When we make and keep promises we are most of all like the God whose name is “I am he who will be there with you.” Among all the dimensions of the mature person in Christ, none comes closer to the character of our Lord than the daring to make a promise and the courage to keep the promises we make.

When we make and keep a promise we are acting in the power that sets people free. If to be free in Christ is to be free indeed, then to be free indeed is to be free to limit our freedom by promising to be there with the people who trust us.

Promises summon the sort of social integrity that lays the ground floor for all the body. Life together survives as a human togetherness, not on a diet of warm feelings, but on the tough fibers of promise keeping. It is not easy. There are times when the inner logic and deserving needs of self-fulfillment seduce us to opt for self-maximizing even if to maximize ourselves we need to break promises to others. Promising—and keeping promises—is the toughest social duty of our time but, down the pike, it is the only human, the only redemptive way. (I use redemptive not in terms of our souls).

In the previous piece on the power of forgiving and in this one on promising, I have been captivated by a two-directional power of grace in our living. As I search the pages of redemptive history for the moral essence of God’s character, what comes to me is this: God is excellence, in the character he reveals, the One who creates for us a new past and a new future by forgiving and promising. And as I read the pages of human experience, I think I see here and there mere men and women sharing in God’s life to this creative extent: they create a new past for themselves by forgiving people who have hurt them and they create a future for others by making promises to people who need them. As I see it, there are subtle miracles of human freedom. The neglect of them in our time may hasten disaster. Renewal of our power to practice them may yet save us.

Marty Lee Herrick

martyh@trm.org

Prov. 27:17

Here at the Rescue Mission Downtown sobriety is crucial – it is the beginning not the end at the New Life Program.  We begin with a commitment to become sober, and remain sober.  But our focus does not linger solely upon sobriety.  It is about change that can only come from engaging in something that most addicts have such a severe aversion to – a true, meaningful, and intimate relationship.  And the One who we need to have that intimate relationship with is Jesus Christ.

Think about this – the Creator of the universe cares for His creatures.  He desires us to seek Him and His righteousness first (Matthew 6:33).  When we humbly come before The Lord and ask Him to direct our life, this surrender initiates the release of dark things that have caused our spirit to atrophy and starts an awakening that is supernatural.

The Lord says in Matthew 11:29 that when we come to Him, we will find, “Rest for our souls”.  Can’t take the rumor being spread about you?  Come to Him.  Another rejection result for a job application?  Come to Him.  Kids still do not want to speak to you?  Come to Him.  See what can happen from a holy response rather than another descent into a mind-numbing and spirit-killing drug.  Come to Him…

A Moment with Marlene; 

Do you understand that God is that good, and that He not only loves you….He likes you? That’s right….He likes YOU! He wants to answer your big, life changing prayers and He longs to meet your most intimate, personal desires too! He is waiting for your time and attention and longs to have you be obedient so you can experience His best! 

Do we consider how God provides the very air we breathe, the trees that reach into the blue sky, the sun that shines, the rain that replenishes and the moon that brightens the darkest night? Sometimes we barely notice the extraordinary goodness that surrounds us and dwells in us don’t we? It is so easy to take all this for granted because even on our worst day….it’s always there! God is always good! 

“And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.” Exodus 33:19 

I am reminding us today that in order to continue reaching for the larger life God is bringing us and growing us into…we must be continually open and aware of His goodness. We should be looking to be surprised…even shocked by His lavish generosity of goodness toward us. We must have an expectant heart in order to even recognize His amazing goodness at work in our lives.

When we can recognize His lavish goodness in multiple ways every day, we set ourselves up for the miracles to begin flowing in our lives because we become expectant of more! We realize we have only caught a glimpse of His goodness as we continue to call upon His name and allow Him room to flourish in our lives. A New Life walking in complete healing and recovery is possible!

“For you Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you.” Psalm 86:5 

For the next few moments, I am going to sit back, close my eyes and rejoice in Gods goodness. I am going to praise Him for a surprise He has waiting for me….just me! I am going to resolve to obey His whispering and follow His calling, because I do not want to miss out on ANYTHING He has for ME! 

Please join me in this empowering moment of worship. I not only enjoy spending this time with you, Jesus loves this time with YOU! 

Celebrating New Life Together,

Marlene

A family is a community created by the promise of two people who care for persons they bring into the world until those persons are able to care for themselves. Parents are people of promise. They remember their promise even when the family is a hotbed of anger, grief, and pain—as families tend sometimes to be. The psalmist said that the man who has a quiver full of children is the happiest fellow. I suspect he said it before his own children had reached adolescence. But no matter. A family is created and kept together, not because parenting is so much fun, but because two people dared to make and dared to keep their promise.

The power of promise making is easily perverted. Like drugs, promises can be put to silly and sinister uses. Besides, life gets so complicated, and we get so muddle-headed, that to keep one promise sometimes requires us to break another. We foul the lines, which is no surprise. To say that we ought to be careful when we make our promises only underscores the truth our generation has almost forgotten: a promise is a Godlike thing, and it is the only human hold we have on our future.

I do not pretend to understand all the psychic dynamics of promise making. And I know I need the grace and power of God to make promises these days. But I submit that the community of faith will do well to put the nurturing of promise-making and promise-keeping people high on its list of goals for the coming decade

Marty lee Herrick

martyh@trm.org

Prov. 27:17

A Moment with Marlene; 

Do over? Yeah right! 

Have you ever wished you could start all over? Do you ever look back longingly and say to yourself, “If only….”?  Well I have! 

Hindsight has 20/20 vision doesn’t it! And it certainly is true. We can look back on so many situations and messes in our lives with and interesting clarity of what we should have said or what we should have done or how we should have handled the situation. Regret and shame have a powerful way of pulling us into the past. They are enemies to our future, and they show no mercy. 

I absolutely love this passage in Isaiah 43:18,19 “Do not call to mind the former things, or ponder things of the past. Behold, I will do something new, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness. Rivers in the desert.” 

God has a message for you today! He is declaring new things for your life!  One definition of the word new is “not existing before.” The creative power of the Lord is about to do some things in you life that have NEVER been done before!! When we turn to Jesus and give Him our lives, “All things have become new!” 2 Cor 5:17 And…He is going before you to make a way for the miracles of recovery yet to be lived out! 

Learn from your past, but never let it define you! You are who God says you are! The past with all of its pain, will lose its power; and you will be free to be all that God has destined you to be! 

Do over?….I don’t think so! There is still so much to be done! What possibilities lie ahead? Praise God for new beginnings! 

Celebrating New Life Together,

Marlene

The power of a promise makes the body possible:
We can have a functional body only if people within it are able to keep the thread of their identity in Christ through their promises- God never breaks his promises to His people, and we are to do like wise. A person, in the long run, gets this identity from the promises he makes because they are based in the character of Jesus. We know someone as the same person today that he or she was yesterday by the promises that person made yesterday and keeps today.

Some people ask themselves “who am I” and expect their feelings to tell them. Feelings are dancing flames that fade after being stimulated and some people ask who they are and expect their achievements to tell them. But the things we accomplish always leave some of our character unrevealed. Some people ask who they are and expect their human reasoning to tell them of their ideal self. But our human reasoning can only tell us what we want to be, not who we are.

Maybe we can best find out who and what we are by asking about the promises we have made to other people and the promises we are trying to keep for their sakes. Promise keeping allows us to function in the realm of Christ, to actually walk out some kind of dimension of the attributes of God.

It is not only that we know ourselves in the mirror of our promises. If  Gods people, the ones who belong to Him, who depend on Him, also know Him by the promises He has made and what He promised is what we need to be apart of; only if we really know who He is can we live with Him in trust. We need to know Him in the deepest way, not by reading self-help books, but by knowing His power to keep promises and in the power of His Blood.

On a certain level our lives together depends on the power of people to make and keep promises. On a single string—of a person bound to his promise—hangs everything from nuclear disarmament to a family reunion, from a successful revolution to a return ticket to Tacoma to a savior to reconcile God and his people.

Marty Lee Herrick

martyh@trm.org

Prov. 27:17

Here is another beautiful rendering dealing with the hope that lies within from Brandy, a partner here at The Mission:

Inevitably, all of us, will suffer. Nothing can spare us from the confusion and pain that will, no doubt, accompany it. But, as a Christian, I believe I can weather the storms differently by knowing the One who is taking me through it.

If my own struggles have taught me anything it is that my greatest need is to know God better. My efforts, in doing this, have been repaid with joy and power beyond all expectation.

So with my heart strong for God, I can draw courage, wisdom, and determination in the face of overwhelming adversity from the certainty that GOD, truly is with me and HE IS GOOD.

A Moment with Marlene; 

“God is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to be lost, but he wants all people to change their hearts and lives.” 2 Peter 3:9 

God is lovingly patient with us as we strive to change and grow into a better person. But time is running out and the stakes are high! As you are grasping for New Life, that means you are trudging through deep waters of soul searching. That means you are dying to self daily as you sacrifice the longings of your old lower nature that once held you captive. How you think, act, and react is changing visibly! These small daily changes soon create the fiber of your New Life through Jesus Christ! 

Does this mean your old nature will never rear its ugly head? Does this mean you will instantly be able to resist any temptation? No, that’s where God’s grace and patience with us is so precious. As we are earnestly reaching to grow and are faithful in our effort, God sees our heart, and he sees our potential.

 I love the way Max Lucado expresses it; “Compare your new birth in Christ to a newborn baby. Can a newborn walk? Can he feed himself? Can he sing or read or speak? No, not yet! But someday he will. It takes time to grow. But is the parent in the deliver room ashamed of the baby? Is the mom embarrassed that the infant can’t spell…that the baby can’t walk…that the newborn can’t give a speech? Of course not! The parents aren’t shamed; they are proud. They know that growth will come with time.” 

Friends so does God! He sees who you can become! Continue pressing into your recovery faithfully and growth will happen every single day! Healing and change in our hearts and lives is a continual process.

If not now…when? We’re talking about your life! 

Celebrating New Life Together,

Marlene

Freedom comes alive in a promise:
Whenever a person makes a promise; he stakes a claim on freedom. A promise is a momentous claim that the person who makes it has the power to act freely to bring order and dependability into the unpredictable future. If you fear, as I do, our fondness for promise breaking, consider this: it is almost a miracle that anyone should ever dare to make a promise.

When we make a promise we take it on our feeble wills to keep a future with someone in circumstances we cannot possibly predict. We take it on ourselves to create our future with someone else no matter what fate or destiny may have in store. This is almost ultimate freedom.

I am not governed by or determined by the conditioning of my past. I know as well as the next person that I cannot create my own life. I am well aware that much of what I am and what I do is a gift from being delivered from my past or a curse from my past that I have not fully given over to Him. But when I make a promise to anyone I raise above all the conditioning that limits me.

The paradox of promising is that we freely bind ourselves to keep the promises we make. We limit our freedom so that we can be free to be there with someone in his future’s unpredictable storms. The person who makes a vow makes an appointment with himself at some distant time or place, and he gives up freedom in order to keep it.

When you make a promise, you tie yourself to other person by the unseen fibers of commitment. You agree to stick with people you are stuck with. When everything else tells them they can count on nothing, they count on you. When they do not have the faintest notion of what in the world is going on around them, they will know that you are going to be there with them. You have created a small sanctuary of trust within the jungle of unpredictability: you have made a promise that you intend to keep.

A promise, then, is the human essence of freedom after the style of God—it is your freedom to be there with someone even though you cannot tell what “being there” is going to be like for you.

Marty lee Herrick

martyh@trm.org

Prov. 27:17

Here is a wonderful post from Amy, a resident in our New Life Program.  Amen to your message below, Amy!

First of all, I want to make sure that I have the right meaning of “tragedy”, so I looked at the dictionary and according to Webster-Thesaurus version, it means; disaster, calamity, catastrophe, affliction, suffering, and tribulation.  So the question is, “Where is God in the midst of these situations?”

The hard times in life tend to either crush and disillusion or challenge and stimulate us.  It is hard for us to keep going when the going gets tough.  But it can be a real encouragement to know that God is with us in the midst of the trials we face, and that He can use even our weaknesses for His Glory.

In the midst of any “tragedy”, we always say, “God, why me?” “God where are you?” “Please God help me!” My faith tells me the answers to these questions are obvious, clear and concise – actually simple!  God is everywhere! He is always present!  God is always with us when we need Him. His presence is within us.  GOD IS OMNIPRESENT!

    “We are hard pressed on every side by troubles; but not crushed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; we are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes we live under constant danger of death, because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4 : 8-11 NLT)