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STAND & COMFORT Newsletter A Lesson In Faith And Hope We've all had an extremely hard two weeks. On August 31st, the neighbors were having a Labor Day picnic and in the evening, they had fireworks in a field right across the street from us. The fireworks were plentiful with rockets, whistlers, and low and high decible bangs and booms. Our dog Bogie, a mixed hound, was terribly frightened of the noise as the loud sounds kept filling the air. Then someone opened the back door and out Bogie went ... down the trail ... into the woods ... into the darkness ... and he didn't come back. After 10 years of raising him from a pup, this was the first time he'd ever run away, and it was out of fear, as he tried to get away from the frightening noise. Night came and went, but no Bogie. We looked and searched and called and drove the neighborhood, calling out his name. Nothing. I thought, Well, if he's gone, at least he's just had his shots for the year and a new dog license put on him. The license might help if someone found him, and he was prepared shot-wise. After a couple of days of prayer and looking and expanding a search that would eventually cover a 20 mile radius, there was no sight of him. We put an ad in the paper and posted his picture all over the county - in stores, on telephone poles and fruit stands, giving it to people we saw, policemen sitting in their cars, and 20 dog shelters and vets. These brought some calls, adding to our chase around the county checking out leads. One dog turned up dead, another was a hound, but the colors weren't quite right, and another lead brought us to a woman who saw her neighbor shoo a dog away with a broom; it might have been Bogie, but she wasn't sure. We heard another report that a dog had been shot ten miles south of here, but calls to the township and the state police couldn't verify the shooting. No one had heard of this incident. We broke up into shifts, having someone looking and searching and checking out leads and hanging posters all along the way. We were all getting weary and tired and less hopeful as the days trudged on. During the last couple of days, we settled down into just checking out leads. There was no where else to look. I struggled through the uncertainty of it all. Because we had no idea how far he might have traveled and all the open country in our area, I would tell myself he's gone. He's dead. We've lost him. I prayed for Scripture about whether we would find him or not and what else we could do, but gave up that way of praying in the first two days. No answers came. In the last week especially, I began to believe he was dead or someone had him and we would never see him again. But when I told myself these things and insisted to myself that they were facts just to ease my mind, I found I was encountering a further "problem" that I didn't create. I kept getting an almost-silent impression not to give up. Whenever my hope began to go bankrupt, a Scripture verse or episode would rise up in me, right on the tail of my negativity, bringing hope to life again. For instance, in the midst of struggling with the uncertainty of where Bogie was or what might have happened to him, words came such as, "After three days I will raise him up." My immediate thoughts about these words was that I would see Bogie again. I certainly didn't believe the Lord would raise him from the dead, but I had the sense that after this time of his being gone, restoration would come. But even though hope rose up in the face of doubt, I had trouble believing that hope was from the Lord. My problem was that while I was thinking negatively, these thoughts of Scripture would follow before I could think of them. They were just suddenly there. Was I crazy? Was it because I've been a Christian for 30 years that they just naturally rose up from past studies and reading the Bible? Or was the Lord really saying that He sees and knows and everything is okay? I didn't know what to believe ... yet the hope kept coming back. I prayed to the Lord and acknowledged that He was the All-knowing, All-Powerful, Ever-Present, Sovereign God who gives and takes away, and confessed that I hurt so badly over this, but nonetheless, "Let your will be done" and teach me what you want through this. Hope rose again, along with a fear to hope, for the sheer disappointment of hope deferred. I fell back on the facts: "We're talking about a dog, not a person." But then another verse was impressed on me:
 1 Pet 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: That's one verse I did hold on to, but it was not the norm. So often during the past eleven and a half days, I'd have a scriptural thought or Scripture within a millisecond of my negative thoughts. As I just shared, the problem was that this was a lost dog and no matter how much I missed him and loved him and imagined all the terrible things that could be happening to him, I would not accept those verses or the hope they tried to bring me, simply because he was a dog. There was also the matter of having a healthy fear of using God's word out of context. I went through this process with every verse or scriptural scenario that came. Every time I lost hope, more hope would rise and persist, in spite of my fighting it. Here are some of the other verses that I had during these times: One of the first scriptural episodes that rose in me early on came right on the tail of my telling myself that Bogie was dead: "Jacob thought Joseph was dead for many years, but he wasn't." The Lord knew where Joseph was, and that he was alive, but He didn't tell Jacob. Jacob did his crying and sent his own out to search, but there was no sign of Joseph. I thought, "What was that? We're talking about a dog here, not a spiritual person." The point was as simple as it sounds. Just as Jacob thought Joseph was dead, but he was alive, so was Bogie, as I would find out later. At another time early on, the prodigal son came to mind. He had everything - love, care and all the good things - but he walked away from it. But he did return and joy returned to his father's house. I thought, "Bogie, you had it so good here. Why would you run? Well, now it's between God and you, Bog." Was I crazy thinking such things? I told myself to get a grip. Fear. Fear does horrible things to man and animal. The difference is that man has the option of placing his faith in the Lord when He stirs him to hope through faith, while a dog cannot. That was rather convicting later when I realized that all of the instant Scripture was meant to give me hope that Bogie was okay and come back, because he really was alive and surviving while I thought the worst. The prodigal son returned. So would my dog. Another verse was this one: "Where can I go from your Spirit?" The Lord knew where Bogie was, and we prayed that if he was dying he would go quick, and if someone took him, let it be a good home, and if he was dead, let us know somehow, or if we never knew, then we would accept that. Wherever Bogie was, I knew the Lord was with Him. In the midst of these thoughts came another: "All things are before Him with whom we have to do." Again I thought, but THIS IS A DOG WE ARE TALKING ABOUT, not about walking in holiness before the Lord. I prayed, "Lord, if we have to go through this and it concludes with a negative ending, then let it be according to your will." Bogie is "just" a dog, but at another time, a new thought arose: when Jonah went to Ninevah and the people repented, was it not part of the mercy of God that He cared for the great number of cattle as well? Did He not say so in His word? OK, I know He cares for all of His creation, even the cows of Ninevah. I could not argue with these thoughts. What a picture: an 18-inch tall mixed hound on the loose, fearful and alone, and the Sovereign, Almighty, All-Seeing eternal God caring for him because no one else could. If He did so for the cattle of Ninevah and the birds of the air, why not a dog?: Mat 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Yet was this true in our case? Dogs run and never return. We've lost a couple of them over the years to more natural things. What made this time so different? It was the Scriptures that kept surfacing to revive hope. What confused things was that this was just a dog we were talking about. Was the Lord dropping Scripture on my every negative thought to keep hope alive for the sake of a dog? At the end of all of this, I realized the Lord was using him as a teaching tool while dealing with my heart towards Him as well. The point? He cared about me as well and tried to give me hope, knowing the struggle I was also having with Scripture regarding these unusual circumstances. About nine days or so into our search, I thought, "Nine days. It's too long. Bogie's been gone too long and the Lord is doing nothing. Not a word. He's dead and gone and that's it. Too much time has gone by. I refuse to go through the agony of it all. I am settling this once and for all. He's gone." Then this Scripture came to me: Mary and Martha told Jesus that if He had come earlier, Lazarus would not have died. Jesus wasn't late. Lazarus was dead and buried, yet He wasn't late. He had a point to make. It was on this day that I kept having the persistent thought to just wait on the Lord. Even as I was going out to check out leads, I thought, "I shouldn't be doing this. I am to wait on the Lord now, period." I KNEW it meant waiting on him and not doing anything. Even as I searched the last day or two, I knew we wouldn't find him. Somehow I knew the Lord would bring all of this an end, one way or another, but I could do nothing to bring that end about. I've forgotten some of the Scriptures and events in Scripture the Lord brought to mind, and this is the final one I'll share. When I heard it, my attitude fought to override the hope it carried because of the oddity of the circumstances. The thought was a conglomeration of many verses depicting one future event: the suddeness of Jesus' return: In an instant, He will SUDDENLY be there. He's not in sight, and then ...... there He is. It will happen SUDDENLY, in an instant and it will all be over. I really protested against this one. My mind immediately went to the culmination of God's 6,000 year plan, when all that He has planned will be fulfilled by Christ's return. How could I apply that to the return of a dog? How could I relate the two? It turns out that these thoughts would become the most powerful to me. The Lord would bring them together in His own way. At three o'clock on Thursday morning, we were sleeping, but our daughter Jenny was awake and heard a dog howling in the distance. Bogie is a howler, and except for him, we've never heard howling around our neighborhood. It was in the far distance, so Jenny woke Mary and they drove a half a mile over to Garries Road, calling for him, but the howling had stopped so they came home. Then at 6:30 am, the phone rang and a man left the message, "I THINK I saw that dog you've been looking for this morning," but we all slept through the message and never heard it. At 7:15, he called again and told Jenny, "I saw one of your posters and I THINK I saw your dog walking up Garries Road this morning." She woke us up and off we went. We drove the mile-long Garries Road slowly, calling for Bogie. It's a narrow country road lined by trees and a few houses and has a very steep hill in the middle of it. We crept slowly down the hill, pulling over to let cars go by. When we reached the end of the road and had found nothing, I had to decide if we should turn around or try some other roads nearby. We turned around and crept along back up the steep hill, and as we came over the very crest to where it levels off, there he was, suddenly, just standing there on the side of the road, his white coat constrasting sharply against a background of dirt, trees and shrubbery. Eleven and a half days had gone by, and there he was. "Suddenly, in an instant, he will be there." Another verse I'd had at an earlier time came to mind: "The Lord knows how to preserve those who love Him," which had brought my usual reaction at the time. We looked at him in near disbelief, and he at us, almost testing what we were seeing. "Ohhhhhhh, is it.....?" He was standing 15 feet in front of the car on the side of the road, and we were doubting still? Unbelievable. He was moderately weak and had lost about ten pounds, but there he was. More weight loss in the next few days would have spelled big trouble for him. We had found him just in time. On the drive home, I was thinking how startling it was to suddenly see him standing there, and I thought how absolutely awesome it will be when suddenly, in the midst of great tribulation, Jesus will appear on His white horse. The SUDDENNESS of Bogie just being there after looking for him for almost two weeks and not finding him multiplied 100,000 times as I saw the SUDDENNESS with which Christ will come: Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; The question that comes out of all of this is important. Does the Lord use Scripture concerning lost dogs - Scriptures that, if kept in context, are about Jesus and Israel and Joseph and Lazarus and Ninevah's cows and the cattle of Israel's captivity? In my case, most cannot be taken totally in context, but through them, the Lord was giving me the essence of what was happening and how He knew all about it, and that was enough. I didn't have to know. I just needed to do what I knew to do and leave the rest to Him, believing He would do His will in the matter. Even with all my caution about applying these Scriptures to the search for Bogie, I realize now that they all pointed to WHO GOD WAS in the trials and temptations of people throughout Scripture. They didn't point to any practical solution to a particular situation, but to Him as the solution because of all that He is, has said and done. During the first day or two, I had prayed for Scripture about whether we would find him or not, but nothing stood out. I prayed about where we should go and what we should do. Nothing got answered. The Scriptures that did keep coming to mind pointed to the Lord and who He is. That was a BIG difference. Sometimes God wants to bring us to the end of ourselves just so He can do it all. It puts us in our place and shows us our utter weakness in matters of importance to us. I realized that all along Bogie had been a teaching tool used by the Lord. If the Lord used this situation to bring forth our hopelessness and at the same time take care of Bogie, how much more will He do so for His people in their journey on this earth in times of trial and great tribulation? When things get really tough, will we lose hope? If so, the Lord is quite capable of bringing an unrelenting hope to the surface, along with only the assurance that He knows and He is there and He will bring us through: 1 Th 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The point is that if Jesus has power to raise the dead, doesn't He have the power to know where a dog is and bring him out of the woods with no efforts from his owners? Did I have faith that our dog would come home? No, but no matter how I doubted and questioned the scriptural thoughts, there was a hope in them that kept coming back in the face of my helpless state of unbelief. I didn't think up Scriptures and cling to them. I didn't read the Bible and pick a promise to claim, hoping the Lord would do it. I didn't tell the Lord, "Here is what your word says, so I can expect that." I cried out to Him in prayer and HE stirred the word in my heart according to His will and that which would give me hope, because HE KNEW THERE WAS REASON TO HOPE. He taught me about Him and who He is, and He used my dog to do it. What really got driven into me through all of this is the very heart of the matter: In the darkest hour this earth has ever known, Jesus will come in all of His glory, and He will come ... SUDDENLY. It is going to be glorious, beyond anything we can imagine. You could look at my dirty, worn out, tired dog who was now skinnier than he ever was and wonder, "How did you see Christ coming in all of the Father's power and glory in that?" All I can answer is, "In the same way hope stayed alive in me while I was filled with doubt and confusion and many questions - by the living God." This experience was much different than what I went through with our son, who a few months ago was in intensive care unconscious and sedated for ten days. Then, I had a prevailing peace through it all, accompanied by some natural concerns, but the peace was very evident. But in the situation with Bogie, there was nothing, or at least I thought there wasn't any word from the Lord. The words "just as" would have helped me regarding the Scriptures I was "hearing" and the scenarios from Scripture that came to mind. An example: JUST AS God will preserve us to the second coming (unless martyred), so will He preserve Bogie until He brings him out of the woods. God was impressing on me the underlying main points of these Scriptures, because He'd never specifically said in His Word that "In eleven and a half days, Bogie shall suddenly be there." And He didn't stop there, but went on to point to our Lord Jesus Christ coming back in the Father's power and glory. I guess if the Lord can use Bogie as a teaching tool, I can continue in that vein. It's been a while since I had my faith and hope tested like this. It's important to understand about my faith in this experience. I quickly gave up faith towards the Lord TO RETURN BOGIE, to put my faith in Him for something *I* wanted very badly. I doubted all through this that I would see him again. We had no idea how far away he'd gone - A mile? Five? Ten? Twenty? We didn't know which direction to look - North? Southeast? West? Or where to look - People's yards? The innumerable fields and forests? Thruways or just along the country roads? We had no idea what condition he was in and the longer this went on, the worse off he could be. My faith was in the living God and and who HE is and that is where I had to keep it because I had no faith for Bogie's return. All I had was this hope that kept coming back and coming back and coming back once again. Faith is the substance of things HOPED FOR. It is NOT having faith FOR EARTHLY OR MATERIAL THINGS, but faith in the living God that He knows and cares, AND knowing that His will is to be sovereign and accepted no matter what the outcome. I'm talking about faith like that of the three men in the fiery furnace: Dan 3:17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. It's not a matter of receiving God's care and comfort by His returning some material thing we've lost. Why? BECAUSE EVEN IF IT REMAINS LOST, HIS CARE AND COMFORT APPPLY IN THAT SITUATION AS WELL. Faith is in HIM as our God. The hope that that faith brings is a hope that doesn't disappoint, because HOPE in God is not FOR MATERIAL THINGS either, if we want to approach the purity of it. Hope is that in every situation, whether we lose earthly treasures or not, God will be God, caring, merciful, comforting, and sovereign. Our faith must be in Him, that He is who He says He is towards us. And our hope is in Him, not for the earthly things we want, but that He will remain constant and unchangeable and faithful towards us no matter what in the eternal things He has promised to all who believe in Him through Christ. Our faith and hope then are centered in Him, not in Him for the things we want - unless we long for the UNSEEN things HE has undeniably promised, such as: * Eternal life His word is sure, and this faith in Him brings forth a living hope because He is a living God. Paul said we see through a glass dimly, but then we will see face to face. God has promised us a visible kingdom and in that kingdom we will be with the Lord forever. When the trials and tribulations hit and hope wants to waiver, look to Him for HIS YET UNSEEN THINGS because His promises are sure. The true reason He has given us His word is to bring forth faith and hope in us: Heb 11:1 Now FAITH is the substance of things HOPED for, THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN. You're going to see it all, whether you're dead or alive when He returns. In the midst of trials and great tribulation, Jesus shall SUDDENLY appear in the sky and the joy will be unspeakable: 1 Pet 1:19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: ============== This newsletter will be sent out whenever I think there is something the body of Christ needs to consider, to build it up, to give it encouragement or comfort in hard times. To sign up for this newsletter, email Ed at ejt@ncinter.net |