BROKEN PIECES

The Duke of Norfolk once sent the King of England a priceless treasure as an expression of his love and esteem. It was a PORTLAND VASE, a rare antique.  Because he wanted to share his treasure with the nation, the King had the vase placed in the British Museum.

At a later date, so the story goes, came disaster.   The Duke’s chief servant was dismiss for a wrong doing.  The servant hated the Duke for this and sought vengeance.  The servant remembered how much the Duke loved that Portland Vase so he planned to hurt the Duke by destroying the vase. The servant went to London and located the Portland Vase.  When visitors were gone from the area, he quickly climbed over the barrier.  At last, his moment of revenge had come.  Hatred blinded him to caution. With both hands he grasped the beautiful master piece and raised it high above his head. Then with all his might, he sent it crashing to the floor.  His evil work was done.

The priceless Portland Vase was smashed into a thousand pieces.  Shocked and grieved, the workers swept up the shattered pieces.  The antique was broken beyond repair, or so it seemed.

The King hearing of the tragedy told them to save every piece.  This is my most precious and treasured gift.  We’ll search for a man who can repair it, no matter what it costs. At long last, such a man was found.  He came to London and for months he labored.  Working with great skill and endless patience, he picked up each broken fragment and found its place in the original vase.  Delicately, he fixed the vase back to its original form.  You may see the Portland Vase in the British Museum today.  Only by looking carefully can you tell of its restoration.

I do not know of the truth of this story but it beautifully speaks of what God had done for mankind.  Satan, through sin, had as it were, picked man up and threw him down upon the ground, breaking him into pieces.  Now, God could have ignored broken humanity. He could have swept mankind aside and forgot the whole thing.  But no, His love for man was too great.  So, He sent His Son, Jesus on a rescue mission, a mission of restoration. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to seek and to save the lost, the broken pieces, sinful mankind.   Jesus came to pick up the broken pieces and restore man to his rightful place in God’s family.  Christ came calling through the preaching/teaching of the Good News of salvation, that everyone can be forgiven and made whole.

David understood this when he wrote the 23rd Psalm and said, “He restores my soul.”  God revives me, He makes me whole, unbroken through His Son, Jesus.

A song by Bill and Gloria Gaither says it all.. “Something beautiful, something good.  All my confusion He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, But He made something beautiful of my life.”

 

GOD BLESS AMERICA

How fitting, in a time in which our country is being so divided and maligned, is this article which I copy for you to read.

“While Adolf Hitler was methodically creating the Third Reich, marching Nazi armies into neighboring countries, and the demented concepts of racial purity infiltrated Germany, Irving Berlin purposefully revived this song, “God Bless America” at the request of Kate Smith.  It was dramatically introduced by Kate Smith on her radio broadcast on Armistice Day on November 10, 1938.  It was reprised in the 1943 movie, “This Is The Army” at some of the most difficult times during World War 2.  In the movie, the song was presented with full orchestra and chorus before a live audience.  Kate Smith’s powerful alto voice combined with the full orchestra and chorus still generates dynamic emotional appeal today in listening to her sing.

The lyrics in the verse of Irving Berlin’s song spoke to a world at war:  “While the storm clouds gather far across the seas let us swear allegiance to a land that’s free.  Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, as we raise our voices in a solemn prayer.”  More recently, a recording of Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” was the final “wake up” call for the NASA Space Shuttle Atlantis completing the 30 year shuttle program on July 11, 2011.

More than merely a song, “God Bless America” is actually a musical prayer. Through the lyrics, the song testifies of our thankfulness for the splendor of our Nation.  It describes the great magnificence of the land “from the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans white with foam.”  The lyrics pray for God to bestow His divine care and provide His divine wisdom for guidance to “stand beside her and guide her through the night with a Light from above.”  Then the passionate climax in the chorus expresses our heart-felt prayer: “God bless America, My home, sweet home.””                            Selected

God can only bless America as we, His people, seek to do His will, loving Him and one another.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

If we can’t be giants, we can walk with giants.  Such a man was Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln was a rare, spiritual giant.  In my book, “Max Speaking – Devotionals From My Heart,”  I wrote several devotionals on Lincoln.  I wanted something a little different as we celebrate Lincoln’s birthday, February 12th.  It seems to me the mind and heart of this great man can be seen and heard in his most famous speech.  You may have memorized it in school and certainly have heard it.  The speech lasted less than three minutes and contained only 272 words.  It is a superb, brilliant speech.  Here it is:
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address – November 19, 1863
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.  Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great battlefield of that war.  We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.  But in a larger sense we cannot so dedicate, we  cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here: but it cannot forget what they did here.  It is for us the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.  It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain: that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

“The Gettysburg Address” is long remembered, even though Lincoln thought it would be soon forgotten.  We remember it because of what Lincoln himself stood for. The Civil War was the great burden of Lincoln’s heart.  This war lasted 4 years beginning April 12, 1861 and ended April 9, 1865.  At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War. Lincoln was tragically assassinated before he could oversee the reconstruction of the South.

The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union during the American Civil War. Lincoln’s inner qualities of faithfulness, honesty, resolution, humor and courage gave him the strength to lead his country during the bloodiest years of its existence.  Lincoln said, “I leave you hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal.”

May God give us more men like Abraham Lincoln.

“IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL”

Horatio Spafford was a Christian lawyer in Chicago.  Spafford invested in real estate north of Chicago. When the great fire of Chicago reduced the city to ashes in October of 1871, it also destroyed most of his sizable investment.  He had a child of four die of scarlet fever.  Then, in 1873, Spafford decided his family should take a holiday some where in Europe and chose England, knowing that his friend D.L. Moody would be preaching there in the fall. He was delayed because of business so he sent his family on ahead: his wife and four children.

On November 21, 1873, the ship the Spafford family was on collided with another vessel and within twenty minutes sank in the northern Atlantic. Mrs. Spafford was knocked unconscious but rescued.  The four children were swept out to sea and drowned. The news of the accident came to Horatio and he waited anxiously for news about his family.  Finally, ten days later, a telegram came, sent from his wife, who was in a hospital.  The telegram contained just two words:  “Saved – Alone.”  He was devastated having lost his four daughters.  When asked if he was okay, he responded  with one of the most amazing statements for he said: “You know, I’m just glad that I’m able to trust the Lord, when it cost me something.”

As soon as possible, Horatio took a ship to meet his wife and bring her home.  On the journey home, he asked the captain to awake him when they came to the approximate location of the accident.  The captain did and as Horatio Spafford looked down in those cold, dark waters, which covered the bodies of his four daughters, He wept unashamedly.  And then he went to his cabin and penned the words to what has become one of our most famous hymns.

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever  my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath  shed His own blood for my soul.”

The only way  that Horatio Spafford could hold on to his faith in the midst of such devastating grief, was to put his absolute trust in Jesus Christ.
May we be able to sing with great conviction, “It is well with my soul.”