Pickle Heaven Press-James R. Johnson

something to help you laugh and think about life with Christ

Tag: God’s love

pick-me-up — March 26, 2025

pick-me-up

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She was elderly, lived alone and felt quite lonely and depressed.  She didn’t want to be – but she was.  She was usually able to tread her emotional waters by thinking on her favorite verse of Scripture – Isaiah 41:10. 

The Lord said through the prophet, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” – KJV

She was challenged by the words “be not dismayed.”  Hey, I will celebrate my birthday dis-May, but that’s not what this word means.  It carries the idea of being anxious.  The Lord tells us, however, that no matter our circumstances, we don’t need to feel that way.  

OK you cannot tell a person how they should feel can you?  I used to try that with my kids, “You will eat those Lima beans and be happy about it.”  It didn’t work.  But God can say such things to us, because He has His ways of dismantling dismay.

In this verse He promised to strengthen us.  A depressed person is locked into a diminished emotional state but the one who crafted us knows us and is able to address it.  He may not remove the underlying problem, but He lends His strength that we might bear it. 

Isaiah said He would uphold us by His right hand.  I was caring for a hospice patient recently.  He could not get out of his chair to get to the bathroom.   He asked me to put my hand on the small of his back and nudge him a little to get him up and out.  With trepidation I did it, and he made it. 

With my hand I strengthened his effort and that’s what God does for us.   

I have an old picture of my skinny 3-year-old nephew.  It appears that he had lifted a barbell with massive weights over his head.  The bar stretches beyond the borders of the picture. Impressive! But what you don’t see are my 2 brothers who are holding up each end. 

We may not always see God in the picture, but He is always there upholding us.

God said, “I will help thee.”   This is an all-inclusive promise of assistance.  Pick a problem – it doesn’t matter.  He promises to help.   Can he help with your finances?  Sure!  But can He pick us up from depression?  Yes, that too!  

The sweetest part of this passage is where He says, “I am with thee.”   

I was just with a clerk at the convenience store.  His presence didn’t do much for me.  If he were the last person on earth, we might hang out.

On the other hand, we find great satisfaction and comfort in being with people who we know care for us – a parent, a spouse, a child, a friend.  Those are the people we want with us when trouble comes.

But God, God cares for us like nobody else.  He has demonstrated that.  The fact that He is all powerful and all-knowing is a considerable bonus.

Isaiah 41:10 always helped my friend’s depression in the past, but not today.  She decided maybe she needed a distraction – a good novel to read.  She found one in the facility library that piqued her interest. 

She got it home and flipped over to page one.  She found a large bookmark stuffed there from a previous reader.

There were some words in a 24-point font printed on it – Isaiah 41:10, ‘“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”

God personally delivered His message to her.  She was not alone.  And the realization of it dissipated the fog in her heart. 

Hey – He is there for you too! 

A PRAYER: We don’t know how You do it Lord, but we are sure glad You do.

This has been Jim Johnson and pickleheavenpress.com

May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you

paper trail — June 19, 2019

paper trail

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Jim Johnson

“God doesn’t care for me the way He used to.”  That captures my mood at the moment!

You see – I have grown accustomed to His love.  He was there to pick up this 19-year-old when I was drowning in sin.  He gave focus to my aimlessness and redirected me from a mission-project girlfriend to the girl who is now my amazing wife.  He led me when I was clueless and provided when I was needy.

He stretched me with challenges and then empowered me to meet them.  He answered my specific prayers and he gave me the blessing of 3 children which has exponentially grown to 10 grandkids.   God has been more than good to me. 

And YET today – today I feel like the kid who reached into the candy jar just once too often to have his daddy slap his hand and say, “Son – you’ve had enough.” 

My earnest prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling.  When I go to the Bible for a Spirit whispered word of encouragement I am met with an eerie silence. I watch with a little envy as God dramatically works in the lives of others, while I sit like a wallflower glued to a folding chair at the junior high dance.  I find my comfort in the company of John the Baptist in his prison cell.

Has it finally happened?  Have I reached the limits of God’s love for me?

Maybe my nephew can help adjust my perspective.

He was two at the time.  His grandmother had a cold.  She exploded with a sneeze that vibrated the china (in China).  She startled us, especially the boy.  He reacted by racing out of the living room – a junior germaphobe in the making – or so we thought.   

Moments later he returned with a gift – some toilet paper with which she might wipe her nose.  He couldn’t reach the tissue box on the counter, so he grabbed it from the TP roll instead.  So, so sweet!

But, he didn’t understand that he needed to tear it off.  So, trailing behind him – from bathroom to the living room was an unbroken, soft, scented chain of two-ply love.   He offered it to her with pride and affection.  She gratefully received it with a giggle.

God’s love comes to us in that way.

He once said to His people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. That is why I have continued to be faithful to you.” – Jeremiah 31:3. NET Bible.    An everlasting love has no beginning or end.  It cannot be exhausted.  Before we were created He decided to love us. (Eph. 1:4) a decision from which He has never wavered.

The apostle Paul asked, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?”  Or to paraphrase, “Who or what is able to tear off the sheet of two-ply and break the chain of His affection for us?” 

He continued, “Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”  – Romans 8:35.   The answer to that purely rhetorical question is – not a thing can separate us from His love.  

He was sure of it for he went on to say.  “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  – Romans 8:35-39.  NETBible

An unbroken, soft, scented chain of His heavenly love.

Now do I always feel loved?  Well no!  But how reliable are my feelings anyway?   As a pastor I made hospital visits.  I sometimes empathized with the patient to the point to where I left their room having the same disease – or at least I felt like I had some of the symptoms.  “Oh man, I feel like my ovaries are enlarged too!”

Regardless of the way I read my circumstances, God’s love is ever faithful, always true.  As I draw from it, it continues to perpetually unroll at its source.   

There is hope in the unbroken expression of His love for me. 

What about you?  Do your current circumstances dull your perception of His love?    May today be the day that you relocate that endless, unbroken chain and grab it.  Giggle if you must!

_____________________

Here’s a guitar instrumental to help you reconnect to the never ending love of God!

Blessed Assurance/Jesus Joy of Man’s Desiring: Guitar Jim Johnson
No Fare! — February 27, 2019

No Fare!

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We were bored and bottom-of-the-bucket broke, so several of us junior highers decided to become caddies.   It looked easy on TV.  The caddie followed the pro around, lugging a bag of clubs.  Sometimes he whispered stuff in his ear like, “Hey check your fly. You’re on TV for goodness sake!”   We could do that.

Early the next morning the four of us walked to the course.   If GPS had been invented, we would have known that it was 11 miles away.  Maybe we should have consulted a map first?  Oh well!  We finally shuffled into the clubhouse in the late morning only to have our ambitions crushed. “We don’t use caddies here!”   Hmm!  Maybe we should have called first!  Oh Well!

There was an optimist among us.  He mentioned another course in Worthington, the next town over.  So, we back-tracked 6 miles and then caught a city bus.  It was now well after lunch time and I had just used my last 20 cents for bus fare.  It was worth it – better than a limo.

The bus reached our stop and we tried to get off, but the driver said, “That will be 10 cents!”  “Why?”  He said, “Because we entered Worthington and there is a surcharge of 10 cents.”   So, each of us begrudgingly dropped in another dime. 

I was last in line and in a panic.  The only thing left in my pocket was lint, but he wouldn’t let me off until I paid my 10 cents.   The bus was stopped, the driver was irked, the rest of the riders were grumbling with impatience, and my friends were already off the bus.

I suddenly got a premonition of the future – me, trapped in a bus, on an endless loop to nowhere.  If I were lucky maybe a girl would show up someday who had made the same mistake.  We could marry, I could work as the bus driver (white socks and all) and we would have little bus babies.  

The daydream was broken by the sound of a rattling coin in the fare box.  Another rider took pity and dropped in a dime – for me.   With humility I whispered, “thanks” and jumped off.

That was a ridiculously hopeless feeling, but it was not a feeling that was new to me.   I grew up with the idea that I had to pay my way to heaven.  I needed to go to church and pray and give and live a stellar life and then – drop it all in God’s celestial fare box.  That was the price to get to heaven.

I worked hard at all those things, but I would also wonder if what I did was ever enough?  What if my bus pulled up to heaven and God were to say, “Sorry buddy, you are 10 cents short. You aren’t getting off till you pay up.”?

It wasn’t until later that I learned that I could contribute nothing to my journey.  God looked at my good deeds and called them “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).  My efforts were costly, and they looked good, but they accomplished little.

Then I came to understand Jesus and the reason He came.  The apostle Peter wrote, “Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God.” (1 Peter 3:18) NET Bible®   It was Christ who paid my fare.  He suffered and died on a cross in my place to bring me to God. 

When I accepted His gift, I was invited to get on the bus and when that bus finally stops at the gate of Heaven, I will move toward the exit in confidence because Peter used the word “once.”  Christ suffered “once” for my sins to bring me to God.  It was enough to cover every contingency.  Jesus paid it all – forever. 

From the bus stop we walked another mile to a posh country club.  It turns out, that they did employ caddies, but not the likes of us.  Besides, all the golfers had gone home to have the evening meal with their families.   So, with tails between our legs, we turned and walked home – which was another 10 miles.  

That day we ambitious but naïve kids walked about 26 miles and spent 13 hours doing it.  What did we learn?  Two things:  1) Mowing lawns is an easier way to make money; 2) It’s wonderful to have someone who is willing to pay what we are incapable of paying.

Enjoy the original song below!

Up the Hill. Written: Jim Johnson.  Vocals: Sharie and Jim Johnson 

Co-Mow — February 14, 2019

Co-Mow

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An enigma – that’s what it is!  On one hand the Scripture tells me that the Lord will provide for me (Matt. 6:33) while on the other hand it tells me if I don’t work, I should not be allowed to eat. (2 Thess. 3:10)   So why does a great big all-powerful God need us to participate in His program?

My dad answered that question when I was too young to understand.  It was the late fifties and I was nearly 5 years old.  My dad was clipping the lawn with an outdated reel mower on a sultry summer day.  I watched as he labored to force that manually powered mechanical beast through the thick green. 

He left the mower for the house to get a drink.  Aha, a chance to make him proud.  I reached high above my head and grabbed the worn T-handle and pushed.  It wouldn’t budge – not an inch.  No leverage – tiny muscles!  I huffed and puffed while the lawn laughed. 

That’s when a couple of massive hands came from behind me and outflanked mine on the handle.  Dad nudged the mower and we moved and then picked up speed.  Soon the reel was happily tossing its clippings in my little face.

Dad didn’t need my help, but I sure needed his.  We finished the lawn in record time. (It took at least twice as long to get it done.)   The sweet smell of the new mown grass was almost as sweet as the experience of having conquered it with my dad. 

And this is where I begin to understand my Heavenly Father.  My dad really didn’t need my help.  In fact, I seriously complicated the task.  He had to make room for me.  He had to take small steps and wait for me when I needed to stop to get a fresh grip. He had to step over and around me on the corners.    

But why?  I brought zero to the table toward the accomplishment of that task and I really wasn’t old enough to treat it as a training experience.  So why did dad allow me or even want me to participate?  

The relationship – just the relationship!  It was an opportunity for him to be with me and me with him – to share the experience together.

I am fairly sure that our Heavenly Father treats His ponderous work in the same way.   Though He does not need us, He enjoys us and the responsibilities He gives us are designed to draw us near.   

The Lord is my provider.  He can take care of me whether I work another day or not.  But as I work to put bread on the table, I am frequently reminded of how much I need Him.   I depend on Him for the opportunity to work and the wisdom, strength and health needed to get the job done.  Such things fuel my prayers.  He also allows me to enjoy what He enjoys when a task is completed.  Working with Him draws me nearer to Him and He loves it when that happens.

And yes, it certainly is more trouble and takes Him longer to accomplish what He could and would do on His own, but He loves us and wants to enjoy the experience with us.     

Thank you Father for making room for me at the T-handle of life, but please, never let me forget that it is only through and because of You that anything is ever really accomplished.

Listen to the song below and remember how wonderful He really is!

Oh God Our Help in Ages past. Vocals: Jim Johnson