her longevity to faith in God. News spots pointed out that while Hilliard’s vision "is not as good as it once was, she still recites Christian scripture on a regular basis."

Ruth named Psalm 91: 14-16 as her favorite Bible passage: [14] Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
[15] He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
[16] With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

*****

“When you renew your mind daily with Scripture, it transforms you; it has to do with focusing on who God’s made you in Christ," says Jordan. "When you do that, here’s what happens--I Thessalonians 2:13 says, [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

“To be transformed, that is, there’s something inside of you which comes out. Jesus went up on the mount of transfiguration and who He was inside shined out of Him and that’s that word ‘transformed.’

“By the way, I’m always interested in that ‘to will is present but how to perform.’ How do you do this, Paul? Well, that’s what he said in Romans 7:18: 'For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.'

“He said, 'I want to do, to will is present with me, but I can’t figure out how to do it.' Then he gets over to chapter 12 and he says, ‘You know how you do it? Be not conformed.’ You’re transformed by the renewing of your mind.

“What is it about that? It’s the doctrine renewing, causing you to think like God thinks. The life of Christ is in that doctrine. Jesus said, ‘The words is speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.’

“Paul says in Ephesians 3:16, ‘That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.’

“Who wrote the Word of God? The Spirit of God. You know how the Spirit of God works? In the song, “Blessed Assurance,” it says, ‘Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love,’ but we say, ‘We don’t believe that!’

“We don’t have any angels descending, bringing from above echoes of mercy. Where do you get the echoes of mercy, whispers of love? It’s in the Book sitting in front of you! You don’t have an angel descending, bringing you that. God the Holy Ghost wrote about it and preserved it through history and has got it sitting for you in your own language in your lap. You’re not living some experience; you’ve got it already!

“You see, you’ve got the information, and when you BELIEVE it, it becomes the energy and the life and the transforming power down in your soul that His life then works out through you.

“You go back to Romans 12:2 and you see the purpose for the renewed mind is that ‘we may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’ The purpose of the renewed mind is so you can properly evaluate life and determine in the details of your life what it is God would have you to do.”

*****

“I don't think Believers appreciate near enough the fact that just by taking God at His Word--truly believing the Bible, dispensationally considered, contains absolutely everything God wants us to know about Him and our relationship to Him--lends real power. It's internal power that shatters anything the world has to offer.

"It's that ability God gives in the inner man, strengthened with might. It's an energy in your inner man to endure. That's spiritual power. There's something about that strength, that power that God gives. No great open physical displays and things that make everybody 'ooh' and 'ahh,' but that 'patient continuance in well doing.'

“He's saying not only can we know something about the breadth, length, depth and height of Jesus Christ's love for us, but we can truly know it and its power to work in us. The power is in the faith in it.

“Through knowing the measurements, dimensions and parameters of exactly what God is doing today, there's a maturing of the relationship that is extremely intimate and lends deep, deep communion.

"You can not just know about His tremendous love, but KNOW it, appreciate it, enter into it and find out how it passes knowledge. Just as it is in a momma's touch with a newborn baby, there's a love there and a communication there that passes any ability to understand and explain it.

"It's that kind of a bond, that kind of a connection. It's as though it were a mother's touch that reaches down and assuages the hurt and salves the wound and dispels the fear and gives untold strength and stability.

*****

“Paul writes in I Thessalonians 1:5, ‘For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in POWER, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.’

“He says in chapter 2, ‘For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.’

“Jesus says, ‘The flesh profiteth nothing,’ meaning all of OUR wisdom and OUR resources aren’t the issue.

“You got to start there! You never want to glory in yourself: ‘It isn’t me; it’s Him.’

“Jesus said, ‘The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.' The need is, 'Not I but Christ.' You're to constantly be learning this at a different level; that's part of what maturity is all about.

"The words on the pages are the Words of the Spirit and when I believe that Word, and put my faith in it, it WORKS; it becomes energizing activity and life.

“Paul writes in II Thessalonians 3:1: ‘Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.’

“Paul’s saying, ‘I want the Word of the Lord to be set free; to run without obstacles, without needing to stop and be glorified.’

“When you glorify something, you demonstrate how valuable it is; how much of a treasure it is. How important it is.

“How would you glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you demonstrate in your life that you cherish Him—His wisdom, His thinking--more than anybody else?”