What colors is God painting on your canvas? Have you ever considered your life to be the work of the Master Artist? Mrs. Norma Whitcomb will share her heart and her own life story in that regard, beginning today here on Encounter God's Truth. We're resuming our series called Basic Biblical Distinctions, which we began earlier this year. We've actually arrived at the final topic in the study, and it comes from Dr. John Whitcomb's wife, Norma. This message was initially intended for the ladies attending a Bible conference held at Grace Bible Church in Elkhart, Indiana. We appreciate their cooperation in allowing us to present it to a wider audience here on Encounter God's Truth. Mrs. Whitcomb has a fascinating life story and her words will be an encouragement as you listen to her comparing God's work in the life of a believer to the talents of a master artist who is painting a story on a canvas. This is the first of three sessions that we'll enjoy together as we hear Mrs. Whitcomb present her topic, stillness before the Lord. I'm Wayne Shepherd inviting you to join together now to listen and learn from the testimony of Mrs. Norma Whitcomb. And it's always a privilege to talk about my Lord because he does great and wonderful, marvelous beyond all expectation. And you know, if we tried, if we really looked at God, perspective in our lives, and we would realize that the best novel that could ever be written would not compare to what he is doing in our lives. Thank you, I appreciate that. Amen, she said. It's so true, but we look at things so differently at times, and just looking at our precious Savior face to face, and realizing that he's holding our hands. He tells us that under his wings we are abiding. He covers us with his feathers, his wings. He loves us. And it's just a joy once more to be able to just stop and talk about him a little bit and share with you what he has done in my life. Now, that's always the problem when we start talking about what God does in our lives. We sometimes Don't see him as the main focus of the picture that he's painting for us. Let's pray. Father, what a joy to know you as our Savior. That's where it all starts. And I pray if there should be one woman here this morning who does not understand salvation and her opportunity to be in Christ Jesus, born again, saved, I pray, Father, that she will realize that these things happen to those who become your children, your daughters. And then you, after that great decision, then as we walk hand in hand with you, you do great and marvelous and wonderful things for us from your loving heart. And for that purpose, Father, we come to you this morning. And thank you and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. There's a little maxim. that I like to give. And it goes like this. You might have even had this on a card, sent it to someone. You might even have it on a little plaque in your home. And it goes like this. God, listen carefully, God gives his best to those who leave the choice with him. Did you get that? It's God gives his best to those who leave the choice with him. Well, I like that because since I'm an artist, I like to think that our lives, and I'd like you to think that way yourself. Your life is one great big canvas upon which God, the master artist, paints day after day as long as we live. And we know that artists need certain things to make that paint come true. Brushes, little ones, little teeny ones, big ones so you can splash, bright colors so you can, then you need the dark colors for some contrast. I love to think of contrast in anything I do. I like to think of contrast. And God paints that way on our lives. He paints contrasts on our lives. Why do we need contrast? For the sake of beauty. It would be very blah if there were no darks and lights. And so God says, my dear daughter, I'm going to paint some contrasts on your life so that there's beauty there. And that's a beauty that exudes Jesus Christ. That's the kind of beauty we're talking about, a heart beauty, a beauty that comes from the heart. that is dedicated, sold out, ready to allow God to have his way in our lives and to thank him for them at the same time. Well, I taught art classes in college and I've taught various places, but the best ones I ever teach are those to women who came to my basement, and we set up, and they didn't have to worry about making good grades or anything. We just had a good time, and we painted. One time, they could paint anything they wanted, and I'd be there to help them. And one woman was very diligent. She said, Norma, I've worked on this canvas all week, and look at it. It still looks so blah. Well, it was a pink rose on a canvas. And you know what? I'm not a master artist. God is the master artist. I just do what I can. And I make mistakes. I sandpaper it out. I wait when it's dry. I rub it out when it's wet. I do whatever I want. I work with oils. So I looked at it, and I had to agree with her. It didn't look right, but you know what I did? I didn't do anything magic. I don't have that ability, and I wouldn't want it anyway, and I just took and dipped her brush into her palette of colors, and I didn't touch the pink rose. The pink rose was pretty good, but I brought in the dark colors around the edges of the pink rose. And the closer I got to the pink rose, the darker the colors came because we needed a contrast there to bring out the beauty of the rose. You and I are roses in the hands of a master artist, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we love it when he is painting on our canvas. Pink roses, don't we? Everything is lovely. God, I love you. You do everything perfect. Just thank you so much. I'm ready to tell the world about you right now. But when he comes along with a brush and he dips it into the dark colors and he starts painting on our canvas of life, it changes, doesn't it? If we're not careful. Because that's the way we seem to say we're made. But that's not what God is painting those dark colors there for. He's painting there on our canvas of life to do what? To bring out the beauty of his love, his fellowship, his purposes, all that he has planned for each life. And isn't it amazing? that no two lives are exactly alike. He is so wonderful. I like that verse and I can't give you the reference right at this moment. It says, he knows our frame and he paints accordingly. Now that frame doesn't mean how we are put together body bones. It means the inner side of us. He knows that. And he's going to paint on our canvas according to that frame that he has put within us to bring out not just our beauty, but his beauty in our lives. His beauty. We have no beauty of our own. And so when they paint those dark colors, how do we respond? God, why are you doing this? You're hurting me. I don't like what you're doing. Are you really there? Don't you care? We go on and on and on. It's just as though, God, I don't trust you. I don't even know if you're there. And sometimes if we're not careful and get into deep despair, that's the way we. Oh, we wouldn't say that, but it's certainly the picture, the canvas that we are putting out into the world in front of us about God. And we forget that he paints according to his purpose. Now, there's a verse in scripture that says the same thing beautifully. And we know, let's say it together, Romans 8, 28, and we know that Oh, but that's where we have to stop. We'd rather not have that word all in there. We want just the pink rose things work together for the good. But when he's flashing those dark colors on our canvas, whew, they can be big and bold. That is part of the all things, dear friends. We know that all things work together for good to those that love love. Love God. Now that, too, is another thing that we have to stop and think about. What does it mean to love God? Or you can say, well, some people say, oh, well, I read my Bible every day. I pray every day. But that's not really saying we love God down deep in our heart, because we don't, unless we know who he is, As our Lord, our Savior, our Heavenly Father, the One who does all things well, we don't really know how to love Him. When we love Him, then we live as though He was the Lord of our life, and we live in obedience to Him. That's showing our love to Him. And furthermore, one more thing, we're ready to tell others. You know, we have to stop and think sometimes, and I have to draw myself up on this too. How long has it been since I have told somebody about the Lord Jesus Christ? How long has it been since you've talked about the Lord Jesus Christ? You can't really, we can't really love somebody and hide it under a bushel. Many of you have been engaged and married and some of you are hoping to and some of you might even be in that position. Are you not telling anybody? Did we not tell anybody? Didn't we go around showing off a ring? Everybody, we want them to know this wonderful relationship we're having and going to have even better when we get married. Now that's what it means to love. to love. And if we really love God and expect him to work in our lives, he does anyway. But we can look at his whole plan for our lives in a different way if we're showing, if we're living that love before others. Well, we talked about black strokes. I'm not telling you this to feel sorry for me. I don't feel sorry for myself. God didn't feel sorry for me. I'm just telling you so you know that I understand what it is to have black strokes on a canvas. At the age of 16, my mother had been buried the day before. I was in college. During my junior year, I was called home, the sudden death of my father. A few years after that, my only sibling, my brother, was accidentally electrocuted. That took my family. That was all there was. And it was wonderful, though, because I already knew God, and these experiences While you could call them black strokes, there were flecks and sometimes big blobs of real gold there. Why? Because he was teaching me. He was working in my heart and my life to say, Norma, I love you. I have a plan for your life. And he has a plan for every single life in this room today. If you're 100 years old or 20 years old or teenage. He has a plan and he has not only dark strokes to put in our life, but he has in those dark strokes, there are beautiful gold flecks and sometimes they're gold blobs, but we overlook them. We don't take them that way. We don't look to him and his word and recognize that he is there and we don't say to ourselves, Norma, God does all things well. Norma, he is there, or whatever your name is. So those were the dark splashes, but there were beautiful golden ones. I happened to have that wonderful privilege of being born into a Christian home. And I accepted the Lord early in my life. And we were very, very much involved in music, in church music. And there were lots of wonderful home experiences that I had, even though my mother was ill for years and years and couldn't even get out of bed at the end. But there are so many things I learned from all of those goods and bads. And then, of course, the wonderful thing came along. I married a war vet. And we both went to college and we were enjoying life. He entered seminary, and four years later, he got his degree, Master of Theology degree. And I got a degree also. Put hubby through. And then we had two sons, and we went to the mission field, and we spent 11 years in the Philippines. And so we were having a wonderful time. I want to stop to tell you that It's wonderful to serve the Lord no matter where he wants you, wherever he puts you. He has given every single person in this room some kind of a gift, an ability to serve him. And some people say, oh, but mine isn't very... Listen, it's big if he gave it to you. And if you're using it for him, it's his service. Well, we went to the mission field. We served him. I want to share with you just a little thing, a few little things there that you might be able to, in your own mind, think of other missionaries who are having activities on the field, not only the joy of bringing souls to Christ and teaching and like that, but difficulties that are sometimes rather hard. Well, we went with one son. and the other son was born in Singapore, right in the middle of language study. And before we got to, before we went to Singapore, we were packing to go to a mission field, and we didn't even know which mission field they were going to assign us to, believe this or not. And the only ones who knew where they were going were those who were going to Japan because they'd need clothing for colder weather. But for us, the rest were all tropical, so you just pack that way. And believe it or not, we talk about, you know, big amounts to take anymore. Well, we were allotted 250 pounds per person. That was my husband, our little son, and myself. But I was pregnant. And I couldn't have even one more extra pound for diapers or anything. That was the mission. We went out under that mission because we liked that mission. We liked its principles, its policies. It's the old China Inland Mission of Hudson Taylor. You live by faith, and we loved it, and we wanted it. That was what we chose. But those were some of the little things that I wasn't quite, you know, knowing about when we first said, yes, this is the mission we want to go under. Our son was born in Singapore and we were just getting ready, that was language study, to go to what field we were then assigned to when we got to Singapore. And our assignment was the Philippine Islands, which was the second choice for both my husband and for me before we were ever married. And so we were over there and getting ready to go on. Well, then there came the day when these two children, these two boys were going to have to go to school when we got in the Philippines years later. And I hadn't anticipated this, but I remember standing in the, or sitting in the room in this country before we went and we were being debriefed and all of these things. And they said, you know, there's going to be a time when your children are going to have to go to school and that means that you probably won't have them in your home. Oh, yes, I can take that. You know, I was ready to go to the mission field. I was ready for anything. But when the time came, that was a different story. Six and a half years old. we sent our older son to school. Way up in the mountains of the Philippines where it was cool and nice, six and a half years old, he'd be gone for three months and come home one month around the clock. It came time for the younger one at five and a half years old to go to the school. Three years, three months, I didn't see my little five-and-a-half-year-old friends when they'd come home for that month, and it was the most wonderful thing. And, of course, we were involved in mission work. We spent time with them. We had wonderful times. I remember walking along any place we could walk and having one child in each hand, and, oh, it was so wonderful for that month. But then it came the day when they'd have to go back up to that school. And all the little toys and everything that they'd had out, there was one little trunk. I would be putting those toys back in that trunk and crying my eyes out. It was as though I had almost put them in the grave. And that was the way it was. But I have to tell you, we had committed our lives to serve the Lord. And as hard as that was, we would not come home because God had called us. And when God calls you, dear friends, young people out there, when God calls you, directs you, he will take care of the situations and the problems that come along, no matter how difficult they are. And there is not a harder thing than to put a little five, not see a five and a half year old son for three months. make a birthday cake for them, can't do any of those things, can't hear those cute little things they say, the way they express, none of that. But God is sufficient for the hardest, darkest stroke you will put on your lives, and he's doing it. We call them dark strokes. I used to call them only dark strokes, but now I call them love strokes. because God in his love is teaching us. He tells us that in his word. For whom God loves, he what? Chastens. He disciplines. Now, discipline doesn't mean taking and whacking a child around. Discipline means just gently leading that child along, whatever it takes for that child to Teach that child to grow up. We've talked about beauty. Now we're talking about growing up, growing up in the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever he brings into your life. If you know him as your savior, he is teaching you that you might grow in a closer relationship to him for whatever might come next. We never know. And he wants us to be his child. He wants us to be ready to exude Jesus Christ in any situation. Now, that's not easy. I'm on no pedestal. I'm not doing it every day. I'm not saying that, but I'm saying he's working his work in our lives if we will open our lives and our hearts and our minds and our wills and our decisions to him. It's so wonderful to live for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are times When I have to do, well, I'm getting ahead of myself. I'll just back up a bit, and we'll get to there in a minute. So then it came time for our first furlough from the Philippines. We'd been there for five years. And we wanted to get further education. My husband was going to work on his doctorate, and I was going to work on my master's, and then preparation to go back to the the love of our life as far as our career was concerned. And so we settled down in Winona Lake, Indiana. And my husband entered Grace Seminary. And everything was beautiful. We had our two sons with us. Everything was beautiful. He was a jogger. And he walked, came into the kitchen ready to go out the door. And he said, you want to go with me? And I said, no, I don't think I will tonight. It was March. And it was cold. Do you know anything about cold marches? And so I stayed home with the two sons, who were already asleep, because it was 11 o'clock at night after he had done his studying. Usually, he didn't even go to bed until after midnight, even as late as 2, because he was a diligent student of the word. And so he went out the door. I flopped on the bed and fell asleep immediately. That's unusual. And then at two o'clock in the morning, there was a knock on my door. And four people, I looked out. Of course, here I am with curlers all in my hair and in my old, my husband's house coat because it was warmer. And I looked out and I saw four people outside this glass that I could look through. And I invited them in. They said, Norma, evidently your husband went out to jog last night. Yes. I was in stun. I was stunned. I was asleep. And they said, well, we found his body on the street. He evidently had a heart attack. With the recollection of that startling announcement, we'll have to pause our story there until next week. God's word is true from the beginning to the end, even during times of crisis and alarm. We're reminded of that in this very special message from Mrs. Norma Whitcomb, which was originally given to the ladies of Grace Bible Church in Elkhart, Indiana during a Bible conference that Dr. Whitcomb presented. You can read many articles from Mrs. Whitcomb on her blog at windowforwomen.blogspot.com. You can also find more material from her at sermonaudio.com slash Whitcomb. You'll find either of those easily when you visit our website at WhitcombMinistries.org. And as always, you'll want to keep up to date with us at Facebook.com slash Whitcomb Ministries. We'll continue this message next week. Until then, for Dr. John Whitcomb and all of us at Whitcomb Ministries, I'm Wayne Shepherd. Thanks for listening to Encounter God's Truth.