The Phil Files

NUTS! Yes, the weather is officially off it’s rocker here in Abilene. Of course we can have weird weather in the spring. Yes, we can have a cold spell. But come on … 90’s yesterday, blizzard warnings today … now it’s sunshine but windy enough to blow the paint off our cars. I just saw a weather warning: “The National Weather Service has issued a severe winter storm warning to all pet owners: keep cats and small dogs inside today or else they will blow to Brownsville.”

Weather has always been hard to figure out for us mere mortals. I guess that is why I love Nahum 1:3 and the images it evokes. I felt like it was an idea to pursue with a Scripture graphic. The image and message seemed to go with where a whole lot of us are, caught up the whirlwind of uncertainty about the road ahead. So, hope you are blessed by the image and the thought. Oh, and don’t go outside with your cat today!

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Every once in awhile, I actually write something that makes me think. No, I don’t think it’s profound, but it does capture something I’ve wrestled with in my thoughts and emotions and finally get a handle to put those into words. As I email visited with someone about our struggle to leave behind past hurts and the brokenness that most of us carry, she used the act of breathing deeply as a metaphor for receiving grace and how it sometimes hurts to finally breathe good air. Somewhere in the give an take, the following thought came to me in words as I thought about the Holy Spirit as God’s Good Air:

We’re all just trying to learn to breathe good air, and when we do, we have to cough the crud we’ve been breathing for so long out of our lungs. Such is life in a fallen world when we get to breathe in the Wind of heaven. Here’s to The Good Air!

Like I said, it sure isn’t profound, but it was what was hung between emotions and thoughts that couldn’t be stated. Life filled by the Holy Spirit is at times both gloriously wonderful and also agonizingly painful. But the metamorphasis that takes place in us as we are on our way to become more like Jesus requires both — at least it does in me.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate [and reflect] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever–increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17-18)

So here’s to God’s gift of The Good Air!

I know everybody has crazy weather, but Texas has gone nuts the last few weeks — no comments from Razorbacks or Okies on that! We’ve had extremely high winds that has made much of West Texas a “burnt offering” and left more than a few homeless and our firefighters exhausted. We had 80 degree temps for a couple of days and then wham! Several inches of snow and a low in the twenties.

We call it Spring, but I still think it’s crazy having all the trees budding out and seeing snow on the ground.

I love you, LORD, my strength.

  The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
    my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

  I called to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
    and I have been saved from my enemies.
  The cords of death entangled me;
    the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
  The cords of the grave coiled around me;
    the snares of death confronted me.

  In my distress I called to the LORD;
    I cried to my God for help.
  From his temple he heard my voice;
    my cry came before him, into his ears.
  The earth trembled and quaked,
    and the foundations of the mountains shook;
    they trembled because he was angry.
  Smoke rose from his nostrils;
    consuming fire came from his mouth,
    burning coals blazed out of it.
  He parted the heavens and came down;
    dark clouds were under his feet.
  He mounted the cherubim and flew;
    he soared on the wings of the wind.
  He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
    the dark rain clouds of the sky.
  Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
    with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
  The LORD thundered from heaven;
    the voice of the Most High resounded.
  He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy,
    with great bolts of lightning he routed them.
  The valleys of the sea were exposed
    and the foundations of the earth laid bare
  at your rebuke, LORD,
    at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

  He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
    he drew me out of deep waters.
  He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
    from my foes, who were too strong for me.
  They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
    but the LORD was my support.
  He brought me out into a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me.

  The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness;
    according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me.
  For I have kept the ways of the LORD;
    I am not guilty of turning from my God.
  All his laws are before me;
    I have not turned away from his decrees.
  I have been blameless before him
    and have kept myself from sin.
  The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
    according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

  To the faithful you show yourself faithful,
    to the blameless you show yourself blameless,
  to the pure you show yourself pure,
    but to the devious you show yourself shrewd.
  You save the humble
    but bring low those whose eyes are haughty.
  You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
    my God turns my darkness into light.
  With your help I can advance against a troop;
    with my God I can scale a wall.

  As for God, his way is perfect:
    The LORD’s word is flawless;
    he shields all who take refuge in him.
  For who is God besides the LORD?
    And who is the Rock except our God?
  It is God who arms me with strength
    and keeps my way secure.
  He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;
    he causes me to stand on the heights.
  He trains my hands for battle;
    my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
  You make your saving help my shield,
    and your right hand sustains me;
    your help has made me great.
  You provide a broad path for my feet,
    so that my ankles do not give way.

  I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
    I did not turn back till they were destroyed.
  I crushed them so that they could not rise;
    they fell beneath my feet.
  You armed me with strength for battle;
    you humbled my adversaries before me.
  You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
    and I destroyed my foes.
  They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—
    to the LORD, but he did not answer.
  I beat them as fine as windblown dust;
    I trampled them like mud in the streets.
  You have delivered me from the attacks of the people;
    you have made me the head of nations.
  People I did not know now serve me,
    foreigners cower before me;
    as soon as they hear of me, they obey me.
  They all lose heart;
    they come trembling from their strongholds.

  The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
    Exalted be God my Savior!
  He is the God who avenges me,
    who subdues nations under me,
    who saves me from my enemies.
  You exalted me above my foes;
    from violent people you rescued me.
  Therefore I will praise you, LORD, among the nations;
    I will sing the praises of your name.

  He gives his king great victories;
    he shows unfailing love to his anointed,
    to David and to his descendants forever.

\o/ — Comments Psalm 18: The Lord My Strength! — \o/

I cannot speak of this Psalm without strong emotions. My first very real awareness of reading this Psalm as my own came at a time when my family and I had just returned from hiding for three days from someone who had threatened to kill us. It was not an idle threat. As I sat on the couch fearing what I had done to my wife and small children, I fumbled through my Bible seeking reassurance. I “somehow” came to this passage. It was probably the phrase about calling on the Lord and being saved from my enemies that caught my attention. I had sung those words many times; now I needed them to be true for my family and me.I had just heard the weather forecast on TV. No rain in sight. But, as I began to read this Psalm of reassurance, I came to the phrases about wind, lightning, thunder, and hail and … the wind blew, the lightning flashed, the thunder rumbled, and then the hail fell. This lasted only a few minutes.

According to the weather man, it only occured in a six block area. “Just a wrinkle, a minor disturbance in the atmosphere,” the meteorologist said. “I’m sorry, we didn’t see it coming.” Neither did I.

For several years, I shared this with no one but my wife, Donna. I didn’t have a theology to accept this as something for me, but somehow, the holy event changed me, restored me, and enabled me to get off the mat and continue.

Finally, after waiting several years, I was speaking to a class on the fear of the Lord and begin to talk about this experience with them. It was a hot summer afternoon. No rain in the forecast. As I read the Psalm again, there was wind, lightning, thunder, and hail. There was an uncomfortable and reverent laughter.

You may choose to interpret this as you want. All I know is that as my kids grew up and we had to have armed protection at church three different periods of time for my wife, children, and me because of threats made by dangerous people. Yet during these times, I confidently continued, assured the Lord would protect us through these times of danger until my children were grown.

And He has … and they are …

You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.