In the billows,
Wakeful, restless
Travail on thy pillow

In the billows,
Tearful, ceaseless
Labor on thy pillow

In the billows,
Grasping, breathless
Wrestle on thy pillow

Seek God's face in the sanctuary
Cry out importunately

Fear the LORD, my dear sister, to Him appeal
His friendship, this His secret, He will reveal:

"My child, hast thou not yet seen...
Ev'ry billow tenderly ordained by Me!"

Colossians 1
15  Who [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose...

Testing and trying
God's sanctifying

In the furnace
For His own sake

Psalm 73:16-17a (ESV)
But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
until I went into the sanctuary of God...

Pant and thirst, dear one
To God pour out your soul

Behold the Beloved will come
Come leaping to console

The poor man's prayer our God does not despise
Through the heavens the Comforter will fly

Trust in the Lord at all times
He will be gracious at your cries

Very gracious to the soul who waits
Hope will never put us to shame

Into your heart, God's love will be shed
Oil of gladness will flow from our exalted Head

In roaring waterspouts, through darkest night
Acquaint yourself with Providence's designs

O! How inscrutable His judgments!
Who has taught Him? Who has known His mind?

"My child, hast thou not yet seen...
Ev'ry billow tenderly ordained by Me!"

His every billow and His every wave
Our God has sovereignly ordained

To prosper His adopted children, never to harm
Despise not our Father's discipline, His outstretched arm

The just shall live, shall rejoice by faith
In sternest denial, seek His happy embrace

The flinty Rock will burst: sup of Christ's healing grace
God's kindness bestows strength sufficient for each day

His covenant mercies –– how can they cease?
Keep silence, tremble at Jehovah's feet

To His divine decrees, bow and acquiesce
Has He ever been darkness or wilderness?

Lamentations 3:31-33
For the Lord will not cast off for ever:
But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.
For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

~ by Joachim Neander (1680), trans. Catherine Winkworth (1863) ~

Hast thou not yet seen?

His every billow and His every wave
Our God has sovereignly ordained

To wean us from the earthly, to seek His face
To be nourished with His glory and His grace

To manifest Christ's savor in every place
This is our heritage as God's chosen race

 Jeremiah 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. 41  Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. 42  For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.

Jeremiah 29:10  For thus saith the LORD, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. 11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Psalm 73 (ESV)
21  When my soul was embittered,
when I was pricked in heart,
22  I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.
23  Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
24  You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
25  Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26  My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
27  For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.
28  But for me it is good to be near God;
I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
that I may tell of all your works.

* * *

Hast thou not yet seen?

If I petitioned for famine to cease,
If I prayed for worldly prosperity,

Would you come to yourself?
Would you fall to your knees?

Would you hunger and thirst
For Christ's righteousness first?

Would you mourn and lament?
Confess your sin and repent?

Prodigal son, my dear seed,
How for thy soul shall I plead?

If I petitioned for famine to cease,
If I prayed for worldly prosperity,

Would you remain by sin bound?
In death's crypt, lost never found?

Would you wear the robe, shoes, and ring?
Watch me frolic and hear me sing?

Would you ever know my embrace?
Mingle joyful tears on my face?

How for thy soul shall I plead,
Prodigal son, my dear seed?

[See Luke 15]

My little child, in my prayers I labor
That you might feast upon the Lord's favor

Isaiah 57
14  And it shall be said,
“Build up, build up, prepare the way,
remove every obstruction from my people's way.”
15  For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,
who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly,
and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16  For I will not contend forever,
nor will I always be angry;
for the spirit would grow faint before me,
and the breath of life that I made.
17  Because of the iniquity of his unjust gain I was angry,
I struck him; I hid my face and was angry,
but he went on backsliding in the way of his own heart.
18  I have seen his ways, but I will heal him;
I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,
19  creating the fruit of the lips.
Peace, peace, to the far and to the near,” says the LORD,
“and I will heal him.
20  But the wicked are like the tossing sea;
for it cannot be quiet,
and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
21  There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

"That could have been me!"

My senior year of high school I missed my period, and not long afterwards, I drove out of town to the nearest Planned Parenthood.

But I couldn't get an abortion in state because my parents would have had to be notified.

Along with my boyfriend, an out-of-state trip was planned – under the guise of a college visit.

The night before we were scheduled to take that trip, my grandmother asked if I were pregnant (a mystery as to why she asked me that, except the good hand of God was upon my unborn child and me!), and my family offered support whatever I ended up choosing.

Not long afterwards, she and I visited an ob/gyn, and I can't explain this, except once again it was the grace of God protecting my unborn daughter and myself through the words of that doctor, since I ended up opting to have the baby out of fear of the pain of the abortion procedure!

Several months later, after a not-so-fun time of extended labor, I held my daughter and looked at her, and wondered how I could ever have aborted her.

A few years later I moved to Madison (a.k.a. - "78 square miles surrounded by reality") and ended up joining the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.).

I signed up to be part of the Reproductive Rights Task Force.

One of the things we did was to sit in the student union and write letters to Congressmen and Senators to "Keep Abortion Legal."

I also wore a coat hanger necklace, the reminder of "Never Again" to back-alley abortions that had allegedly killed thousands of women.

I even went to the N.O.W. National Convention that fall.
(That was the road trip I was on, the night I was praying to God, which I described in my testimony here.)

Then by the grace of God, I was saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not long afterwards, I went to a monthly N.O.W. meeting and explained I'd become a Christian. I told the women there I didn't know if I could remain involved with the group.

I continued reading the Bible and soon realized I couldn't continue to support abortion rights as I had.

My friends, the world remains in darkness, under the rule of the god of the world, the evil one.

As Christians, let's never forget that:

... we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).

And let's pray that Sandra Fluke and other women like her would have their eyes opened as God graciously opened mine.

 II Corinthians 4:4  In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5  For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6  For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Here's a little video introduction to Trip Lee's song, "Beautiful Life," followed by the song itself.