Bathsheba's Children

Nap Time

2009-11-15T21:29:00.003-05:00

It turns out I have a lot of nice things to say lately. I just don't have any time at all to get on this blog and say them.

So, in case you haven't already figured it out, I'm putting Bathsheba's Children down for a little nap. I don't want to rule out picking this blog up again at some point. But this year has turned out to be busier than I expected.

I've been spending a lot less time at the computer, and a lot more time out in the physical realm interacting with people. I greatly enjoyed the days when I had long stretches of time at home, without the everyday hustle and bustle of pickup lines and lunchboxes. But for now, my time is measured out in rigid increments that are dictated by other people's schedules, and that means I have to hop to it in a way that I didn't have to in the past.

The bad news is, I rarely get to indulge in blogs. Even this one. And to be honest, many of the things going on in my life right now would make for inappropriate blog material. That's not to say that things are bad, just better left in the privacy of real life, and not advertised to every stranger who happens to stumble on here via Google. Or, perhaps more honestly, to those of you who I do happen to know in "real life."

So for now, with some regret, I must say good night. Feel free to read through my old posts. A few of them are actually worth it.

If You Don' Have Nuthin'

2009-08-28T16:05:00.003-04:00

If you don't have nuthin' nice to say, don't say nuthin' at all.

I'm not sure if my Mom ever actually dispensed this advice to me, or if I only heard it from Thumper in the movie Bambie. But either way, there are times when advice is worth heeding.

Alas, for me, now is such a time.

I don't have anything nice to say, and that is why you haven't heard me saying anything at all on this blog.

What is even worse is that I don't expect anything to change in the near future. If you are familiar with writer's block, I've got something similar. Only mine is spiritual in nature. I'm so spiritually blocked I don't know what to do about it.

There are, of course, some reasons that the above are happening. This blog just isn't the appropriate place to discuss them. Because I don't have anything nice to say--and so I'm not going to say anything at all.

It's a good thing I believe without a doubt in the perseverance of the saints. (That would basically mean, once saved, always saved.) Because if it was up to me...

But God never lets go. And I know He has not forsaken me. And I know He is always working all things out for my good. I know all of the right things to know. I just don't know where He is going with this one.

Psalm 27:9

"Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation."

Bad Makes Me Mad, Not Sad

2009-07-19T16:36:00.004-04:00

I'm not glad I'm mad,

I would be glad if I was sad.

But I'm such a cad, I get mad.

Not sad.

I'd prefer to be glad, but every silly fad

That makes the church look bad

Makes me mad, mad, mad.

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The more I'm exposed to what passes as Christian teaching, preaching, writing, and advice, the madder I get. So much of it is just plain bad. Some of it isn't even Christian at all, but should be considered practical advice that would apply to any religion or culture. Some of it is so basic that 3rd graders should be yawning at it. Some of it is worse than that and patently anti-biblical.

What is a girl to do?

I'll tell you what I do, I get mad. Well, that is putting it lightly. I have internal temper tantrums.

My husband deals with it much better. He has things like patience, and compassion, and *ick* concern and love. Hmph. I don't know where he is getting them, but I missed my dose lately.

I have this niggling feeling, though, that he in in possession of the more appropriate response.

Whatcha think?

The Glory of Submission

2009-07-19T15:02:00.003-04:00

Our culture gets the idea of submission all kinds of wrong.

You can hardly even utter the "s" word without the wrath of modern ideology being poured out by people who ought to know (and think) better.

Eyes roll, mouths tighten, necks stiffen...oh, I've seen it happen. And to be fair, there are often a few too-gleeful-and-triumphant looking husbands giving their wives the I-told-you-so look, whenever those *black and dreadful* verses-which-shall-not-be-named are read out loud.

Jesus never rolled His eyes and stiffened His neck when it came to submission.

And He never smirked in arrogant triumph at anyone either.

Instead, Jesus glorified and exalted submission as something to be highly desired, cultivated and sought after.

Jesus was GOD, you know...He spoke the world into creation. He laid the earth's foundations, marked off its dimensions, stretched a measuring line across it, and shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb. He takes the very light to its abode and puts the darkness into its residence. He fills the storehouses with snow and hail, and scatters the east winds over the earth. Every bolt of lightning reports back to Him, for He has created and directed each one of them. (Job chapter 38)

Can your mind even conceive of such vast greatness, can you even begin to consider the majesty and awesome power of Jesus? He is the beginning and the end, He dwells in light unapproachable, He is the WORD OF GOD MADE FLESH. He is the glory of all creation, and all flesh will fall on its knees and worship Him in the end.

And for all of that glory and power and authority and majesty, Jesus Christ submitted in ways that we probably can never fully appreciate. And He did it willingly, in perfect obedience, never demanding that His "rights" be given to Him, never whining that it was unfair. He made submission a glorious thing for us to emulate.

Jesus equated submission with greatness; He equated servant hood, and even slavery, with being the best, and first, position.

Matthew 20:25-28

"But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.""

In Matthew 5:5, Jesus says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

So if Jesus, who was God, commended submission and meekness, why do we resent and fight back against it, in any of its many forms? Well, the big answer is that we are full of sin, but more specifically, I think, it's because we are full of PRIDE.

And the culture that we, as post-modern Americans, live in, encourages us to be filled to the brim with the nastiness of pride. I know, because I am naturally a very prideful person. By the grace of God, I can say that I have been sanctified a great deal in this area, but believe me, I understand this particular sin from the inside, out.

This pride tells us that we don't have to submit. That submission somehow is shameful and weak and 'less-than.' That it ain't fair, and that the people we are called to submit to certainly don't deserve our submission.

But contrast all of that "wisdom" with the true wisdom of Jesus. Jesus submitted to Mary and Joseph as His earthly parents, even though He was God. Jesus submitted to the government that he lived under, even though they only held power at His good pleasure. Ultimately, Jesus submitted to a gross and horrible death on the cross, at the hands of people who certainly hadn't done anything to deserve His submission. And He always acts in perfect submission to the will of the Father, with whom He is an equal.

So the next time your mind goes down the rabbit trail of pride, the next time you are tempted to think of submission in a negative light, consider Jesus, and consider it a glory to share with Him in submission, that you might be exalted by Him in due time.

1 Peter 5:5

Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for "GOD RESISTS THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE."

Being A Friend

2009-06-25T16:05:00.002-04:00

There are no deep insights into Scripture in this post. Just something that I need to get off my chest.

If you are a woman, you more than likely enjoy having friends. In fact, I think it is pretty safe to say that most ordinary women find friendship to be quite necessary, and will suffer if they find themselves lonely and isolated.

Christian women should never find themselves isolated and lonely. If they do, then the church is failing. Christian women should be the most welcoming, friendly, hospitable, outward reaching women in the community. We should be getting together and sharing deep, unusual friendships with each other so often that all of our non-Christian friends are jealous.

Unfortunately, I think the scenario I described above is rare. Perhaps you find yourself surrounded by a wonderful community of Christian sisters. Praise the Lord if that is the case. You may not realize how blessed you are.

I happen to live in a smallish town in the Bible Belt of America. There are literally churches on almost every corner in the town I live in. You would think that a young Christian woman moving here would find no lack of young Christian women eager to reach out and fold her into fellowship with them. But over and over again I hear differently. I hear of women who go to church and nobody asks them what their name is. I hear of women who have lived here for a year, all the while going to church, and have yet to be invited over to share a meal in another church member's home.

Shame on us.

I am forced to imagine that women who have lived in the same town for their entire life, and are surrounded by the friends they grew up with, have no idea what it feels like to need a friend. They have no idea what it means to be new in town and to feel lost and lonely, to go to church hoping to find friendships and companionship and leave every week feeling dejected and rejected. To listen to the women around them in Sunday School talk about parties and dinners together and wonder why nobody thought to include the new girl.

Shame. Shame. Shame.

Christian woman, let me tell you something. You might be the one who needs to extend yourself and reach out to that new face in town. It is going to cost you something. It is going to cost time and effort and emotional energy. You are going to have to risk being rejected. You are going to have to give up time with the people you already know and love, or perhaps put up with having an unfamiliar personality at your next gathering. It is going to cost you. But you MUST be willing to pay the price. It is an affront to the idea of Christian hospitality for you to leave people out and ignore them.

Or, you might be that new person in town who wonders why the Christians around you aren't acting like they ought. You, too, are going to have to reach out. It is almost certainly going to cost you something. You might very well be rejected by women who don't even understand how callous and uncaring they are being. You are going to have to feel your way through unfamiliar group dynamics and go to the effort of getting to know someone new. But you need other Christian women in your life, and the other women might not realize it yet, but they will be enriched by you too.

The town I live in happens to be the home of an Air Force base. And I've had the privilege of meeting and loving several women who are Air Force wives over the years. It is a story that always has a bitter sweet ending. All of them move away eventually and leave me with a little hole in my heart. But I am richer and wiser and fuller for having taken the time to develop friendships with them. And more than once they have expressed to me how glad they are that a 'local' woman was willing to take the risk of loving them. Because all too often, it doesn't happen.

That is a shame and a pity.

I think all of us women are tempted to sit at home and wonder why nobody calls us up and asks us to do something. It is easy to be lonely and feel sorry for yourself and how 'left out' you are. There is an simple solution to that kind of problem. Quit wishing for friends. Instead, be a friend. Be willing to make that phone call and extend the invitation. Be willing to let people into your home and show them that you might not be perfect. Take the chance, risk the rejection, and push the envelope. Be a friend. Because someone out there is feeling just as isolated and lonely as you are.

And that should never happen to a Christian woman.

Is It Wrong to Have Church Lust?

2009-06-25T15:40:00.003-04:00

My husband and I ran away from home last weekend. It was a last minute trip that we hadn't planned on making. But when the opportunity to get away presented itself, it didn't take us long to decide where we should go--Savannah, Georgia.

Savannah is well known for many things. There is that Paula Dean woman who likes lots of fatty ingredients in her decadent, down-home cooking. There is River Street and the St. Patrick's Day festivities. Lots of parks and squares and a phenomenal historic district round out the picture. (Along with a peculiar trait of Savannah, namely that it is its own universe unto itself, and if you don't happen to belong to its universe, then you, quite frankly, don't matter all that much.)

But what you might not happen to know about Savannah, Georgia, is that it is home to one of the most amazing churches, EVER. It is not one of those churches that finds itself front and center on the national stage; there are no super-star pastors, no trend setting programs or mega facilities. Instead, what you will find is an historic, elegantly beautiful sanctuary, filled with a vibrant, multi-generational congregation, a high view of corporate worship, and solid, expository preaching.

I mean, we sang a Psalm. And the choir sang a Psalm. We sang the Gloria Patri, said the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed. And the sermon was from the book of Jude. When is the last time you heard a young pastor preach through the text of Jude, one of the more difficult books in the New Testament?

The Sunday School lesson was just as sound. An actual teacher stood up and actually taught from the Biblical text. The (full) class had an intelligent, deep discussion about the text. Interesting questions were raised from class members who obviously had a grasp of the contents of the Bible. It was, quite simply, astounding.

And the surprising thing was this--the congregation at this very large, very traditional, very historic church was as friendly as you can possibly imagine. We were greeted and spoken to every time we turned around. Sadly, not all churches are so welcoming of strangers. I've heard stories of people who were asked to move because they were "sitting in someones pew." Can you imagine?

I think that I am in love. Seriously, if someone from Savannah offered my husband a job, I would start packing and stick a "For Sale" sign out in our front yard. It was that good.

Independent Presbyterian Church. Savannah, Georgia. Is it wrong to lust after thee?

Teachers

2009-06-06T09:53:00.005-04:00

You know how sometimes you will hear something, perhaps randomly, or as an afterthought during a conversation, and it will just stick with you for a long time? One of those things that you keep turning over and poking at in your mind during odd moments?

Well, I've had two things that keep coming back to my mind over the past year or so. Both of them involve women who are in what would be considered full time ministry, and both of these particular women are well known and 'successful' in their ministries. But from the lips of each of them, I have heard confessions that in my mind, should cause them to seriously consider their qualifications for standing up and presenting themselves as teachers.

One woman admitted that while she would often take to a stage at large gatherings of Christian women and dispense marital advice, her own marriage was in shambles, and ultimately ended in divorce. The second woman shared that she didn't bother to read the Scripture verses her ministry was founded on until several months after she began 'ministering.'

I'm trying not to be overly judgmental about either scenario, but they just keep coming back to my mind over and over again. Perhaps its because I spent the last year researching and teaching from the book of Ruth. I can tell you that I spent many nights wide awake in bed, with that verse from James thundering through my head.

James 3:1

"Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly."

I just don't think you should take that verse lightly. The thought of the regular kind of judgment should be enough to give each of us pause every single day and in every single aspect of our lives. (As Christians, we can live in the joy and security of knowing that we have already been declared righteous, or justified, before the judgment seat of God, but that should never make us presume upon grace or be careless in our pursuit of holiness.)

But then you throw in the thought of getting a stricter judgment and its enough to make a girl lose some sleep. At least this girl. A very kind friend reassured me one morning, when perhaps I was a little bit green around the gills before I stood up and taught, that God has grace even for the errors that we make as teachers. A wonderful thought, yes, but I still believe that all teachers should approach their task with soberness and careful consideration. Imagine leading a tender young believer down the wrong path! Who would ever want to live with such responsibility?

All that to say that I think we, as consumers of Christian teaching, need to exercise more discernment in who we will accept as teachers. In particular, the woman who admitted to giving marriage advice while she knew that her own marriage was deteriorating has struck me again and again as appalling. Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that it is horrible that she had problems with her spouse, that is certainly common enough. But why, oh why, would anyone know that and then present themselves to the world as an example of a marriage to be emulated? Wouldn't you realize that doing so opens you, and the entire body of Christ, open to the merciless finger pointing of the non-Christian, of being called..."a big fat bunch of hypocrites, look at them, they talk about how much they care for marriage, and they get divorced just like the rest of us, who do they think they are?"

Well, I know (or I hope) that this woman is a sinner redeemed from the pit of destruction by grace alone through faith alone, and that whatever her failings might be, they are covered in the blood of our Great High Priest. But the world doesn't know that. And how many women who she dispensed advice to looked on her failed marriage as a cause to give up hope in their own circumstances? Or worse yet, follow her example and got divorced?

You know, the...'well if she, who is obviously so together and so righteous, because she stands up on a stage and says so, can't make a go of matrimony, then what hope is there for the rest of us regular slobs...' train of thought.

Oh, I forgot to mention this detail. After her divorce and subsequent remarriage, she continued in her original ministry.

It just makes me sad. And confused. Is there nobody who is willing to say, "We are very sorry for your troubles, but perhaps it would be better if you didn't expose yourself to stricter judgment by teaching about marriage from now on. Perhaps it would be wise instead to go home and press forward to the goal of being an excellent wife in the marriage that is most important--your own."

Human wisdom could point to all of the 'good' that she is doing in her public ministry. And yes, perhaps that might seem worthy. But again and again I have been confronted with how human wisdom fails to stand up to the wisdom of God found in Scripture. We almost always get it wrong when we rely on our own opinions.

Of course, there are no biblical requirements given for women who presume to be teachers. There are lots of very stringent requirement for men who presume to teach, shepherd and tend to God's flock. But at the very least, if a woman is gifted and has a desire to teach other women, shouldn't she have a personal life that is excellent in pursuit of holiness? Shouldn't she take the task seriously and with a healthy dose of the fear of the LORD?

And shouldn't we DEMAND such things? Not out of harsh condemnation or self righteousness, but out of love and concern for the woman who takes on the heavy burden of being held to a stricter judgment?

I for one think so.

And by the way, take some time to thank a woman who has been your teacher. You may not realize what a serious task she has undertaken, or what a serious responsibility it is that she has volunteered for. But most of all, insist that she be held to a high standard. For her own good.

Matthew 12:36

"But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken."

The Ecclesiastes of Housekeeping

2009-05-28T09:47:00.002-04:00

A riff on Ecclesiastes 1:2-11.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Mother.
“Utterly meaningless!
All this work is meaningless.”

What does a mother gain from all her labor under her roof?
One child goes off to school and one child remains home,
Yet lunch-making endures forever.
The dirty dishes rise in the sink, and the dirty dishes recede,
Yet they always hasten back to the stack, in need of scrubbing once more.
The dust settles on furniture and floor
Before it kicks up into the air;
Round and around it goes,
Whirling constantly throughout the house.
Dirty laundry spins in the machine,
Yet the mound of clothing never ceases.
From the place those grass-stained t-shirts came,
They will return to the pile again .
All the housework is wearisome,
More than a woman can say.
The eye always spots something out of place,
The ear always hears a dripping sink.

Nothing will change, it will all be the same,
It will all need doing again and again;
And there are no new gadgets that lighten the load.
Is there any invention of which it can be said:
“Look! Here is a new sponge”?
That sponge is the same as long ago;
Our mothers used it before our time.
There will be no end to the continual scrubbing.
Even our great-grandchildren will toil away.
And it will still be utterly meaningless!

This and That

2009-05-26T21:19:00.003-04:00

I am in the midst of the second week of "The Summer of Fun" around here.

You see, starting in the fall, my family is going to be experiencing a milestone--a transition, if you will, which is going to change things around here quite a bit. And while it will be a good development (I believe all stages of life have a sweetness) it will also mark the end of an era that I have found to be particularly sweet. And in an attempt to savor the very last drops of sweetness in this current cup of mine, I have declared an all out extravaganza of fun and activity this summer.

Basically I'm going devour my kids all day, every day. I tell you this so you will understand why this post is going to be a few random, mostly underdeveloped thoughts strung together. You are just going to have to forgive me. I've been up to urgently important things, like reading piles of library books, and making up ridiculous knock-knock jokes. (Oh, if you only knew!)

But my mind hasn't completely given up the contemplation of Scripture over the past few weeks, and in that vein, allow me to present the following for your consideration:

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You know that verse, 2 Thessalonians 3:10, that says, "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat."

I heard someone railing against the 'welfare state' in our country and using this verse to condemn it as unbiblical. Well, let me just say, I ain't taking a position on politics here, but a little bit of proper context seemed to me to be in order.

You do realize that Paul was addressing this statement to the church, right? Not the government. He was saying that church members must not be allowed to loaf around and sponge off of their fellow saints. Apparently some of the Thessalonians believed that Christ's second coming was so imminent that they gave up working and caring for their everyday responsibilities. Paul was having none of that, and said so. I don't think he had any kind of 21st century American political agenda in mind.

And by the way, all of that loafing led to some other problematic behaviors, as Paul goes on to list in verses 11 and 12. "For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread."

Busybodies. Every known one of those? Bet she didn't have enough work to keep her busy!

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I've been increasingly discouraged lately. I hesitate to blog about it, because it is so very negative, and I hate to fill this blog up with criticism. But I can't escape the awful realization that so many of my fellow Christians are by and large biblically illiterate and lack even the most basic level of discernment.

There, I said it.

And to add salt to the wound, I am specifically talking about people who have grown up in church, or have spent a majority of their life involved in church.

Now, before you go thinking what a snob I am and feel offended, let me add this: I have been there. I grew up in the church. I played the role of sweet-christian-do-gooder for a while. Not very well, I'll be the first do admit. But still, I do have some empathy for church attenders who don't know that much about Christianity and the Bible.

It's just that my empathy is starting to wear thin, and I'm thinking "Come on people! Do you believe this stuff at all? How can you believe the amazing, overarching message in Scripture and not be serious about it?"

Christian friends of mine tell me from time to time that they are not smart like me, and they just don't know as much as I do. Well, let me tell you something. I'm not all that smart! And I wasn't born knowing the things that I have come to understand. I have just taken the time to study and read and question and challenge and discuss. I've asked the hard questions and remained dissatisfied until I got an answer. I mean, if you understand that the God and Creator and King of the universe bore a curse, and became sin, and died in your place, how can you really be content without exploring Him and His revealed Word to the fullest understanding possible? It is quite simply the most fascinating topic in, well, the universe.

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So, I went blueberry picking a few days ago, and now my fridge is full of blueberries. I'm going to make a real, homemade blueberry pie tomorrow, and I an PUMPED!

While reading in quest of a great blueberry pie recipe, I happened upon this scintillating cooking tip: Cake batter cooks well in a waffle iron.

Are you imagining the possibilities? Cake batter waffles surrounded by a topping bar. Think of it! Ice cream and syrups and chopped nuts and whipped cream. I'm going to have to think of an excuse to throw a party.

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And finally, credit goes to my dear husband for pointing this one out to me.

In Romans 8:16 we read "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,"

This is not only an internal assurance for each and every Christian that we indeed posses a true faith, but it is also a legal requirement for establishing the truth of a matter.

Deut. 19:15

"One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established." (emphasis mine)

In the Romans verse, Paul is describing the two witnesses that will testify to our adoption as sons of God. The first witness is the Christian, and the second is the Holy Spirit. And by the testimony of these two--the truth of the matter is established.

House of Bread

2009-05-10T16:58:00.003-04:00

For any of you who have been following the Ruth Bible Study that I've been teaching over the past year, you know that there are several things in the book of Ruth that point forward to Christ and His work.

In fact, two whole sessions, numbers one and four, deal specifically with this topic. Session one, in a nutshell, deals with Christ setting us free from the curse of the law. Ruth, being a Moabite, was specifically marked out by the law for exclusion in certain areas. Yet, despite this, she is an ancestor of Christ. I'm afraid you're going to have to listen to the whole lesson (roughly 50 minutes long) to get the whole picture on this point, as I simply don't have the time to type it all out again for this blog. Email me if you want the link to the Ruth Study.

Session four draws some parallels between the law of the kinsman-redeemer, personified in the book of Ruth by Boaz, and Christ as our kinsman-redeemer. In fact, the kinsman-redeemer is probably one of the most significant themes in the whole book of Ruth. Sadly, the importance of the role of the kinsman-redeemer seems to get minimized in our desire to create a fairytale romance between a "beautiful" Ruth and a "dashing" Boaz. (Session six debunks this scenario, again, I don't have time to type all of that out here.)

But there is another little detail in the book of Ruth that is often overlooked in its significance. It can be found in the very first verse.

Ruth 1:1

"Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons."

Notice that our story begins, and ultimately ends, in the sleepy little town of Bethlehem. Bethlehem is hardly famous as the setting of Ruth and Boaz's story, but rather for being the setting of another, more famous, story: the place where Mary gives birth to Jesus.

Before you let this detail go with a little, "huh, that's neat," and nothing further, let me tell you what the word Bethlehem actually means.

The literal translation for Bethlehem is "House of Bread."

OK, so what does that have to do with anything?

Perhaps I am making too much over a little connection I see between Bethlehem as the "House of Bread" and some of the events that unfolded there. I'll let you be the judge.

One would assume that if a place is named the House of Bread, then a great deal of bread must come out of there one way or another. And since we know that Bethlehem was a farming town, what with all of those fields that Ruth goes out to glean in and all that, this name seems to make perfect sense. But could there be more to it than that?

Remember that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And consider what Jesus calls Himself in John chapter 6.

John 6:35

"And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst."

Jesus, the bread of life, is born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I tend to think there are few, if any, coincidences in Scripture. I think the name of Bethlehem had a double meaning from the beginning, but nobody would have realized it for a very long time.

Consider too the irony of Bethlehem, the House of Bread, at the beginning of the book of Ruth. A famine was consuming the land, and this in fact was the motivation behind Elimelech picking up and moving his little family to Moab, at which point Ruth, the Moabite, enters the story and ultimately, the lineage of Christ. The House of Bread was full of hunger.

But the bread of life, Christ Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem, the House of Bread, will erase all hunger forever.

Neat, huh?

Thank God for the Fleas

2009-04-15T09:20:00.003-04:00

James 1:2-4

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, wheneve you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

I stayed up way past my bedtime last weekend reading parts of Corrie Ten Boom's famous book, The Hiding Place. It describes her life and experiences in Nazi occupied Holland and then in a concentration camp. She and her family were instrumental in running an underground network to hide Jews from the authorities who sought to arrest them. I'm sure you realize what happened to the Jews if they were arrested.

If you have never read her book, I highly recommend it. It is written in an easy to read format, and although the content is far from an easy read, I believe that you will be rewarded in many ways for your effort.

Following are some excerpts from the book that I haven't been able to get out of my head.

We pick up the story as Corrie and her sister Betsie have been assigned their permanent beds at the Ravensbruck labor camp.

We followed our guide single file--the aisle was not wide enough for two--fighting back the claustrophobia of these platforms rising everywhere above us. The tremendous room was nearly empty of people; they must have been out on various work crews. At last she pointed to a second tier in the center of a large block. To reach it we had to stand on the bottom level, haul ourselves up, and then crawl across three other straw-covered platforms to reach the one that we would share with--how many? The deck above us was too close to let us sit up. We lay back, struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw. We could hear the women who had arrived with us finding their places.

Suddenly, I sat up, striking my head on the cross-slats above. Something had pinched my leg.

"Fleas!" I cried. "Betsie, the place is swarming with them!"

We scrambled across the intervening platforms, heads low to avoid another bump, dropped down to the aisle, and edged our way to a patch of light.

"Here! And here another one!" I wailed. "Betsie, how can we live in such a place?"

"Show us. Show us how." It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize she was praying. More and more the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be vanishing for Betsie.

"Corrie!" She said excitedly. "He's given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!"

In glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch. "It was in First Thessalonians," I said. We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving Scheveningen. In the feeble light I turned the pages. "Here it is: 'Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all...'" It seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck."

"Go on," said Betsie. "That wasn't all."

"Oh yes:"...to one another and to all. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus--'"

"That's it, Corrie! That's His answer. 'Give thanks in all circumstances!' That what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!"

I stared at her, then around me at the dark, foul-aired room.

"Such as?" I said.

"Such as being assigned here together."

I bit my lip. "Oh yes, Lord Jesus!"

"Such as what you're holding in your hands."

I looked down at the Bible. "Yes! Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here! Thank You for all the women, here in this room who will meet You in these pages."

"Yes," said Betsie. "Thank You for the crowding here. Since we're packed so close, that many more will hear!" She looked at me expectantly. "Corrie!" she prodded.

"Oh, all right. Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds."

"Thank You," Betsie went on serenely, "for the fleas and for--"

The fleas! This was too much. "Betsie, there's no way even God can make me grateful for a flea."

"'Give thanks in all circumstances,'" she quoted. "It doesn't say, 'in pleasant circumstances.' Fleas are part of this place where God has put us."

And so we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas. But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong.

**************************

Picking back up our story, Betsie has been placed on the light duty of a knitting brigade after an illness that required hospitalization (or what passed for hospitalization at the forced labor camp.)

Best of all, as a result of her hospitalization, she was given a permanent assignment to the "knitting brigade," the women we had seen the very first day seated about the tables in the center room. This work was reserved for the weakest prisoners, and now overflowed into the dormitories as well.

Those working in the sleeping rooms received far less supervision than those at the tables, and Betsie found herself with most of the day in which to minister to those around her. She was a lightning knitter who completed her quota of socks long before noon. She kept our Bible with her and spent hours each day reading aloud from it, moving from platform to platform.

One evening I got back to the barracks late from a wood-gathering foray outside the walls. A light snow lay on the ground and it was hard to find the sticks and twigs with which a small stove was kept going in each room. Betsie was waiting for me, as always, so that we could wait through the food line together. Her eyes were twinkling.

"You're looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself," I told her.

"You know we've never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room," she said. "Well--I've found out."

That afternoon, she said, there'd been confusion in her knitting group about sock sizes and they asked the supervisor to come and settle it.

"But she wouldn't. She wouldn't step through the door and neither would the guards. And you know why?"

Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: "Because of the fleas! That's what she said, 'That place is crawling with fleas!'"

My mind rushed back to our first hour in this place. I remembered Betsie's bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for.

I have nothing so difficult as fleas to thank God for. But I'm going to start thanking Him for a few other things that I can see no use for.

If Christ Is Not Risen

2009-04-12T15:38:00.002-04:00

1Corinthians 15:17

"And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!"

I once spent several hours listening to a woman speak at a church conference. Mostly, she was sharing her testimony, which, I'll grant, was quite dramatic. But her testimony is not what I remember when I think back on that experience.

Instead, it was the claim which she repeatedly made, that Jesus "works."

She made a big point of saying that people don't really care all that much if Jesus is true. Nowadays, people are more interested in whether or not Jesus, and Christianity, will work.

I suppose I could agree with her in many ways. Jesus does in fact work in things that are most important. He works in regard to cleansing us from our sin. He works in regard to reconciling us to God. He works in regard to redeeming our lives from the pit of destruction.

And hey, I'll even agree that there are many comforts and benefits that result from being a Christian. We experience sanctification, we are able to fellowship within a local body of Christ, we are given opportunities to serve God, study about God and strive to become more like Him. There is even that whole "peace of God which transcends all understanding" and "the joy of the LORD" thing.

But does our entire Christian faith, our hope of eternity, rest on the fact that Jesus works? Whatever that even means?

No.

Jesus is not some form of cosmic self help. He doesn't promise that you will have square finances, a solid marriage, and a happy, easy, stress-free life. In fact, the Bible makes a lot of claims about the trouble that will come into the lives of believers.

John 16:33

"...in this world you will have tribulation..."

James 1:2

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,"

2 Timothy 3:12

"Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."

And more importantly, if Jesus matters only because He works then we are all in a heap of trouble. Because, you see, if Jesus isn't true, then we are all still dead in our sins, we are all still separated from God, and we will all suffer eternal damnation in hell upon our unavoidable death.

That is why I put that verse from 1 Corinthians up at the top of this post. If Christ is not risen, than this Christianity business is a big ol' waste of our time. It doesn't matter if Jesus "works" if Jesus is not first of all true.

Meditation and deep breathing might help you if you suffer from stress. Reading some books about financial management might help if you are tempted to spend more money than you earn. Getting a divorce might make you feel better if you just can't get along with your spouse. The world is chock full of advice about how to make your life "work" the way you think it should. And to be quite honest, sometimes the techniques that the world trumpets seem to be a whole lot more effective than obeying God, at least in the short term.

Let me give you a general example. Right now I am being obedient to God in a situation that is making me very unhappy. I mean specifically, that it is the obeying that is causing me great unhappiness, not the situation itself. I would much rather be disobedient and get some relief from the strain, stress and frustration I feel. But I am obeying a direct command of God that is found in the Bible. There is no wiggle room or way to 'reinterpret' this particular command so that I can feel good about disobeying. The command is clear. And in my obedience, I am, quite frankly, miserable. I don't have any sense of peace about it--at all.

I do trust God. I believe that He is working out something for my benefit and His glory in the midst of my situation. (See Romans 8:28.) But in the right here and now, I'd be hard pressed to say that Jesus is "working" for me.

But I would be willing to stake my life on the claim that Jesus is true.

If Jesus matters because He works, then why isn't he working for me when I am clearly obeying Him?

Do you see what a potential disaster could be brewing if I decided to become a Christian, because I wanted something to "work" for me?

Let me put it to you the way Paul does in one of his letters to the Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 15:19

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable."

1Corinthians 15:32

"If the dead do not rise, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!"

In other words, if there is no resurrection from the dead, then don't waste your time obeying a bunch of rules and living a life of sacrifice. Go out and do what you want! Eat! Drink! Enjoy yourself! If this is all you have, you might as well make the most of it. It would be a great pity if you denied yourself the pleasures available in this world, and then your beliefs all turned out to be a big deception.

But Jesus did rise again from the dead. And because Christ has risen, all of us will also rise. Some will rise to glory and some will rise to condemnation. But it will happen. Not because Jesus makes me feel good, or Jesus made me a better person, or Jesus saved my marriage. Not even because Jesus works. But because Jesus is true.

Wouldn't You Know It?

2009-04-08T16:31:00.002-04:00

The city that I live in has experienced some serious flooding during the past week. Dozens of families (many without flood insurance) have found their homes filled with chest-deep water. My family, and my home, have been unharmed, despite the fact that my house sits literally a few feet away from a creek that swells up like no body's business when we get any serious rainfall.

Even though I haven't suffered any major harm--I have been cut off from the Internet for the past week or so. It seems that my Internet service provider found its satellite dishes and communication systems under water. Understandably, that makes providing Internet and cable services rather difficult.

By anyway, allow me to get to the point. During the past (Internet-free) week, I have been formulating some seriously post-able thoughts. I have barely slept, as my mind keeps furiously writing blog posts while I lie in bed. Frustrating for sure. But potentially fruitful!

So check back. I am, as usual, busy as a mad bee, but I'm going to have to get some of these thoughts up into cyberspace soon, or I may drop dead from sleep deprivation.

Why?

2009-03-30T16:19:00.005-04:00

Matthew 27:46

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (emphasis mine)

Jesus, being fully God and fully man, was unlike you and me.

He lived without sin and was always in a relationship of perfect love and perfect submission to the will of God the Father.

While Jesus prayed in the garden, in intense distress, before the events that led up to His crucifixion, He implored God to let the cup pass from Him if there was any other way.

Jesus was clearly aware of what was going to happen. He also knew why he had to endure the shame and humiliation of the cross. He was in agreement with the plan and submitted and participated willingly in God's redemptive work. He never doubted God's love, faithfulness or sovereignty.

And yet, in His humanity, in the moment of His agony, what did Jesus cry out?

My God, My God, WHY....

Because Jesus, our Great High Priest, was not only fully God, but fully human.

And we, in our human frailty, even when we trust that God is loving, faithful and sovereign, often do the same.

My God, my God, WHY...

Astoundingly,we have a High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. (Heb 4:15) Jesus actually knew the answer to the 'why.' Yet He cried out in agony anyway. We often don't know the 'why' and may never in this life.

But because of the mercy and compassion of our Great God, we are privileged to say in the same breath:

"My God, my God, have mercy on me, a sinner....my God, my God, WHY?"

Ruth Session Six

2009-03-30T15:54:00.000-04:00

Oh yeah, and by the way, I posted Ruth Session Six like 10 days ago, in case any of you are interested in listening to it. You'll be glad to know that I not only fixed the sound quality issue, but this session is much more light-hearted than the last.

It actually provoked a lot more questions and discussion than I thought it would. Unfortunately, I didn't record any of it. Bummer. Email me if there is anything that you simply must have an answer to and I'll give it my best shot. (Um, after you listen to it, that is.)

Refreshing

2009-03-16T22:28:00.004-04:00

For those of you who might be wondering, I am still kicking and breathing. I just haven't had much to say lately. At least, nothing that would be of any worth to this blog. I've been kind of taking a break from all things blog related. I haven't even been reading the blogs that I usually follow. (And the laundry pile has been mysteriously less imposing during these past weeks. Connection? Hmmm...)

But two of you, my dear readers, have contacted me today to make sure that I am alright. Neither one of you may have realized it, but you were responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.

If only one of you had reached out, I wouldn't be so sure, but after weeks of silence, to receive two messages of care and comfort on the same day is too striking to be a mere coincidence.

I am refreshed, and encouraged, and I might even get passionate enough to post something in the next week. I'm teaching Ruth Session Six on Wednesday, so I'm a bit busy with that for the time being.

Anyway, if you have been thinking of a friend, or have had someone on your heart lately, reach out and touch...

The Holy Spirit might be prompting you to minister to a sister in Christ.

Ruth Session Five

2009-02-18T17:17:00.001-05:00

I just posted Ruth Session Five over on the other blog. Email me if you would like the link. This one is a ton of fun--it is all about suffering.

Silver Linings and Positive Perspectives

2009-02-11T09:20:00.004-05:00

I gotta tell you, I'm a little bit ticked off about something. Pardon my strong language, and believe me, I'm restraining myself on the language usage here.

I am seriously offended at the reduction of Christianity to silver linings and positive perspectives in the face of pain and turmoil.

Certainly, there are often silver linings in the hardships that we as Christians face. The problem is that we are told to start squinting at clouds looking for glimpses of silver, and totally miss the obvious point of Christian suffering.

The incorrect view of suffering and pain goes something like this:

"Yes, a bad thing has happened to you, but instead of focusing on that, just think of all the wonderful things that God is doing for you! Child with cancer? Oh, you should just be thankful that you live in a society that has medicine and doctors. Financial distress? Be glad that you have a job at all! Depressed? Count your blessings! Betrayed by a loved one? Keep in mind that people can only hurt you if you give them permission!!! (And above all, never ever forget to lavish love upon yourself, because you deserve it!!!!!)

Are you hearing how ridiculous some of that sounds? And what's worse is that those responses are the kind of drivel that non-Christians are forced to comfort themselves with because they lack anything better.

The secular, non-believing world is reduced to sifting for pebbles of optimism in their sandbox of pain because they have no legitimate means of dealing with troubles and hardships in this life.

But the insane thing is that Christians have lined up right behind them!! I can't tell you how many times I have heard Christian sources tell me to "look on the bright side."

Let's take a look at a verse that is often misunderstood in the search for meaning in suffering.

Romans 8:28

"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

On first glance, that seems to indicate that even if bad things happen to you, some kind of good is going to come out of your bad situation. Well, something that the world considers good might come about as a result of your difficulty, but then again it might not. If you or your spouse get laid off, the "positive thinker" might be tempted to quote this verse and assure you that God has an even better job already lined up.

He might. Or he might choose to give you something that most people would hardly call "good": a time of serious financial strain, in order to cleanse you of your love for this world.

The problem many people make with Romans 8:28 is that they don't read Romans 8:29. Let's take a look at that verse and see what kind of light it sheds on this "good" that God has promised in "all things" to those who "love God."

Romans 8:29

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

Going back to my previous example (of you or your spouse getting laid off) let's look at it in the proper light of Romans 8:28 and Romans 8:29. Being without your income hardly seems like it could be a good thing, I realize that. At least in the eyes of this world, being broke does not seem good. Surely the only good to come out of that situation would be a source of income that is superior in some way to the old one.

But no, according to Romans 8:29, the good that comes from all things is for the Christian to be "conformed to the image" of Jesus. Not for you to have a comfortable life. Not for "happy" things to magically appear out of "unhappy things." Sanctification, the process of being squeezed and pummelled and winnowed into a more Christ-like image--THAT is the "good" that God promises us in all things.

And God, in His plan to sanctify us more and more into the image of Christ, often employs suffering as a mighty tool. And it is good. I can say that to you as a fellow weakling who hates to suffer. I don't like pain, I don't like hardship. I certainly have no great love for experiencing loss or tragedy. But I do rejoice in being conformed to the image of my Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I can only do that through the power of God. It is not a joy that I can muster up in myself apart from Him.

The reality is that there is going to be suffering in the Christian life. Lots of it. If anyone tells you otherwise, and promises you an easy walk in this life if you will become a Christian, they are contradicting what Scripture teaches. Consider just three passages that speak directly to suffering, trials and pain for Christians.

John 16:33

"In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

1 Peter 4:12-13

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake in Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy."

John 15: 18-19

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." (all emphasis mine)

Do you see all of that tribulation, trial and hatred promised to Christians?

Why would we ever tell people that Christianity is going to make their life easy? And WHY would we ever try to convince the Christian that God is going to give her something that the God-hating world sees as "good" from her pain? Like I said earlier, positive perspectives are the sort of thing that God's enemies are reduced to scrounging around in to make sense of this fallen and sinful world. "Optimism" is the opiate of the unsaved.

As Christians, we should reject worldly optimism and "looking on the bright side" as a response to pain. Yes, good is promised to all those who love God in all things. But the good is not what the world expects. The good is becoming less like our natural flesh and more like Christ.

And it makes me kind of angry to hear well meaning people try to make me choke down silver linings and happy attitudes. When a horrible thing happens to me, I don't want to be forced to deny it, and conjour up some kind of sunny alternate reality. I want to look forward with joy to the day when all of my tears will be wiped away. And I want to rejoice that God is purging me of sin and polishing me to a brilliant sheen, a sheen that dimly reflects the glory of His Son.

Worldly optimism is a lie. Christian, know the truth.

Silence

2009-02-06T15:20:00.002-05:00

My apologies for not showing up lately.

I've been busy and distracted by life in general, but that is not the whole story.

I'm working through some things that are not appropriate blog material, and I can't think of much else to say until I get through them.

Check back, because I will eventually have something to write about.

I just wanted to let you know why I've been silent for such an uncharacteristically long stretch.

As you were.

Ruth Session Four

2009-01-24T22:15:00.005-05:00

Ruth Session Four is posted and ready for listening or downloading. If you would like the link to the blog that it is posted on, please email me from my "About Me."

And in other, totally unrelated news, I need your help.

I have found myself with a very frivolous dilemma and I just can't seem to resolve it.

The problem, you see, is that in a rare feat of shopping achievement, I have managed to fall in love with, and purchase, two new purses in one day. Now, I don't buy purses all that often, so when I buy a purse it is a major commitment. Me and that purse are gonna stick together for a while. And I don't normally change purses based on the outfit I am wearing (seriously, who has the time??). I might take a small purse out to dinner in the rare event that I go out on a date with my husband, or something wild and crazy like that. But mostly, I carry my one big purse with me everywhere I go.

So while this is frivolous, it is making me a little bit nuts trying to decide which purse to keep! I bought them both deeply discounted, but they are still expensive enough that I can't keep both. So help me out, would you? Which one would you keep, the gray one or the blue one? And if I could trouble you to include the reason for your decision, I would be forever grateful.

This snazzy gray purse is from a really nice name brand and has functioning zippers on the side that make the bag full or narrow, depending on how much space you want. You could almost live in the thing, it is so roomy. It is basic, with just a hint of style, and I like that in a purse.

This "Tiffany blue" purse made my heart surge. It was admiration at first sight. Seriously, I LOVE this color. I'm just afraid I might get tired of it. I wear a lot of basic colors, so I'm not too worried about it clashing with my clothes, but it is on the flashier side of what I normally choose. Should I cut loose a bit and risk a bold new color?

***Update***

For those of you waiting with baited breath...I have decided to keep the blue one. It was with a heavy heart that I took the lovely gray lady back to the store and returned her. She would have been a great friend, I am sure, but the blue purse just edged her out. Thanks for all of your input, it actually helped a ton!

Vampires and Other Imaginary Beings

2009-01-15T21:14:00.006-05:00

Vampires, Bigfoot, Leprechauns and Fairies.

What do the four things listed above have in common with ex-Christians?

They don't exist.

Oh, there are plenty of people out there who think they do. And I'm sure you can even find large numbers of people who passionately claim to know from personal experience that one of the five fictitious creatures named above is as real as dirt and rocks. But they would be flat out, no mistake about it, excruciatingly WRONG. (By the way, this is yet another reason that personal experience as proof of a matter should be treated with skepticism, but that is a post for another day.)

I don't care what they say.

I'd even be willing to budge on the first four. Perhaps I could be convinced that small, elvish creatures with red beards and green pointy hats live in the wilds of Ireland somewhere. Well, maybe not. But I would probably just roll my eyes (discreetly) at anyone who claimed to believe in a leprechaun. (As fun as the whole idea is, and that whole pot of gold at the end of a rainbow thing, it's kind of a shame that isn't true either.)

But believing that such a thing as an ex-Christian exists is dangerous. It can cause some real problems for the true sheep. Things like doubt and disbelief.

Let me just be blunt and perfectly clear about this issue. I realize that I run the risk of alienating some of you, my dear readers, by taking such a bold stand. Because I do realize that there are many Christians who are disagree with me on this matter. Even if you are one of them, I hope you will still come by for a visit every now and again. But at the risk of permanently irritating you, allow me to present my case from Scripture.

The most compelling case for the "perseverance of the saints" (that is the fancy term which means basically, once really saved, always saved, you can't lose salvation,) is found in John 10:27.

John 10:27-29

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."

If you believe what these verses proclaim, then in order to remove a sheep from the Father's hand, one would have to be greater than the Father. The very power and sovereignty of God, in His ability to keep the true sheep from straying, are at stake. I don't see any way around that.

Notice that I said the true sheep. Because you can't deny that there are people who once professed to be Christians, who now disavow the whole thing entirely. Some of them were even the really passionate, committed type of "Christian." (Maybe even most of them, which is a rather strange phenomenon, that probably bears exploring at a later date.) I personally know of two who at one point, seemed to all of the outside world to be the real deal. But who now profess to be atheist.

Are they ex-Christians? No. They were never Christians to begin with. Jesus did not call them by name, they never belonged to Him. They might dispute me on that point, based on their personal experience. And while I mourn for them, and feel somewhat confused that they are so blind, I don't believe that they ever belonged to Christ at all.

We know from Matthew 7:21-23, that not everyone who says to Jesus, "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven. To some of them He will say, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness." So obviously there are people out there who have some trappings of Christianity, but who are really the wolves in sheep's clothing referred to in Matthew 7:15.

Another passage of Scripture that speaks to the perseverance of the saints is Romans 8:29-30:

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified."

Obviously, even Christians, the real kind, go through periods of what is so elegantly termed "backsliding." You know what that is don't you? It is when a believer goes through a time of sin and rebellion. It happens. You are deceived if you think it doesn't.

In fact, the beauty of the gospel, of God's faithfulness to the sheep, is that He makes promises to us, even knowing ahead of time that we will fail, we will sin, and yes, we will even backslide. The thing that distinguishes the wolf in sheep's clothing from the backsliding believer is the final outcome. A true believer will ultimately come to repentance, will seek forgiveness and be restored to faithful service to God. That wolf ain't going to do any such thing. (The repentance might be a long time coming, too, which is why we should be pretty cautious about pronouncing judgment one way or the other.)

But if there is never repentance and restoration, there was never a Christian.

And you can be as sure of that as you are of the fact that nobody is going to suck out all of your blood and turn you into an immortal bloodsucker yourself.

Philippians 1:6

"being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

Isaiah 54:10

"For the mountains shall depart
And the hills be removed,
But My kindness shall not depart from you,
Nor shall my covenant of peace be removed,
Says the LORD, who has mercy on you."

Groanings Which Cannot Be Uttered

2009-01-09T22:09:00.004-05:00

That title will get your attention won't it?

I'm talking, OF COURSE, about Romans 8:26-27!

What did you think I was talking about???

Romans 8:26-27

"Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

I made reference to these verses at the end of my last post "Big Britches." I would have included them, but that post was already pretty long.

I am fascinated by the idea of the Holy Spirit making prayers for me that cannot even be put into words. Have you ever felt a strong desire to pray, but you didn't really know what to say? I have. Many times, actually. It usually happens when something tragic has happened or might happen, and I know I need to pray about it, but I'm not quite sure how. There have also been times when I felt a strong inward desire to pray for myself, but again, was at a loss as to what exactly I needed to ask God for.

How amazing it is that these verses make us confident of two things. First, that the Spirit is making intercessions for the saints (that would be you and me, my fellow Christians) according to the will of God. And second, that God, who searches the heart, knows what the Spirit is praying for. It's a complete circle. God knows what the Spirit is requesting, because the Spirit only requests what is God's perfect will.

Our inability to conjure up the right phrases, or even requests, doesn't get in God's way at all!

And the best part is, that this entire cycle of intercession and God's will work together to....wait for it.....wait for it.....help us in our weaknesses!

So don't be discouraged my fellow saints. Even if you ain't got the words, the Spirit Himself is interceding for you with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Big Britches

2009-01-08T09:23:00.006-05:00

I have been thinking about my tendency to get "too big for my britches." It's kind of a funny thing, because I work so hard at staying humble and restraining my natural feelings of pride and self-righteousness. I'm not a total failure at doing it, but it appears that for me at least, this is a life long struggle.

Lately I have been thinking about Peter, and his triple denial of Christ. It strikes me that Peter and I might have a few things in common. I'm obviously not the rock upon which Christ has built the church, but personality-wise, me and Peter might be formed alike.

He had a tendency to get too big for his britches too. To put it in gentler terms, he sometimes made grandiose claims in the heat of the moment that he couldn't follow through with later on.

In Luke 22:33, Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death."

Less than 24 hours later, Peter did just the opposite.

Luke 22: 55-60

"Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them. And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, "This man was also with Him."

But he denied Him, saying, "Woman, I do not know Him."

And after a little while another saw him and said, "You also are of them."

But Peter said, "Man, I am not!"

Then after about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, "Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean."

But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are saying!"

The thing is, I have no doubt that when Peter claimed that he would follow Jesus to prison or death, he absolutely meant it. He wasn't saying something that he didn't believe in his heart at that moment. I've done the same thing.

"Lord, I will always be this passionate for Your glory!"

"Lord, I will always seek Your face before anything else in the world!"

"Lord, I will never be distracted from loving and serving You above all else!"

But of course, when life takes an unexpected or disappointing turn, the reality becomes much less glamorous than my momentary exuberance could possibly have expected. And like Peter, I fail to do what I so earnestly claimed I would.

You see, Peter got quite a shock when Jesus was hauled off by that band of thugs in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter, and all of the disciples, had the wrong idea about Jesus's kingdom and His victory. They were still expecting a great military hero who would overthrow the earthly enemies of Israel and reestablish her as a mighty, victorious nation. Despite the fact that Jesus told the disciples many times that he was going to suffer and die, they just didn't get it.

So when Jesus was in the custody of the high priest, you can imagine that Peter's expectations of going to prison and death with Jesus were turning out a little differently than he thought they would. Maybe Peter thought that he would die in a glorious civil uprising, fighting alongside his Master. Or that they would be thrown into prison together and somehow defy the odds and still emerge as the victors.

But little did Peter imagine, in all of the scenarios he could conjure up, that Jesus was going to blindfolded and beaten, mocked, scorned and spit upon, by the very men Peter imagined that Jesus was going to defeat.

And in the disappointment of this reality, Peter failed. He denied the very One whom he had so passionately claimed he would never deny.

But, you see, there is more to the story than just Peter's failure. Jesus knew ahead of time that Peter was making claims that he wasn't going to fulfill. He saw ahead to Peter's denial of him, and He even told Peter that it was going to happen.

Luke 22:34

"Then He said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know me."

And even more than foreseeing the event, Jesus comforted Peter before the denial had even taken place.

Luke 22:31

"And the Lord said, "Simon, Simon! Indeed Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren." (emphasis mine)

Look at what Jesus says. He has prayed for Peter, and when, not if, but when Peter returns to Him, He will be equipped to strengthen his brethren.

Do you suppose that a man of big-britches claims is very encouraging to a struggling, distraught brethren? I don't tend to think so. I can only imagine that if I were always in a state of big-britches boasting, I wouldn't be very encouraging to my fellow brethren at all. It would be hard to relate to a sister in Christ who is experiencing the real disappointments and pain of life, if I always lived in the place of sheer happiness in the Lord.

You should know, I don't. I go through peaks and valleys in my walk with God. Once, I spent over a year on the mountain top. It was the best year of my life. But I'm afraid that all that high-mountain living brought our some pretty big britches claims from me. I kind of thought that I would always be 'high.' That it was the natural result of my faithfulness and dedication in seeking God.

But in reality, life threw a disappointment at me. Things didn't go as I imagined they would. Like Peter, my expectations of fighting for the Lord turned out differently than I thought. And before long, I ended up in a valley, in a place of denying the very claims I had so boldly made.

God knew I was going to do that. When I was making my big claims, He already knew I was going to fail. But that's OK. He knew I needed some humbling, some ability to relate, some equipping in order to strengthen my brethren. It was for my own good, and hopefully for the good of those around me as well.

I really want to get back to that place of 'highness' with God. There really is nothing better in all of life. If you have ever been there you know what I am talking about. Nothing, nothing, nothing even begins to compare to the delight of that 'place.'

But perhaps I will cherish it all the more next time, knowing that it is a gift not meant to be permanently sustained in this life.

Even Paul, who was temporarily caught up into the ecstasy of Heaven, was given a thorn in his flesh immediately afterward. Maybe a person who is very naturally humble can handle the headiness of God's fullness without getting too big for his or her britches. But I am not that person.

For me, I suspect it must come and go.

It has been 'going' lately. But I am not discouraged. Because I know that Jesus is praying for me, just as He does for all the saints, and the Holy Spirit is making intercessions for me that I cannot even comprehend to ask for myself, since I don't know how to pray as I ought.

And because of those things, my faith will not fail.

Hurt Feelings

2008-12-31T09:10:00.006-05:00

One of the toughest lessons to learn in this life is that your personal feelings are often irrelevant. I really mean that. Of course, there are some situations and relationships in which your hurt feelings are the most relevant aspect involved. But those situations are very close to home and heart, and for most of us, a great deal of our lives are lived beyond our most intimate circles.

And even there, we sometimes get it wrong when we let our personal feelings be the judge. I could totally flip out on my husband and have an emotional fit--and be not only wrong for exhibiting the fit, but wrongly motivated for having it to begin with.

It takes hard work to look past our personal feelings and evaluate a situation from an impartial point of view. I'm talking across the spectrum here, in everything from our relationships with family, with friends, with acquaintances and even that jerk driving too slowly in the car in front of me. When I've made the struggle to look past my FEELINGS, I have often seen that I am completely in the wrong. That, of course, is hardly any fun at all, which is why I think most of us avoid looking too closely, most of the time. (Am I being harsh? Maybe you do this all of the time?)

Anyway, here is where all of my rambling comes into play with God. I can't even count the number of things in the Bible that hurt my feelings. I'm not trying to be flip about this either. I should more accurately say that there are many things in Scripture that deeply offend my sense of justice and my own personal opinions.

Let's start with sin. The Bible tells me that all are sinners. That ALL is comprehensive. It includes that sweet little lady that I sometimes see walking around in my neighborhood, the funny guy who makes everyone laugh at every gathering, the person who reads the news to me on television, the crossing guard who stands in the middle of the road and seems to take her authority to the extreme by flailing and stamping her feet at every car driving past. Every one of them, no matter how kind, charming, famous or quirky, is a sinner who deserves God's condemnation.

That offends me sometimes, even though I know and accept that it is true. I didn't mention myself in the above list, because I have no illusions that I am free from sin. I have gotten to know myself too well over the years and I am not at all deceived about my lack of inherent goodness. But when it comes to other people, it is harder to swallow.

On a smaller scale, suffering and tragedy offend me. I know too many people who have suffered through gut-wrenching circumstances to gloss over this reality of life. You probably do too, when you stop and think about it. Or you could just turn on the news and listen for a few minutes. Your own personal bubble of life might be pretty charming and peaceful, but that is not the case for the majority of people in the world. Painful things, horrible things, really happen.

And that offends me. Where is God? How could He let this happen? Why is He allowing this? How can this be good? If God is so loving, why did he let that child die? If God is just, how can life be so unfair?

But, as usual, my feelings (while normal) are wrong. God is just, He is loving, and He is in control. I don't understand how all of those seemingly inconsistent things fit together, but I accept by faith that they do. And I accept that God sees things differently than I do. And He is the one who is right, and I am the one who is wrong.

Isa 55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."

Fortunately, God is bigger than my puny emotional reactions. He has compassion on my confusion and weakness and invites me to struggle through those feelings by interacting with His revealed Word, Scripture. You see, I can't go around struggling with shadows and imaginations. I have to deal with God in truth. And the place to discover who God really is and what God really said is in the Bible ALONE. My feelings and I the things that I think are right don't count. Because, usually, they are flat out wrong.

If you have never studied something in the Bible that has offended you somehow, I can't imagine that you are actually paying attention to what you are reading. The Bible is not some kind of happy-happy-joy-joy fluff story about a swell guy named Jesus who just really liked and loved people an awfully awful lot.

It is the story of a Holy Creator God and the creation that rebelled and hated Him. It is a story of gut-wrenching, sacrificial love on the part of the Creator, and rejection and scorn on the part of the created. And the amazing Redemption of that creation back into fellowship with the Holy One, at the total cost to, and initiative from, God.

It's a hard read, but an amazing one. Because you and me and all of humanity don't get to play the hero's role in this true story. We get to play the villain. And a crazy reversal of justice takes place, as the villain becomes the cherished, adopted son of the hero, despite it all. If it wasn't such a good deal on my behalf-and yours-I would be tempted to be offended. But, as usual, I would be flat out wrong.

P.S. - I really shouldn't go for so long without posting. I tend ramble when I finally get around to writing something. Hope all of the above actually seems cohesive.

A Lion in a Manger

2008-12-14T13:34:00.004-05:00

So, at church this morning, I was overawed at the profound implications of a song that the choir sang.

"There's a baby in Bethlehem, a Lion in a manger.
There's a baby in Bethlehem, a Lion in a manger."

I sat in the pew and reflected on the richness of that image. A baby, helpless and scrawny to the eyes of the world, and yet at the same time, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, as described in Revelation.

Revelation 5:5

"But one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals."

How often we fail to see things through God's eyes, and are instead distracted by what seems to be true. It is sometimes hard to think of a Christian in a Chinese "reeducation camp" as a victorious saint who is ransacking the house of the evil one. Or of a starving Christian in North Korea as one who has been fed with oil, milk and fatness. We don't always see the elderly man in church as a mighty warrior, wielding weapons of battle: truth, righteousness, peace, and most importantly, a two-edged sword sharper than any surgeon's scalpel.

But so they are.

I was enthralled by the baby in a manger who was really a roaring Lion, ripping the power of the evil one to shreds and claiming His righteous bride.

Then I listened more closely to the lyrics of the song realized that I had it all wrong.

"There's a baby in Bethlehem, a lyin' in a manger.
There's a baby in Bethlehem, a lyin' in a manger."

Hmph.

I liked my version better...

Locks of Love

2008-12-04T16:07:00.003-05:00

I had somewhere between 11 and 15 inches of my hair cut off today. It was 15 inches when I measured it last night, but the actual braid of hair that was cut off was only 11 inches long. I am donating it to an organization called Locks of Love. They provide natural looking, custom fitted wigs for financially disadvantaged children who suffer from long term hair loss.

I don't want you to leave me a comment telling me how great I am for doing this.

Instead, I want to tell you a little bit about why I decided to spend over a year growing my hair out in order to make the donation.

I don't usually mention my children on this blog, but I'm going to make an exception today. Because becoming a mother affected me in ways that are too profound to even express in words. I literally became a different person after the birth of my first child.

I don't have time to give you all of the details of that process. But I want to describe a snapshot moment which birthed an incredible thing that had previously been in short supply in my heart: compassion.

One of my children was born prematurely and suffered some complications for the first six months of life. That child is perfectly healthy today, but for the first few years, we kept a very close eye on whether normal development seemed to be taking place.

There were several episodes that gave us cause to panic. One, in particular, is imprinted in my memory. My child began to make strange, twitching-like head motions. It was odd enough, and recurrent enough, that I couldn't ignore it. I did some online research about strange head twitching, and the most common diagnosis was something called Tourette's syndrome. It causes a person to make strange motions or utter strange words in an uncontrollable way.

I had seen some daytime T.V. shows featuring children with Tourette's. To be cruel and blunt, they seemed strange. One of them yelled out cuss words in the middle of perfectly normal sentences. Another would hit himself on the head out of nowhere. Still another made clucking sounds for no apparent reason.

But suddenly, I was faced with the possibility of being the mother of one of those strange-seeming, different-acting children.

My heart was torn open at the thought of watching my precious child navigate through childhood constantly marked out as the one who was different. The one who had something wrong. The strange one. The one nobody wanted to be friends with. The one that everyone laughed at and made fun of.

I cannot even begin to describe the overwhelming sensation of pain and anguish that those thoughts generated. I could hardly swallow. It became hard to breath. I didn't want to think about it, but I couldn't seem to think about anything else.

In that moment, I would have given anything to take the place of my child, and suffer the ridicule and ostracising of being abnormal. But, of course, it doesn't work that way. Mother's can't take the place of their children.

In my case, my child did not end up having the condition that I so dreaded. My child is normal. But I have never forgotten the horror of those days, when the future seemed so uncertain and ominous.

And I can't forget that there are thousands upon thousands of mothers for whom my passing dread is a daily reality. This world is full of children who are born different. The multitude of possible health complications is mind numbing when you think about it. It is a miracle that even one child is born without health problems.

Growing out my hair in order to give some anonymous little girl somewhere a pretty wig is so minuscule an act that it should hardly register on the radar screen of kindness. I don't feel like I did anything spectacular. But I hope that somewhere, there is a mother whose child doesn't have to feel quite so different.

And in a bigger way, I hope that my own children will grow up feeling the compassion that I seemed to miss out on in my own development. I was not the nicest girl in the world when I was younger. I used people. I discarded friends if they didn't have anything to offer me anymore. A lot of that was plain old immaturity. But still, I think a big part of it was the fact that I lacked compassion for other people, and their pain.

I have no doubt that God intended the trauma of my experience to do exactly what it did. Because compassion is something that I have seen over and over again as I have read through the gospels. There are many references to Jesus feeling compassion for individuals, and even for whole groups of people.

Luke 7:13

"When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, "Do not weep.""

Mark 6:34

"And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things."

In Psalm 145, God is described as "gracious and full of compassion." There are plenty of other verses that ascribe compassion as one of the attributes of God.

And in the process of sanctification, God molds us more and more into His own image. For me, the most effective means of sanctification have been hard blows from a painful hammer. But the end result is beautiful. I wouldn't trade the ability to feel compassion for any kind of smooth and worry-free life. I would much rather see the world through lenses that help me to see things just a little bit more like the way God sees them.

And when God sees his children, He is moved with compassion for us. If my child had never suffered temporary complications, I wouldn't be able to understand that at all.

I can't say that I have a heart that is perfectly able to feel true compassion all the time. But I'm a lot better at it than I used to be.

A Proverb for Bloggers

2008-11-28T17:00:00.003-05:00

Proverbs 10:19

"In the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise."

I started thinking about this rich little proverb today. I am, by nature, a person who hardly ever lacks a multitude of words. Believe me, I'm much better at letting the other guy get a word in edgewise than I used to be. But still, if I don't consciously restrain myself, I will fill up all the air in a room with my own words. So, naturally, this blunt little proverb is one that I need to remember. Pretty much all the time. (And for any of you who happen to be in my Sunday School class, I should probably have read this proverb to myself 10 times last week. Sheesh. Sorry about that.)

But it has relevence for all of you, my fellow bloggers, as well. You see, as delightful and amazing as this whole blogging thing is, it is also rife with potential pitfalls. It is far too easy to get online and spout off about something or someone without fully appreciating the consequences our little catharsis might have.

Perhaps you are disgrutled with a friend or family member and it motivates you to blog. Naturally, you change the names and personal details so that your subject can't identify herself in your post. Or so you think...

Or, you hear a cautionary tale about a friend of a friend and you think it would make a great post. You can't imagine that this friend of a friend might ever stumble upon your blog, say, two years later, and find their story advertised to the entire world. Never mind that your friend probably didn't authorize you to spill the beans to begin with.

Maybe you write a funny story about your spouse. It sure does crack up all of your friends! But your spouse isn't nearly as amused, and 3 of your friends have already read it by the time you delete the post. There is no taking it back.

And perhaps the worst offense of all is blogging about a matter that is best dealt with quietly, and only between the two people involved. Why share the details of your dispute with cyberspace?

We would all be wise, my blogging friends, to use great caution when we participate in this amazing blogging technology. Because, where there is a multitude of words, sin is present. And more than likely, were there is a multitude of blog posts, sin is hanging around someplace close by.

I share this caution as one who has been bitten by blogging indiscretion. I've had to go back and delete some old posts myself.

Gluttons

2008-11-28T16:12:00.002-05:00

I realize that the name of this post is somewhat ironic, considering that I am writing this the day after Thanksgiving. And I'll be the first to confess that I made a glutton of myself yesterday at Thanksgiving dinner--and enjoyed it a great deal!

But I am not thinking of gluttony as it relates to food for the purposes of this post. I am thinking in a much broader sense about our consumer culture and our insatiable quest for more, more, more. There is just no end to it: more clothes, bigger houses, fancier cars, better food, exciting vacations, upscale name brands, electronic gadgets, stylish haircuts, youthful skin, whiter teeth...

The list is endless. And every time I turn around, my lust for more is being fueled by the monolithic and pervasive god of marketing. Before I even have the chance to figure out that I am backward, unattractive and uncouth, the sly marketer has whispered it in my ear, all the while patting me on the back and offering to solve my woes for a small price. Or sometimes, for a very large price. But make no mistake. His solution is temporary. And he knows that no matter what the initial dose cost, I am likely to return again and again, seeking to be made cutting-edge, beautiful and elegant all over again.

Like I said, there is just no end to it.

Today, I read a scathing commentary on the greed that is so pervasive in our American culture. And I was cut to the bone by the truth of it. The commentary was part of an email devotional series that I subscribe to. As soon as I finished reading it, I glanced at the rest of the email waiting in my inbox. At least a dozen of them promised great deals and "secret" sales on things that I quite frankly don't need. The juxtaposition of the two got my attention.

Now, don't get me wrong here. Wealth is not evil. Money and things and even luxury are not bad in and of themselves. But they are not necessarily good either. Jesus said it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 10:25) He also said that you cannot serve both God and riches. (Matthew 6:24) You will end up serving one and despising the other.

With the Christmas season and all of its excesses fast approaching, it's a good time to stop and think about who you are serving. Is it really God? Or is it a bunch of glittery junk that is worthless in the end?

Proverbs 30:8

"Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches--Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You and say, "Who is the LORD?" Or lest I be poor and steal, And profane the name of my God."

Bathsheba Lite

2008-11-25T17:56:00.003-05:00

OK, so I know that Bathsheba has been a little on the lite side lately, as far as deep and insightful material dealing with Scripture. It is this Ruth Bible Study, y'all. It is taking up all of my good inspiration! Pretty much every deep thought that I have, I have managed to work into the book of Ruth somehow. That is probably why I talked for 55 minutes last session! Seriously, I know that is waaaaay too long to talk. I'm going to try to contain myself a bit more next time (which won't be until January, by the way, in case you are following the study.)

But since I'm being lite-minded around here, I thought you girls might like this recipe. It is actually a recipe that I have come up with all by my lonesome self.

See, I love a good beef stew. It is just about my favorite thing to eat. But after I had each of my babies, I needed to shed some serious pounds. And the diet that always worked for me was a low-carb diet. So, this is my twist on beef stew without the high-carb potatoes.

Beef and Turnip Stew

8 oz sliced fresh mushrooms
4 celery ribs, sliced
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 large onion, diced (or 1 bag of frozen diced onions)
1 1/2 lbs stew beef
6 (or so) medium-smallish sized turnips, peeled and diced
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper (or if you want a spicy beef and turnip stew, make this 1 tsp of
pepper. I did this by accident once and it turned out pretty good--but spicy.)
2 cups beef broth
1 bay leaf (optional)

Put all of the ingredients in a big crock pot on low for 6 hours. Remove the bay leaf. Indulge in fabulous beef and turnip stew. Email Hadassah and heap praise upon her for inventing this awesome recipe.

*Serves at least 6, probably 8
*You can also make this with fresh diced rutabaga (a root vegetable for those of you not from around these parts) instead of turnips. Both versions are delicious.
*We are eating this tonight at my house, served with skillet cornbread, 'cause I have given up being on a diet for the time being.

Gettin' With The Program

2008-11-23T21:23:00.003-05:00

I've resisted adding the "Blog Roll" to Bathsheba's Children for a while now. I have a couple of reasons that I've been hesitant to do it. None of the reasons have anything to do with any of you, my valued friends and readers. But, I have finally overcome my internal reservations, and am happy to introduce some of you, my readers, and your respective blogs, to the rest of my readers, and their respective blogs.

I've started a list, but I KNOW that I have overlooked many of you. Please don't take it personally, I probably just didn't have your address handy! So if you don't see your blog listed under, "My Readers Who Blog" please leave a comment or shoot me an email, and I will happily add you to the list.

Pretty much the only requirement for being listed is that you stop by for a visit every now and again.

Cats and Sparrows

2008-11-23T16:38:00.007-05:00

I've had a change of heart about...cats. I've always been a dog person, and I expect that I will continue to love dogs. But in the past week, a couple of cats have started to grow on me.

I come from a long line of dog people. My grandmother was never without a small dog, which she regarded as half child. Her son, my father, dislikes cats in the extreme. My mother defied him once and brought home a beautiful kitten, fluffy grey with bright green eyes. We named her Jade. But she turned out to be a mean, hissing sort of cat and promptly unleashed a flea infestation in our entire house that took months to control. Needless to say, Jade was never a big hit with any of us. Eventually, we gave her to another, more cat-friendly home. She met with a strange demise one evening when she climbed a tree during a lightening storm. Apparently the tree she sought refuge in was struck by a bolt of lightening. Jade's new owner found her body in the backyard the next morning, stiff and electrocuted.

So anyway, fast forward to sometime last week and I had a sudden need to add a cat or two to our family. I'll spare you the strange reason that we needed a cat, but we did need one, and quickly. As usual, there was an ad in the newspaper for "kittens, free to good home." So I called the kitten's owner and made arrangements to pick out a pair of them.

My husband brought them home later that night. Two puffs of fur with big eyes, big ears and six toes apiece. Yep, you read that right. Both of the kittens have got six toes on their front paws. Sort of like the famous six-toed cats that live in Ernest Hemingway's estate in the Florida Keys. (And sort of like Ann Boleyn, a woman whose life has always intrigued me. She had six fingers.)

Despite, or maybe in addition to, their unusual paws, they are a pretty little pair of kittens. One is a dramatically marked calico, and the other is white with patches of grey stripes. Particularly when I look at the calico, I am reminded that God put together the exact combination of DNA that painted her in such a beautiful pattern. He intricately ordered the creation and formation of that little, insignificant cat. How much more He must be aware of the way He has created and formed each one of us, His precious children. You do know that God has even got a tally of the hairs on your head don't you? And that not even a common sparrow falls to the ground apart from God's sovereignty? Well, both are true. And what a comfort it brings me to know that God is perfectly aware of every perfectly tiny detail.

Matthew 10:31

"Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows."

Not even hissing, flea-infested Jade hit the ground apart from God's will. Even so, I'll be sure to keep these new cats indoors if it looks like lightening might strike.

Ruth Session Three

2008-11-19T15:25:00.002-05:00

For those of you who are following the Ruth Bible Study, session three has just been posted. As always, if you are a friend or a regular reader, email me and I will send you the link to the blog that has the Bible Study posted on it.

Retreat

2008-11-15T20:53:00.003-05:00

I've just gotten back from an overnight women's church retreat. It was delightful.

It felt sort of like diving into a refreshing spring of sparkling water, in more ways than one. Fellowship with like-minded sisters in Christ is better than a day at the spa to me. (And a day at the spa is pretty good, I'll be the first to admit.)

The music was such a treat, too. I got to belt out all four verses of Amazing Grace at the top of my lungs, and still only hear the combined harmony of worshipping voices without my own caterwauling standing out. I love that. I cried like a baby when two women from Cameroon sang some worship songs in their native African tongue. And I walked around all day today humming "My chains are gone, I've been set free, my God my Saviour has ransomed me."

Actually I cried like a baby about pretty much everything this weekend. A casual observer would be tempted to think that my life is in shambles upon seeing all the salty trails steaming down my cheeks over the past 24 hours. But really, nothing could be further from the truth. My life is fine. I'm not suffering from any major trauma at the moment. I'm not wrestling with past hurts and failures right now either. I've dealt with all of those things before, but I don't happen to be right now. I'm simply overwhelmed by God.

As soon as the speaker read the first Bible verse on Friday night, I got misty. And it only got worse after that. About mid-morning Saturday I even gave up on that trying-not-to-let-the-others-see-my-embarassing-tears business. It was a lost cause anyway. I was dripping. A sprinkler. A leaking faucet.

It wasn't even that the message the speaker delivered was revolutionary. I've heard most of it before, maybe in a slighty different presentation, but still, the same basic prinicples were presented. I just needed to hear it again I suppose.

It's been a while since the gospel made me weep. It felt good.

Such Good News

2008-11-15T19:20:00.005-05:00

Did you know that the word "gospel" actually means "good news?" I betcha did.

It is easy to forget, though, that this whole Christianity thing is supposed to be news that is actually good to hear. So much of what we hear focuses on our responsibility to "do better" and "be better." And of course all believers are called to be holy, just as Christ is holy.

But there is the problem, you see. Christ actually was, and is, holy. We...aren't. Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking that we can be if we just try hard enough. (Hello! Pride and Self-Righteousness! Hello!)

But the simple truth of the matter is that we never will measure up. We won't ever do good enough or be good enough. We simply aren't capable of it. Plus, all of the good that we earnestly attempt to do is totally undone by the smallest guilty action.

Its enough to make a girl depressed and exhausted...all that trying and doing and being and never measuring up despite it all.

THAT my friends, is why the good news is so, well, good. It isn't up to us at all. We don't have to do it. The good news is that Jesus already has done it...all of it...and He did it perfectly. The better news is that He will give us all the credit for the righteousness that He accomplished.

If that isn't the most amazing news you've ever heard, then I'd like to gently suggest that you don't actually understand what the news is.

Psalm 40:9

"I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly"

Holy Holy Holy

2008-11-11T20:58:00.003-05:00

While I would guess that most people are captivated by God's love, I would have to say that more and more I am captivated by God's holiness. We hear "God is love" all the time, in church and out of church, from believers and non-believers alike. Even people who only ascribe to some vague sort of spirituality have a sense that whatever-it-is they believe in must be based in love, and feel love and express love.

And of course God IS actually love. We find that exact phrase in the Bible.

1 John 4:8

"He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."

You can find the phrase "God is love" again in 1 John 4:16.

The problem, I think, is that we have so many mixed up, and flat out wrong, ideas about what love actually is. And we carry that confusion into the mix when we try to comprehend that God is love. Not only that, but real, true love seems to be in short supply in our modern culture, and that certainly doesn't help us out when we try to discern what God being love actually means.

I prefer to be overwhelmed by God's holiness. Now that is something special. I find all sorts of cheap imitations of love on television, in books, and in observing how people around me interact with one another. But not a single one of those things profess to be holy. Holiness is reserved for Yahweh. And it gets my attention.

I'm not trying to take away from the fact that God is love, because like I just said, He certainly is. But consider what the angels cry out to God when they are worshiping Him in His presence.

Isaiah 6:3

"And one cried to another and said:
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!"

And again in Revelation 4:8

"The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:

Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!"

The angels don't worship God by crying out that God is love, love, love. Nope. It is God's holiness that is proclaimed before Him in His throne room.

The twist to all of this is that the more I think about God's holiness, the more dumbfounded I am that this holy God could also choose to love me. The bigger God's holiness gets, the more amazing His love gets. I'm not sure that it works the other way around. Perhaps it has for you?

One of my favorite hymns is actually "Holy, Holy, Holy!" by Reginald Heber. You might be familiar with it, its an old standard in most traditional worship services. I've memorized all of the verses because I have a children's CD with that song on it that I listen to in my car. But it is the third verse that stands out to me.

"Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee,
though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see,
only thou art holy; there is none beside thee
perfect in power, in love, and purity."

Something about that just gets me every time. I'm getting misty and stopped up just thinking about it now.

God is holy. And I'm going to find a tissue.

Emily the Chickadee

2008-11-10T21:51:00.002-05:00

Two things you should know before you read this post. One, I don't buy very many children's books. My mother tends to gift me with armloads of them and I have stacks of them all over my house. I don't especially enjoy making my life more complicated than it already is, hence I don't purchase very many books to add the the aforementioned stacks. Two, I got this particular children's book for free! A reader sent it to me and asked me if I would write a review of the book for my blog. (Well, she said she was a reader. I have my doubts, but still--free book!)

Anyway, I must say that Emily Waits for Her Family is a sweet little story. It is gentle and easy and paced just right for young children. (I get sort of weary of the flashy, sassy, spunky characters splashed all over many of the books marketed to young children these days.) It is written in rhyme, which is nice for early readers, and for little listening ears.

The book follows the story of a chickadee named Emily who builds a nest, lays some eggs and feeds her chicks all under the careful observation of a young girl. The illustrations are colorful without being flashy and friendly without being childish. The book is printed on very high quality paper. I actually kept thinking that I had turned two pages instead of one because the paper was so substantial.

So anyway, I give the book two thumbs up. There is nothing Christian or Biblical about it. But if you are looking for an innocent children's story that explores nature, this is a good option.

It's Been Hanging Around Lately

2008-11-02T16:58:00.003-05:00

Death.

It seems to have been hanging around lately. Or at least I've noticed it more than I usually do. I spent Saturday morning at a funeral. The last time I was in that funeral parlor was for the funeral of a 15 month old boy who died in a tragic accident. That was three years ago this past week. I have also just passed the one year anniversary of my grandmother's death. The date marking the death of a young member of my husband's family looms large around the corner. And several weeks ago, as I sat for a normal, uneventful moment in my living room, surrounded by my little family, the thought hit me, "We are all going to die."

Now, I'm really not trying to be morbid. I am not, by nature, a morbid person. But I am ruthlessly realistic. And the fact is that each of us is absolutely going to die. It might happen today, or many long and fruitful (or tragic) years from now. But it will happen without question.

How easy it is to forget death. How easy it is to live carelessly, as if there are no eternal consequences to the here and now. Even with the tinge of death darkening my normally bright days, it is an easy thing to brush away and worry about later. The rush and bustle of the moment, of busy days filled with living, breathing and active neighbors, seems to whisper a lie over and over again..."this is forever, it will never end, you have tomorrow to look forward to, another chance is always available."

How hard it is to remember death, to remember eternity, to focus on things that really matter. We live on a merry-go-round of distractions, pleasures and entertainments. Few of us see the creeping certainty of death just past the brightly colored bulbs of the dizzy round and round of our days.

But there it is. It is certainly coming, one way or another. Now or later.

The question is, are you prepared?

Revelation 1:17,18

"Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death."

No Sign Will Convince You

2008-11-02T16:29:00.000-05:00

I noticed an interesting contrast in Scripture the other day, and it got me to thinking about miracles and such. Consider the different reactions that Jesus inspired, first from demons, and then from His own disciples.

Mark 1:23-25

"Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit. And he cried out saying, "Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who You are--the Holy one of God!"

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him.""

That demon knew exactly who Jesus was. He named Jesus as the "Holy one of God." By the way, I found an interesting point about that particular title by reading through some commentary about these verses. Apparently that was the same title that is given to the high priest in Exodus 28:36, to be inscribed on a gold plate and worn by him on his forehead. (What an outfit that must have been!)

But let's not get sidetracked...

Don't overlook that Jesus commands the demon to be quiet. He does the exact same thing a few verses later when He is healing a crowd of sick people and casting out "many demons."

Mark 1:34

"Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him."

Again, the demons knew and identified Jesus on sight. This happens a third time in Mark 5:6, when Jesus encounters a demon possessed man in the land of Gadarenes.

Mark 5:6

"When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that You do not torment me."

Now fast forward to Mark chapter 6. Jesus has been with His disciples for some time by now. They have even witnessed the following miracles firsthand: the healing of multitudes of people from all sorts of diseases, casting out of demons, the calming of the wind and waves at the command of Jesus, a girl brought back to life, and the feeding of thousands of people from five loaves of bread and two fish. One would be tempted to think that these disciples would have figured out that Jesus was, well, God, or something like that, by this point.

But almost immediately after Jesus feeds thousands of people with five loaves and two fish, He sends His disciples away from Him in a boat and stays on shore to pray. Sometime in the middle of the night, Jesus decides to join the disciples in the boat. The wind is blowing hard and the disciples are straining at the oars, trying to row against the wind. Jesus walks out on the water to join them.

But the disciples reacted sort of badly to this sight.

Mark 6:49,50

"And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw Him and were troubled."

But here is the kicker. Remember that the demons knew exactly who Jesus was immediately upon seeing him. He didn't perform any miracles to prove himself to the demons. They just KNEW who He was without question. But the disciples? Here is how they reacted to seeing Jesus walk on the water:

Mark 6:51,52

"And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened."

They didn't get it. They didn't understand. They were still in awe and marveling at the power of Jesus, even after He had performed so many miracles right under their noses. You might even say that signs and miracles were insufficient to convince their "hardened hearts."

So let me ask you a question. What kind of miracle are you waiting for? Does Jesus need to show you some kind of sign before you will "know" Him? There is pretty good reason to believe that you still won't believe God, even after He does give you a miracle or a sign, if He chooses to do so.

Consider the story of Lazarus and the rich man found in Luke 16.

Lazarus is a poor, miserable beggar who is ignored by the rich man whose gate he lays at, longing for the crumbs from the rich man's table. Both of them die and go to their respective places. Lazarus, the beggar, goes to "Abraham's bosom." The rich man goes to the "torments in Hades." The rich man begs Abraham to send Lazarus back from the dead to testify to the members of his family who are still alive. But the response that Abraham gives to the rich man is pretty chilling.

Luke 16:29-31

"Abraham said to him, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them." And he said, "No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent." But he said to him, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.""

Did you catch that? Abraham tells the rich man that even if a person were to rise from the dead and warn the family members who were still alive, they would not believe. If they don't believe the prophets and Moses, then even a spirit sent to testify from the grave will be unconvincing.

The truth is that no miracle or sign or even a wonder from heaven will convince a hardened heart. Only God has the power to change a heart. So stop asking for a sign. Ask God to soften your heart instead. Because a hard heart plus a miracle still equals unbelief.

Matthew 16:4

"A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."

The LORD's (Sometimes Hysterical) Providence

2008-10-29T12:48:00.003-04:00

I've been trying to lose a few pounds lately. Not because I think I am fat or anything like that. My clothes have just gotten a wee bit snug (OK, a lot bit snug) and it makes me want to pass out when I think about how much money it will cost to buy all new clothes. So, I find myself in the unhappy position of being on a diet. And by the way, I have figured out what the problem with diets is. You have to be on one for more than a few hours for it to work. Hmph.

So this morning, as I put on a pair of jeans that I bought two years ago, I was pleased to find that they fit beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that I made a mental note to check the tag for the name brand and size so I could go find a second pair to purchase.

I'm almost always in a rush to get out the door, and this morning was no different. It was also abnormally cold outside for this time of year, and I knew that I needed to put a coat on. As it happened, I spotted a wool blazer in the very back of my closet. Picture one of those long wool blazers that your stereotypical horsewoman would wear along with riding britches, tall leather boots and a crop in some kind of Calvin Klein Americana ad, and you've got this blazer down pat. It is not currently in fashion by any stretch of the imagination, but it was such a good deal when I bought it that I couldn't resist. And every once in a while, I get a kick out of wearing off-beat clothes. So this morning, I put in on, topped it off with a Burberry plaid scarf and rushed out the door.

As I was plopping down in the driver's seat of my car, it happened. My jeans split. I mean, they tore open with an audible "zzzziiiiippp" sound and everything. I was stunned. These were the same jeans that I had just congratulated myself on fitting into. AND I had been sitting down in them all morning, this was not my first sit since putting them on.

Horrified, I considered my options. I was going to the drop off line at school, and I didn't need to get out of my car for that. And I was running late. So I made a snap decision to swing back by the house and change pants AFTER dropping off at school. Nobody would know the difference, would they?

So I'm driving toward the school, with my chilly bottom pressed straight against the leather seat of my car, when I noticed a distinct whooshing sound. The kind of sound that you hear when the windows are cracked. But the windows weren't cracked. Confused, I asked if the doors were shut in the back of the car. "No," one of the kids happily informed me. "I opened it."

Great. I'm going to have to pull over, get out, show all of the passing traffic my fanny in ripped jeans and re-shut the car door. Fabulous. What a great way to start the day. So I stopped, jumped out, re-shut the car door and jumped back in the driver's seat as fast as is humanly possible. Whew. What were the chances of that happening?

Then it got even better. Just as I pulled into the drop-off line, my cell phone rang. It was the alarm company. My house alarm was going off and I needed to return home to meet the police. I am not making this up.

"Please, please, cancel the alarm to the police!" I said to the woman from the alarm company. "I am on my way home right now, and I'm sure the alarm was accidentally set off!"

As you can imagine, scenes of meeting the police officer with my bottom exposed were flashing through my head. The woman said she would cancel the call to the police, and I headed back toward my house. The whole time I am driving, all I can think is how horrible and random and embarrassing it would have been to get out of my car and meet a police officer in my driveway with my pants flapping open in the back.

Oh, you guessed it. There happened to be a very nice and considerate police officer right around the corner from my house when the alarm was called in. And even though the alarm company cancelled the call, this particular police officer was so courteous, and so diligent, that HE CAME ANYWAY!!!!

I had no choice. I parked my car behind the police cruiser and got out, complete with a blast of chilly morning air hitting my rather bare bottom. We exchanged a few words. He had already checked the back of the house, everything looked fine. A neighbor had even called in to make sure the police knew my house alarm had been tripped. I was oh-so-careful not to turn around the least little bit while I conversed with the officer. But at the same time, I was horribly aware of every single car that drove past the front of my house. I could only hope that they weren't enjoying the neighborhood scenery and had their eyes glued to the road. But, how many times have you driven past a police car in someones driveway and failed to rubberneck? I assume that all the passers-by this morning did the same.

Finally, the officer was satisfied that all was well, and I carefully walked away from him, BACKWARDS, to the safety and modesty of my car. All the while hoping that he didn't think I was a weirdo who walked backwards for no apparent reason.

When I got into my house, I immediately rushed back into my bedroom and turned around to see how bad the damage was in my full-length mirror. I couldn't believe my eyes.

That random wool blazer, the one that I just happened to spot in the closet this morning, reached down to exactly the spot where the pant rip stopped. I was covered the whole time, and I didn't even realize it.

And that, my friends, I can only chalk up to the LORD's sometimes hysterical and unexpected providence. Because I have worn that blazer exactly one other time in the whole year that I have owned it. But something made me notice it and take the time to put it on today, just before I walked out the door. I don't know how else to explain it, but I think there are a few verses in the Bible somewhere about modesty...

Submission of the Gut Wrenching Variety

2008-10-22T21:22:00.005-04:00

And just so you know, I'm not talking about husbands and wives in this post. Although I could, cause, boy, is that fertile ground for the topic of submission. But, nope, I'm going to be talking about Jesus.

There are times when we read Scripture and it is just kind of, well...a thing to get through. I have those mornings just like the rest of you.

And then, there are those days when you see something in the text that makes the hair on your arms stand up and your gut suck in a deep breath. I had one of those moments a few days ago.

Most of you are probably familiar with the story of Jesus being arrested by the mob of thugs in the Garden of Gethsemane. It's a Bible story that we church-grown folks grew up hearing. Maybe we even heard it so often that we got kind of casual and flippant about it. Sometimes reading it afresh divulges a gem that is so astounding we can't believe we've MISSED IT all these years!

Let me set the stage a little bit for you and then see if I can wrangle the same WOW out of you that I experienced.

Jesus was a perfect man. He was also fully a man. However, unlike any of us, He was also fully God. The theological term for this seeming contradiction is hypostatic union. And as God in the flesh, Jesus had at His disposal all of the power of God. As a man, who walked around on the earth and felt human needs like hunger and fatigue, He was also the same God who created the heavens and the earth by speaking words. Now, I should be able to stop typing at this point and just leave you with that thought. Because, honestly, if that doesn't make you go, "Whoa," then you haven't thought about it long enough, or deep enough.

But there is more. Jesus, as God, also had at His disposal command and control of the angels. Far from the chubby babies with feathery wings of our popular culture, angels are actually pretty fearsome things. Think of the angel that swept through Egypt and killed all of those first born sons before Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go. And that was just the work of one lonely angel. Imagine the power that Jesus had at His command as a man who could call down the power of all the angels in heaven at his whim.

NOW, imagine Jesus as He is praying in the Garden, just hours and moments before He knows He will die a humiliating, painful and horrible death on the cross.

He doesn't really want to go through with it. Now, bear with me here. Jesus is always in perfect, sinless submission to God the Father. But as a human being living in flesh, Jesus the Son had some real anxiety about what was going to happen to Him.

Matthew 26:39

"He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will."

Jesus says, I will do your will. But, Father, if it is possible, let there be another way. But there isn't. Jesus must die. There must be atonement for the sins of His children. It has to happen this way.

And so, despite the natural resistance of His human nature, Christ willingly submits to the will of the Father. I say willingly, because nobody ever forced Jesus to do it. He willingly submitted to all of the horrors of the cross and all of the horrors of broken fellowship with the Father as He endured the holy wrath of a holy God in order to redeem OUR lives from the pit of destruction.

As the multitude carrying swords and clubs laid hands on Jesus and arrested Him, Peter couldn't contain himself. You can imagine that they were roughing Jesus up in the process of arresting him. And in reaction, Peter drew his sword and struck off the ear of the servant of the high preist.

It is what Jesus said next that is so astounding.

Matthew 26:52-54

"But Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide me with more than twelve legions of angels? How then can the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus." (emphasis mine)

Did you catch that? The Father will provide angels. Not He might, or He may, or its possible that He will take that into consideration. He will do it. If I ask, He will. If I ask, this whole plan will not be fulfilled, it will not happen.

But Jesus didn't ask. He died on the cross.

And that, girls, is submission of the gut wrenching variety. Wow. Is there anything else to say?

Hebrews 12:2

"looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Lying Hearts

2008-10-19T16:12:00.005-04:00

You have all heard the stories. Or maybe you know some people that it has happened to personally. Dedicated Christians, servants of the LORD, caught in horrible, shocking and devastating sin. I got one of those phone calls this week. I sat down and cried, and tried my best to encourage my sister in Christ on the other end of the line. But what can you say in such situations except, "I am so sorry. I love you and will pray for you?"

You don't need to know the details. I'm guessing that most of you have heard a similar tale and can fill in the details of your choice. We all know that Christians are still sinners, but for some reason it is harder to process when a fellow believer falls into blatant, public sin. It just hurts in a different way.

And in this particular situation, there was some serious self-deception happening. When the Bible gives a clear command, and a person chooses to believe that something contrary must be what God would want them to do, you can bet there is a whole lot of self deceiving going on.

The scary thing is that we are ALL capable of self-deception. Even those of us that know the truth and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Our hearts really are that wicked, and our natural desires really are that corrupt. That is why, again and again, we MUST study God's Word. We must constantly go back to the living and active Word of God and drown our sinful man in its purifying waters. There is no substitute for constant exposure to God's Holy, revealed Scripture.

If we wander around, oblivious to what the Bible actually says, relying on our inner sense of right and wrong to guide us, we will get it wrong almost every time. Consider Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Or better yet, Proverbs 14:12, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

How about this:

"She said WHAT about me??? Well, let me tell you something about her..."

Matthew 5:44

"But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you."

Or this:

"Well, I know I shouldn't tell you this, but you won't repeat it, right?"

Proverbs 16:28

"A perverse man sows strife, and a whisperer seperates the best of friends."

Or even this:

"I'm not going to let myself get taken advantage of like that!"

Matthew 5:39

"But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also."

You get the idea. Our natural inclinations are often at odds with the commands of God.

I just needed to get this one out of my system. Read your Bibles, girls. Otherwise you may find yourself subject to the deceitful whims of a lying heart. And that much I do understand.

Ruth Session Two

2008-10-15T14:48:00.002-04:00

Hello friends! Just wanted to let you know that Ruth Session Two is up and available for downloading. Like last time, it is posted to another blog, so if you need the link, just email me from my contact page.

On Bows and Rainbows

2008-10-12T20:37:00.002-04:00

I don't have time for a "real" post right now. I've been out of town all weekend and I'm trying to play catch-up before the start of what I expect to be a super busy week. (I'm teaching Ruth Session Two on Wednesday, so please pray for me if you think of it. And I'll try to post the audio by the end of the week.)

But I wanted to share something really interesting that I heard twice this weekend, that I think you will enjoy as well.

Several weeks ago I happened to be riding through town after a wet and rainy afternoon. It was about an hour before dusk and the sky was still filled with gray, misty clouds. Suddenly, my husband pointed out an amazing sight: two full arcs of a double rainbow brilliantly displayed in the sky. I had never seen a double rainbow before, and it was breathtaking. Not only were there two visible arcs, but you could see the full arch from one end of the horizon to the other for each individual rainbow. We pulled the car over and unloaded our family in the middle of an empty parking lot just to stare at this wonder in the sky.

If you remember your Sunday School lessons, you will remember that the rainbow is endowed with special meaning by God. In Genesis 9:13-16, we read the following:

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind of the earth."

To understand the significance of this particular covenant agreement that God made between Himself and all life on earth, you need to remember what God just finished doing. We love to tell the story of Noah and his ark to our children. But how often do we point out to them that the real point of Noah and the ark was to save them from the massive wiping out of life that God purposed and performed? God literally destroyed every person and creature on earth, expect for the inhabitants of that relatively little floating capsule we call the ark.

God did not put the rainbow in the sky as a warm fuzzy feel good to make us smile and reflect kindly on Him when we happen to see one. No, He wanted to assure mankind and all of creation that He was never going to bring such a war upon them again. At least, not in the form of a flood.

While I was at a conference this weekend, the speaker made an offhand point about the shape of the rainbow. It is very similar to the spape of a bow, as in a bow and arrow. The bow and arrow are mostly employed as a sport by archers today, with perhaps some hard-core bow hunters thrown in the mix. But in the days of ancient warfare, the bow and arrow were deadly and effective weapons.

And some have speculated that when God put that bow shaped arch in the sky, He was signifying that He had hung up His weapon of war, never to use that particular one against His creation ever again. I've also heard it speculated that not only was the weapon hung upon the wall, but its curve was pointed up, toward heaven itself, instead of down to the face of the earth.

Because, you see, God did still need to declare war. A war against sin. And we all know who ended up taking the brunt of that war upon Himself. It was God, in the human flesh of Jesus Christ. God put all of His holy wrath upon Himself in order to redeem His fallen children. And that is why the "bow" of the rainbow pointed up to the sky. It was a reminder, a promise and a foreshadowing all at the same time.

Cool, huh?

Judge Not Part Two

2008-10-05T10:20:00.004-04:00

(For first part of Judge Not, see the post below)

For all of the things that Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that you be not judged," doesn't mean, there are surely some things that it does mean.

And the context in which it should be understood is stated in the verses immediately following.

Matthew 7:2-3

"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?"

So what does that mean anyway? Well, I touched on the meaning of the plank/speck comparison in my last post. And basically, it means that you should only approach others about their sin with a great awareness of, and conviction over, your OWN sin. In other words, there is no room for self-righteous condemnation. We all have sin. We all fall short. And only when you take on the mindset of a "fellow-sinner" do you have the right framework for humbly and gently correcting your brother.

Not only is this likely to be a more effective approach anyway, but there is a strong caution given to us against approaching our brother and his speck in any other manner. Jesus says that we will be judged using the same criteria we use to judge others. In one sense, we are condemning ourselves if we don't use mercy and humility in our dealings with others.

This concept is stated again in Romans 2:1

"Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."

In other words, use caution when you gear up to judge someone. You are probably guilty of the same thing. And by standing in judgment of another, you are condemning yourself. Because in order to declare him guilty, you have to first knowingly consent to the fact that his actions are a violation of some kind. And like I just said, chances are you have that same sin, in one form or another, lurking about in your own closet. Kind of like, "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." You incriminate yourself when you apply the law to others. Because you've just proved that you are aware of the law. And you are therefore without excuse when it comes to your own defense.

But, if you want mercy and compassion applied to you, apply them to those you judge. If you use mercy, you will be given mercy. If you harshly condemn, you will be harshly condemned.

As a side note here, let me add that these cautions are given to each of us as individual brothers and sisters. The church is given very specific instructions for dealing with its members who are in sin. I'm not talking about those things here. I'm only talking about our dealings, as individuals, with individuals.

And lest you think that somehow I am giving the green light to blatant sinners, and a yellow light to righteous standards, think again. Just because we are cautioned about the way we apply judgment does not mean that we are to relax our standards as Christians. Part of the reason that we don't have to judge our neighbor is because God has already done it. God has given us His law. And God's law has already explicitly condemned sin in all of its shapes, forms and fashions. It is not up to us to decide what is a sin and what isn't. The law of God has taken plenty of care of that, thank you very much. You either accept it or you reject it.

Just because some people want to make the law do handstands and backflips in order to justify their fleshly desires, doesn't change the fact that they will stand condemned before the law. Their tricksy reasoning and human wisdom will be meaningless before the Judge of all the universe. He has access to the thoughts of their hearts and minds. We don't. And that is why ultimate judgment can only be left up to Him.

In the meantime, practice mercy and compassion. And mourn over your sin alongside the sins of others. In doing so, you will be equipped to help your brother out when a speck appears in his eye. Otherwise, beware of your measuring stick being turned around and held up against you.

Judge Not

2008-09-28T21:11:00.003-04:00

If there was ever a verse that the non-Christian loved to beat over the head of the Christian, it must be Matthew 7:1, "Judge not, that you be not judged."

And, sadly, many a Christian is so easily duped and befuddled over the meaning of this verse that they lay down, roll over and play dead in the face of obvious sin and violation of God's standards.

Even, I, who know better, have totally blown it when confronted with this verse being horribly misapplied and taken out of context. So, in order to (hopefully) spare you some of the confusion and conviction that I experienced after I DID blow it, I thought that a little bit of expounding might be in order.

Keeping in mind, of course, that I will only handle this topic lightly, and can't possibly cover all of the nuances of such a complicated topic in one blog post. But I'd like to give you a jumping off point to think about or study this topic further.

First of all, that verse, Matthew 7:1, is part of the Sermon on the Mount, one of those sections of the Bible that is somewhat well known even among non-Christians. For that reason, we, who are Christians, ought to be very familiar with it and able to talk about it with our friends and neighbors.

And, yes, clearly, Jesus says those words "Judge not, that you be not judged." But you can't just stop reading there. Like all of Scripture, this verse must be taken as part of a whole. You should never ever take one verse, isolate it from the context in which it was given, isolate it from the whole teaching of Scripture, and build a truth on it. That, my friends, is how heresy is born.

So, let's look at some of the other things that Jesus has to say about how we judge others in the Sermon on the Mount, and a few of the other directions that Scripture gives us on this topic.

First, if you will look at Matthew 7:5-6, you will immediately see two situations which do require that we make a judgment of some kind:

Matthew 7:5-6

"Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.

Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."

I realize that in verse 5, which refers to the plank and the speck, Jesus is primarily chastising people who are blind to their own sins while at the same time happy to self-righteously condemn every minor infraction of those around them. But, still, clearly, you have to admit that person number two does have a speck in his eye that needs to be addressed. Jesus doesn't say to remove the plank from your eye, and then pat your brother on the back and lie to him that there is nothing wrong with his peepers. That wouldn't be helping the poor guy out at all. He still has a speck to deal with.

What Jesus is saying, is first, see your own sin. And really, see how huge and gross it is. C'mon, you have a PLANK sticking out of your face! Deal with that first! Presumably, once you have, you will be able to approach your brother and his problematic speck with humility, compassion and gentleness. Much like the attitude described in 2 Timothy 2:24-25:

"And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will." (emphasis mine)

And secondly, getting back to Matthew 7:6, the Christian is commanded not to throw their pearls before swine, or give what is holy to the dogs. I'll admit, that verse seems harsh. I've heard people explain it all kinds of ways that seem to strip the plain meaning right out of it. But, the best explanation I have heard, and the one that I ascribe to is this: Don't keep preaching the gospel to those who have overtly and consciously rejected it.

In order to follow that command, you must be able to judge, or discern, who should be considered a swine or a dog. (Hey, I know those are strong, insulting words, but Jesus used them, not me.) I really like the word discern better than the word judge. Because while we are explicitly commanded NOT to judge, we are elsewhere told that we must use discernment. And in verses 15-20, we are told what the criteria should be when we practice this discernment.

Matthew 7:15-20

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, not can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

By their fruits you will know them. By their fruits you will be able to discern who is a sheep and who is a wolf in disguise. That, my friends, in our language, is referred to as making a judgment. And that kind of judgment is necessary so that the sheeps don't get eated by the wolfs.

In Galatians 5:22-23 we are told that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Right before that, in Galatians 5:19-21, we are given another list. This one lists the works of the flesh, the opposite of the fruit of the Spirit. And those works are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness and revelries.

Usually, in my experience, when people pull out the "judge not" card, it is for one of two reasons. Either they are blatantly sinning, and resent the idea that another person finds fault with their sin, or they are scared to call a spade a spade. Saying, "but you know, the most important thing is that we don't judge other people," is often a cop out for saying something unpopular, like, "the Bible calls that a sin."

I know that from experience. Because I've pulled out the "judge not" card in the past. And pretty much, my motivation was that I was being a yellow bellied chicken. In other words, I was not willing to deal with the truth, because it might have been uncomfortable to do so. I (think) I'm over that.

Well, let me put it to you this way...by the grace of God, I will do better next time. I will speak the truth in love, with gentleness and humility. But I'll speak it nonetheless. If there are no swine or dogs involved, of course.

Happy Birthday Bathsheba!

2008-09-24T21:11:00.003-04:00

Somehow in the past week and a half of a crazy schedule, getting prepped for the Ruth Bible study, having a bout with food poisoning/stomach virus, and heading out of town with the whole family, I have totally missed the first anniversary of Bathsheba's Children!

AND, I've been saving a story just for this occasion. So here it is, a little bit behind schedule...

God works in big and small ways, my friends. Sometimes the small things turn out to be big things. Like this blog.

A little over a year ago, my husband started blogging. You can find a link to his page on the left. I had never really thought that much about blogging up until that point, but suddenly, it seemed to be just the thing I was searching for. I was in the midst of a serious spiritual awakening (OK, I don't really have any idea what to label the "thing" that I was experiencing, so consider "spiritual awakening" my best shot at describing something that is beyond my ability to describe.)

I had all of these thoughts and realizations hitting me one after the other "bam, bam, bam." And I didn't know what to do with them. I was pretty much wearing out my friends by going on and on about God and the Bible every time we spoke. I can see that there is a time and a place for that, but honestly, it was getting to the point of obnoxiousness. I am all for being effective and persistent and deliberate, but there is a point...you know what I am talking about...when it becomes ineffective, annoying and alienating.

Anyhow, blogging seemed like the most awesome prospect for dealing with all of the things that I just had to get out, and feel like I was getting them out in a way that other people could hear them, so to speak.

Only one problem. My husband highly, highly, values online anonymity. He was solidly against me writing a blog. And girls, I must tell you, I am solidly FOR Biblical submission, of each wife to her own husband. To be fair, he wasn't totally against the blog, period, but there were so many "cautions" and "conditions" associated with the whole thing that I almost felt like it wasn't worth the effort. And he was highly skeptical that I could blog effectively and still remain anonymous, based on what I wanted to talk about on the blog. (You have noticed nary a reference to my kids, haven't you? That is absolutely deliberate. If they were fair fodder, this blog would have twice as many posts.)

And so, after only two posts, I deleted this blog. I actually deleted it. I mean, I went online, signed into my account, fooled around with the various menus, found the button that says "Delete This Blog" and clicked on it...twice.

And twice, I got an error message, informing me that the blog could not be deleted, due to some technical problem the site was experiencing. I thought that was sort of strange.

So the next day, I did the same thing. I signed in, etc, etc, and deleted the blog. Same response. Technical problem, no deletion possible. Hmm.

Then I realized. Sometimes God uses small things to make bigger things happen. Small things like technical glitches that prevent a blog from being deleted. So I just kept putting up posts, and eventually I even told some of my friends about this little project of mine. A few of you found me online and started reading and leaving comments. And one or two of you have even emailed me privately, or spoken to me in person, about things that you have learned from this little thing I do on the side, when I have the time, that have affected you personally.

And now, a whole year later, I am almost crying about it. I had no idea I had all of this in me. Or better yet, that the Holy Spirit was waiting to put it into me, so I could put it all here. 'Cause really, friends, I'm not that smart, I'm not more spiritual than you, I don't have a higher degree of Biblical comprehension. I just love God. And I love His Holy Word. And I really want others to love both of those things like I do.

So, if Bathsheba's Children has done either of those things for you, mission accomplished. Its a big thing. And it was a little thing that got it all started (and kept it going.)

PS-to the very first person to leave a comment on this blog--Classic Mama, you have no idea how exciting that was for me.

Ruth Session One!

2008-09-23T21:17:00.001-04:00

Well, friends and readers, I have an announcement to make. I have officially taught my very first Bible study session. A session that I actually researched and wrote by myself, that is.

For those of you who have been reading this blog consistently, you may have seen me mention the Ruth Bible study occasionally. It is a 7 session Bible study that I am (still) writing for my local MOPS (that stands for Mothers of Preschoolers) group. I will be teaching it once a month. And last week I taught the first session.

I have posted an audio recording of the session on another blog. And I would be glad for those of you who either know me personally or comment here regularly to have access to it. But I'm a little bit cautious about online privacy, and for that reason I'm not going to post a direct link to the other blog where the file is posted. If you want it, you will need to email me from my profile page. If I recognize you, I will send you an email with the link.

I really do have some other things I'd love to post about, but I've been super busy for the past week. But check back in a few days. I never can resist writing a post for too long. Some things just need to get said!

The Sword of the Spirit

2008-09-14T14:39:00.008-04:00

After Jesus was baptized, Scripture tells us, "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." (Matthew 4:1)

There are a few things in just that one sentence that are pretty interesting. Did you notice that Jesus temptation was not outside of God's plan, but seems to actually be part of it? After all, it was the Holy Spirit that led Jesus out there into the wilderness. He wasn't tempted to journey out there by Satan. God planned that it would happen exactly as it did happen.

We know from James 1:13, which says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does He Himself tempt anyone", that obviously God was not the one who tempted Jesus. And in fact, God never tempts anyone. But is seems pretty clear that God allows us to be tempted, just as here He allowed Jesus to be tempted. I find that comforting. God is sovereign even over my temptations. They don't catch him by surprise.

But what happens next, in the account of Jesus temptation in the wilderness, is equally fascinating.

First of all, let me just say, that sometimes the Bible understates things to the point of humor. I don't mean to be irreverent about God's Word, but when I read Matthew 4:2, I just had to grin.

"And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry."

You think? I'd say something more like, "He was starving to death" or "He was famished." But, still, we get the point; Jesus was feeling real, physical, (probably) overwhelming, hunger.

I'm trying really hard to stay on my message here, and I haven't even gotten to it yet. But this section of Scripture is just full of interesting things, and I can't help but point some of them out. Like, for instance, did you notice that Jesus fast lasted for 40 days? Does that number sound familiar for some reason? How about the length of time that it rained in the days of Noah? Or, how about the number of years that Israel wandered in the wilderness before entering the promised land?

But here is the what I really wanted to point out. Satan tempts Jesus three times and with three different sins. But each and every time, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, refutes Satan by quoting Scripture. He uses the same defense against temptation that is available to every single one of His children: Scripture.

When Satan tempts Jesus to exhibit a lack of faith in God's physical provision for Him, by turning stones into bread, Jesus says:

"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4) This is a quote of Deuteronomy 8:3.

When Satan tempts Jesus to pridefully prove that He has the power of God to call angels at His whim, by telling Him to throw himself off of the temple wall, Jesus says:

"It is written, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'" This is a quote of Deuteronomy 6:16.

And finally, when Satan tempts Jesus with an offer of kingship, a way to rule the earth without suffering on the cross, if only Jesus will bow down and worship Satan, Jesus replies:

"Away with you Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD you God, and Him only you shall serve.'" This is a quote of Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20.

Now, if that is not sufficient motivation for all of us to get to know and understand Scripture, let me point out one more thing. And this last bit kind of gives me chill bumps when I think about the potential damage it can cause.

In this encounter between Satan and Jesus, Jesus is not the only one who quotes Scripture. Satan does the same thing. Only when Satan quotes Scripture, He does it out of context and twists its intended meaning.

When Satan tempts Jesus the second time, by suggesting that He throw Himself off of the temple wall and call on angels to rescue Him, He adds this little barb:

Matthew 4:5-6

"If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

'He shall give His angels charge over You,'

and,

'In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

Satan is quoting Psalm 91 to Jesus. The problem is, Satan is quoting it in exactly the opposite way it was intended. Psalm 91 is a declaration of trust in the care and provision of the LORD. It contains that famous verse, "I will say of the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, In Him I will trust." (Psalm 91:2)

When Satan tempts Jesus to throw Himself off of the temple wall, He is tempting Jesus to test God, instead of have faith in God. Testing God is a result of little faith, not a result of great faith.

I don't know about you, but I find it startling and disturbing that Satan quotes Scripture. And if Satan can know and quote Scripture, twisting the truth right out of it, then we can be sure that Satan's servants can as well.

Let me counter that statement by saying that Jesus is already declared victorious. The battle has been won, and Satan has been defeated. He is still our enemy, and he can still cause us harm, and we need to be wary of him, and his servants.

But we have God on our side. And we shouldn't forget that. And, we shouldn't forget that God has provided us with an extremely powerful weapon against evil: the sword of the Spirit: God's Word.

But the sharpest, most lethal sword in the world isn't going to do you any good sitting up on a shelf collecting dust. The more time you spend with your sword, the more precise you will become in defeating the enemy.

Ephesians 6:17

"And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;"

The Slaughter of the Innocents

2008-09-11T21:35:00.003-04:00

I started my day reading in the Gospel of Matthew. Even though I know what is coming, the account of King Herod killing all the baby boys in Bethlehem always upsets me. Especially since I have become a mother myself. I cannot even begin to image watching a soldier wrench my precious child from my arms to murder him.

Matthew 2:16

"Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determinded from the wise men."

I was already emotional because baby Jesus had just been born (in my reading), and for some reason that always makes me cry. Then Herod orders all of those sweet innocent babies put to death.

The next verses only added to my emotional drama.

Matthew 2:17-18

"Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more."

I sort of felt like weeping myself. Not too long after that, it was time to get the day started, get the family out of bed and feed everyone. I turned on the news.

I have known that September 11th was coming. For a few months I have had today's date floating around in my mind. I always wonder what each anniversary will be like, if I will find it as jarring and devastating as I did the first time around.

This morning, it was almost too much. I stood in my kitchen, with my children safely out of view, and let myself just cry. The news was showing footage of that day that I remember so vividly. I can tell you all the details of that morning, but I'll spare you my recollections. I'm sure that you have some of your own.

All of those people in the airplanes, and in the towers, and in the Pentagon--murdered. Thousands of years ago, in a remote Jewish village, hardly important enough to garner King Herod's attention, and obviously not important enough for him to travel to in order to see the "king of the Jews" that the maggi came seeking, all of those baby boys--murdered.

In the case of September 11th, 2001, it seems that those responsible may escape earthly justice. And King Herod obviously never faced a judge and jury for his atrocities.

So what on earth are we to do about such horrible crimes, and such horrible injustices, that are never answered for here on earth?

Well, I've kind of answered my own question in the way I posed the question. Some justice just won't get done here on earth. But there is one Judge that every single human being, from every period of human history, will have a date with. And there will be no escape from His justice. He is El Roi, the God-Who-Sees. And all will answer to His justice one way or another.

King Herod already has. As far as the other well known terrorist who will remain nameless on this blog, you can be sure that he will too.

Isa 66:16

"For by fire and by His sword The LORD will judge all flesh;"

A Dog By The Ears

2008-09-09T21:47:00.003-04:00

I almost laughed out loud.

You see, very occasionally, I get fired up. I try to contain myself, and I usually do a good job. But there are times when I wish I could get problem-causing (in my opinion, of course) people in a room, sit 'em all down, and set 'em all straight. And you know, sometimes that is exactly what is called for. (But I think it's pretty rare, especially for me to be the setter-straighter.)

Tonight, I was searching through Scripture, trying to find that "perfect" verse to call down on another person. I was full of righteous indignation, too. The other party was clearly in the wrong, and clearly blind to that fact, and clearly needed some setting straight.

And I found the perfect verse all right, but it wasn't for the other party.

Proverbs 26:17

"He who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own
Is like one who takes a dog by the ears."

Duly noted, Lord, duly noted. I'll just let that dog pass on by...

And it gets better.

Proverbs 26:20

"When there is no wood, the fire goes out;
And when there is no talebearer, strife ceases."

Gotcha. No more tale-bearing-strife-causing wood for this fire.

Sometimes we just have to put our fingers in our ears and stop listening. Cause, girls, I can do without the strife.

Got Guilt?

2008-09-01T21:05:00.005-04:00

Got guilt? Oh, of course you do. And if you haven't done anything lately to feel guilty over, I bet it doesn't take much effort to think back to some occasion that brings that unwelcome sinking sensation in your gut.

So what are we supposed to do with guilt?

To start with, I think we should recognize that not all guilt is a bad. Sometimes we are so eager to get rid of the unpleasantness of guilt that we fail to deal with the problem that is causing us to feel guilty to begin with. This is a bad thing. If you feel guilty, ask yourself why. It might be that you actually need to repent of something. Often, we are reluctant to repent, and guilt is the byproduct.

But there are plenty of times when guilt is just self-condemnation.

The Bible teaches clearly, and in so many places, that those who are found in Christ have absolutely no reason to feel condemned. This truth is so startling and revolutionary that I think we sometimes gloss over the profoundness of it. I mean, come on, God can't really mean that we are totally washed clean and forgiven can He? Surely there is going to be some cosmic extraction of penance or sudden onslaught of punishment, isn't there?

No. There isn't.

It has already been taken care of. Yes, all of it. Yes, really, even THAT thing.

When Jesus came to this world in the flesh, and died on the cross, every bit of it was paid for. The big word for this is "propitiation" and the Greek for propitiation is hilasmos. The literal definition of hilasmos is atonement. Jesus atoned for our sins. He made them right by paying the price for them.

1 John 4:10

"In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

We, who have faith in Christ, are declared pure, because Christ has made us pure.

1Jn 3:3

"And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

What right in the world do I have to accuse and condemn what God has declared pure, including myself?

Romans 8:33,34

"Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us."

Have you ever thought about it that way? When you point a finger of self-condemnation at yourself, you are disagreeing with God. You are claiming that what Jesus did on the cross wasn't really sufficient for you and your sins. Do you really think you are that significant? Do I?

Listen, I need to be reminded of this just as much as anyone. Lately, in particular, I feel like Satan has been making quite an effort to remind me of who I used to be.

But God, through Scripture, tells me who I am in Christ. And that is the opinion that not only counts, but is perfect truth.

Rom 8:1

"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

Odd Reunions

2008-08-30T16:58:00.004-04:00

I have a confession to make. I am a Facebook addict. I seriously love the social networking system called Facebook. I have literally found friends that I haven't spoken to or even thought of in over 20 years. Some people seem to be exactly the same. Some people have changed dramatically throughout the course of their lives. I feel like I'm one of those "changers", and every once in a while it gets hammered home to me.

Some of the old friends I have been reconnecting with knew me during my wildest years. Years when I ran as far and as fast from God as I possibly could. When I look back on those years, I have to admit, I had some fun. But I also had a lot of inner turmoil, and a deep sense of emptiness and inadequacy. Even with the fun times, I wouldn't relive those years the same way, if I was given the chance to do it all again. (Boy, is than an understatement.)

And how do you communicate something so profound to a long lost friend via email or instant messaging? I don't know. I wish I did. Not that I feel like I need to give my entire testimony to every old acquaintance that I find online. But with some of them, if we were to meet face-to-face, I would feel compelled to do exactly that.

So, I've been thinking of these verses today.

Phil 3:13,14

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

This internet stuff is changing the world, my friends. In some really big ways, and in some very small and personal ways as well.

Unheavenly Things

2008-08-28T10:00:00.004-04:00

Just wanted to check in with you, friendly readers. I'm doing fine, I'm just plain busy. But things should settle down here in the next few days, and I'm eager to get a good post up.

In the meantime, something occured to me this morning. I'm pretty sure that cockroaches will not be in heaven. Now, of course, God can do whatever he wants in heaven, and I'm sure that if He decides to allow cockroaches, then they will be some fantastic cockroaches. And we will enjoy their presence immensely.

But as I was cleaning the bathroom sink this morning, and a big sucker of a roach ran out of the drain, causing me to scream so loud that the dog came running, barking and freaked out; it occured to me that we just shouldn't have those nasty things in heaven. Spiders either. They in fact, are worse than roaches, and I'd take a two inch long flying cockroach over a two inch long spider any day of the year.

Even in the little things, I'm longing for heaven. A heaven free of horrible roaches and spiders. Maybe we should just go ahead and put in a request for no snakes either. Whatcha think? What do you hope to never encounter again once we have passed into glory?

Now excuse me, I think the heebie-jeebies have worn off enough that I can go and clean the toilet.

Against You, You Only, Have I Sinned

2008-08-21T08:35:00.004-04:00

I've been in a weird place the last few weeks. You can see that my blog posts have been less than frequent lately. And I can't seem to get anything significant done on the Ruth study I am working on. I had a big breakthrough in that area a few weeks ago, and it was thrilling: I finished the first speaking session and discussion outline. But since then, nothing. I literally feel a deep resistance to working on it any further. I keep writing outlines in my head, and thinking of scripture that would be good to bring into the discussion, but I can't make myself sit down and write anything.

Last night I prayed for some clarity, and I think I got some this morning. I read Psalm 51, David's prayer of repentance after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan over his affair with Bathsheba. I was struck by David's astounding statement in Psalm 51:4,

"Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in your sight--"

How is it possible that David can qualify his sin as being only against God? Um, what about poor Uriah? Or Bathsheba for that matter? Or David's many other wives whom he dishonored by committing adultery with Bathsheba? How about the entire nation of Israel? Didn't they get cheated by a king who acted so deceitfully and treacherously?

Yet despite all of that, it is God (only!) who David says he sinned against. Have you ever really thought about that and its implications? We think about sinning against other people all the time; gossiping or lying or cheating or stealing from someone. Or even just treating people disrespectfully or without love. Aren't all of those things sins? Aren't they sins against our neighbor? I've always assumed that they were. But the longer I think about it, the more convinced I am that David's words in Psalm 51:4 are more profound than I originally gave them credit for.

God is the one to whom we owe obedience. Every time we sin against our fellow man, we are ultimately sinning against the commands of a holy and righteous God. Our neighbor may get caught in the crossfire of our sinful actions. But come judgement day, it is not our sinned-against-neighbor who will sit in jugement of our actions. It is God. And all of our sin will be counted as offenses against His holiness and His commands.

Which brings me back around to the spiritual slump I find myself in. I've tried to think of all the reasons that I find myself in this situation. I could lay the blame on any number of things, and believe me, I've tried. But this morning, as I was reading Psalm 51, I saw something very clearly. If there is anything to blame for this thickness I am struggling to cut through, it is my sin, specifically, my sin against God.

I can't blame it on this, that or the other. I have to look straight inside at my own heart. It is a disheartening prospect (slight pun slightly intended.) I've been on the spiritual high. I've been to the peak. I've been dedicated and motivated and everything you associate with a woman who is "on fire" for God. But I don't think any of us get to stay there forever. We have, and will always have, too much natural sin remaining in us in this present flesh. There is no final escape from it until we leave this life for the better life that comes next.

Not to say that I won't get back to the peak. In fact, I'm determined to push past my natural inclinations and get back up there again. But it's hard. I have to fight myself in the process.

I don't want to stand out as strange. I don't want people to think of me as bizarre. I don't want women to walk the other way when they see me coming, because I might want to talk about something spiritual. I don't want to be constantly vigilant against pride or anger or idols or apathy creeping up on me. I'd rather just float through life, enjoying the luxurious and self-absorbed modern American lifestyle, and worry about eternity, well, right before I get there. Those are the things that I want.

Thank goodness its not all up to me. Thank goodness that God has sent me a Helper, the Holy Spirit, who lives in me and constantly transforms me from glory unto glory.

But the path to the peak has a crucial first step that you can't hop over if you ever want to get up there. Its the all-important step of repentance. And if I want to get past stalled and start moving forward again, I need to get on my face and repent.

Against You, You only, have I sinned, O God. Against you have I withheld my heart, my mind, my soul and my strength. Forgive me.

Psalm 51:1,2,12

"Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin."

"Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
And uphold me by Your generous Spirit."

The Consolation of Israel

2008-08-16T14:36:00.002-04:00

In Luke chapter 2, Jesus is called by what I think is one of His most tender names: the Consolation of Israel.

Luke 2:25

"And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him."

The Messiah that the Jews long expected was often referred to as the The Consolation of Israel, or simply as the Consolation. Which I find fascinating, because it seems that the nature of the consolation they expected to receive was completely off the mark. You see, the Jews were expecting a great military leader, a man like the mighty warrior-king David, to come and avenge them of their enemies and destroy the Roman rulers of their day. What they got instead was Jesus, a man who willingly died a humiliating death on the cross, beaten, betrayed, mocked and scorned, spit upon and crucified.

It doesn't seem to make sense. How was a willing death on the cross supposed to console anyone?

The problem is not that Jesus failed to live up to the Jewish expectations of the Messiah. The problem was that the Jews were expecting the wrong kind of consolation.

Jesus death on the cross and His subsequent resurrection from the grave do indeed provide powerful consolation, to the proper kind of mourning. The kind that I am thinking of, and the kind that Jesus was utterly effective at providing comfort for, is the mourning that we must do over our seperation and alienation from God. And that alienation from God is caused by our sin; our great, inescapable, with-us-from-birth, sinfulness.

I've sort of written about this topic before, but I'm pretty sure it's an old enough post that most of you have never read it. There is an excellent example of the kind of mourning I am referring to in the book of Nehemiah. In Nehemiah's day, the Jews have just recently returned from an exile in Babylon. Because the temple was destroyed when they were taken into captivity, they have not been participating in regular worship services. There is a specific scene in which the people gather together and the Book of the Law of Moses (God's Word) is read out loud to them.

An amazing thing happens. In Nehemiah 8:9, we are told, "all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Law." You see, when they heard God's perfect law read out loud, they were peirced with the reality of their great sin. When they were confronted by what God required of them, they saw their great "missing of the mark." And it affected them so deeply that they wept. They wept so dramatically in fact, that the priests had to tell them, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn nor weep." (Nehemiah 8:9) And again in verse 10, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord, Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." (emphasis mine)

That is exactly the kind of mourning for which Jesus is the Consolation. Because He died on the cross, bearing our sins in His flesh, we are comforted. Because He rose again from the dead, defeating the sting of death, we are comforted. Because He reconciled us to a holy and perfect God, whose very presence we could not enter without the atoning work which Jesus completed on the cross, we are comforted.

To be sure, there are many other ways in which Jesus is the consolation of us, His people, in our day to day lives. But it is the work that Jesus did on the cross, the work which reconciles us, who are desperate sinners, to a God who is holy beyond our wildest imaginations, which is the greatest consolation of all. Jesus is The Consolation of Isreal, the comforter of those who mourn.

Isaiah 40:1-2

"'Comfort, yes, comfort My people!'
Says your God.
'Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her,
That her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;'"

The Potter and the Clay

2008-08-10T14:09:00.013-04:00

This is the third of a three part series. I recommend that you read Apocalypto and The Babes of Nineveh before reading this post.

Thank you brave readers, to those of you who left a response to my last post. I'm pretty impressed with how easily you hit the nail on the head. The answer to the question that I posed in The Babes of Nineveh does indeed boil down to God's sovereignty.

Of course, to say that God is sovereign covers a lot of things with one overriding general statement. But there is a specific aspect of God's revealed, sovereign character that I think we have to grasp; in order to understand the dilemma that naturally occurs when we compare the outcome of God's dealings with the Ninevite babies and the Amalekite babies.

It is this: Yahweh is a choosing God.

Now, even if you are a Christian who rejects the idea of predestination, etc, hear me out here. I'm not trying to win a theological argument. I'm just pointing out what is obvious from the Bible. God's choosing nature is so woven into the fabric of Scripture that it is hard to think of Him as a God who doesn't choose. From the very beginning, we see that God chose Abram, later to be renamed as Abraham, as the father of His people. God chose Isaac over Ishmael. God chose Jacob over Esau. God chose the nation of Israel, not the other way around.

In all of the history of God's dealings with humanity, it is God who chooses whom He will reveal Himself to, or speak through, or use as a tool to accomplish His plan. It is God who chooses. There are plenty of verses that immediately spring to mind, like Isaiah 43:10,

"You are my witnesses,' says the LORD,
and my servant whom I have chosen,'"

So when you try to decipher how it is that God could bring wrath on the babies in Amalek, and spare the babies in Nineveh, you simply accept this fact: God chose to bring down wrath on one and show mercy to the other.

"But, duh!" you are thinking, "we already knew that! What we want to know, what we need to know, the question that keeps us up at night is: WHY????"

It is tempting to demand an answer to that question. Fortunately, God, through the apostle Paul, addresses this specific issue. Let's take a look at Romans 9. I'm going to go ahead and copy a pretty long section of Scripture, because all of it is so on topic. Usually I just give you a verse or two, but I feel like I would be cheating you if I did that here.

(The first verse where we pick up reading is referring to Rebecca, when she was pregnant with the twins Jacob and Esau.)

Rom 9:11 (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls),

Rom 9:12 it was said to her, "THE OLDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER."

Rom 9:13 As it is written, "JACOB I HAVE LOVED, BUT ESAU I HAVE HATED."

Rom 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!

Rom 9:15 For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOMEVER I WILL HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOMEVER I WILL HAVE COMPASSION."

Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

Rom 9:17 For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I HAVE RAISED YOU UP, THAT I MAY SHOW MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MAY BE DECLARED IN ALL THE EARTH."

Rom 9:18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

Rom 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"

Rom 9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"

Rom 9:21 Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

What I want you to focus on is found in verses 20 and 21. The gist of which is this--who do you think you are to question God? Doesn't God have the power to do whatever He wants to with His own creation?

It may be that we have a hard time letting God be God and letting us be...well, the creature. We want to demand that God satisfy OUR sense of justice and OUR sense of mercy. But according to the Bible, even our sense of what is fair is wrong.

Ezekiel 18:29

"Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' O house of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?"

This exact same sentiment is repeated in the book of Ezekiel 4 times! God is the one who is fair. It is we who have the wrong idea of fair and unfair. Even when it comes to those babies. Whatever God chose to do with them was perfectly fair, in God's perfectly fair judgment, and His perfectly fair sovereignty. If it seems unfair to us, then we are the ones with the problem, not God.

Exodus 34: 6-7

"And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation."

I'm having some weird spacing issues with Blogger today. My apologies if this post looks odd.

The Babes of Nineveh

2008-08-07T15:10:00.004-04:00

If you haven't read yesterday's post, Apocalypto, you might want read it before you read this post.

Of all the events in the Old Testament, I think the hardest to comprehend is when God either kills a child (as in David and Bathsheba's child through adultery) or orders that children be killed, as He did during the conquest of Canaan, and in the early years of the Jewish monarchy.

I brought the topic up yesterday, but I have some more thoughts, and a different Biblical example, to share. It has to do with Jonah, and the task he was given to preach repentance to the Assyrian city of Nineveh. Most of you are probably familiar with the part of Jonah's story that involves the belly of the great fish. But today, I want to talk about what happened after that unhappy-for-Jonah encounter.

The whole reason that Jonah ended up as almost-fish-food is because he didn't want to do what God expressly ordered him to do: Go and tell the city of Nineveh that God intended to destroy them for their great evil. You can hardly blame poor Jonah. The Ninevites, who were Assyrians, were legendary for their gross cruelty. They did things like skin prisoners alive, put out eyes, pull out tongues, disembowel children, and cut open pregnant women. (Excuse me while I gag in horror.) Oh, another favorite tactic was impaling people on sharp sticks through their, ehem, back parts, and letting them die slowly. All in all, a very gentle and pleasant ancient culture.

Despite Jonah's attempts to flee, he eventually does comply. He goes to the city, walks through it and cries out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (Jonah 3:4)

So do the Ninevites get ticked, lay hands on him and commit one of their famous atrocities? No, instead, and totally unexpectedly to Jonah, they actually repent. Even the king puts on sackcloth, sits in ashes and decrees a fast, in order that God might repent of destroying them.

And God does relent. He decides not to destroy Nineveh after all. Jonah, however, does not relent. He is furious. So furious, in fact, that he tells God to go ahead and kill him!

But I'm getting sidetracked here. The real point of this post is to be found in the very last verse of the book of Jonah.

(God responds to Jonah's anger)

Jonah 4:11

"And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left--and much livestock?'

Now that is interesting. Totally apart from their repentance, because, after all, how can an infant or very young child repent, particularly when they have not actively committed the atrocities their forefathers are famous for; God gives the great number of babies and children living in Nineveh as part of the reason He will have mercy instead of bring down destruction.

So what is the difference between those babes in Nineveh and those babes in Amalek? Thought provoking isn't it?

Both were born to wicked and cruel parents. Both were born to the enemies of Israel. Both came from cultures that worshiped pagan gods. Why spare one set of babes, and bring down wrath on another?

I have a neat little answer in my head, and it doesn't have anything to do with the repentance of the Ninevite parents by the way. But, really, I'm more curious to hear what your answers might be. Tell me what you think. I promise I won't bite. Or skin you alive.

Apocalypto

2008-08-06T16:02:00.002-04:00

Several weeks ago, I did something that I normally avoid. I sat and watched about 20 minutes of a very gory, violent movie. I have never particularly enjoyed violent movies of any kind. But the older I have gotten, the more averse I have become to them. So when I walked through the living room and realized that my husband was watching the Mel Gibson movie, Apocalypto, I have no explanation for why I sat down to watch with him.

Warning: this post is about to get somewhat graphic. If you dislike violent descriptions, you should skip this post.

As far as violent movies go, this one ranks pretty high. The scenes that I watched mostly involved human sacrifice. Men were slit open, had their hearts (still beating) cut out of their chests, decapitated, and then had their lifeless heads and bodies thrown down the temple steps. There were people at the bottom of the step dancing and waving big baskets around to catch the corpses and heads. Thick blood slicked over the steps. A sizable pile of dead bodies was heaped up near the bottom of the temple. All of the onlookers were cheering and dancing while the slaughter took place.

As the doomed captives were led to the sacrificial altar, wide-eyed and terrified, the priests, royal family and young princes looked on mercilessly. A fat young prince (I assume he was a prince) even smirked at the helpless victims.

The whole thing was beyond disgusting. I hated it.

But it did bring something into sharp focus for me.

There are parts of the Old Testament that are kind of hard to swallow. In particular, when the Israelites are in the process of conquering Canaan and the surrounding territories, they were often commanded by God to utterly destroy the native populations. This destruction even included women and children. In at least one case, even the animals were to be wiped out.

1Samuel 15:3

"Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."

Even though I have some understanding of why this slaughter was necessary, I still have a hard time accepting it. I mean, we New Testament believers understand God as LOVE. We don't really like to think of our loving God commanding that people be killed, babies especially. But it is in the Bible, and because it is, we have to deal with it.

I think part of the reason we struggle to understand why God commanded the Israelites to destroy the Amelkites, and other populations, is because we tend to think of those peoples as if they were just like us. And to be sure, in many basic ways they were. But by contrast, we live in a culture that has been affected by two thousand plus years of Christian morality. Obviously, you can't include every culture in the world in that generalization, but I am thinking of America and most of Europe specifically.

Back in the days of Apocalypto, and Amelek, no such Christian influence existed. Human sacrifice, and even child sacrifice, was common practice. It was so widespread that God specifically command the Israelites NOT to practice human and child sacrifice. (Deut 12:29-31)

And even with those prohibitions, the Israelites still on occassion did sacrifice their children to pagan gods.

2Ki 17:17

"And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger."

The thought of human sacrifice is utterly repulsive to me. But realizing that it was common practice, and actually visualizing what it may have looked like, by watching Apocalypto, has helped me to understand just how evil the native populations of Canaan probably were. They were not gentle farmers going about their business when the Israelites swooped in for the attack. They were some bad dudes. And dudettes. And they indulged in some terribly evil and revolting practices.

I still don't quite know how to reconcile the destruction of the babies and animals with God's lovingkindness. Well, that is not entirely true. I think that God's holiness has something to do with it. But that topic deserves a post all its own. In the meantime, I accept that God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love. Even when He commanded the Israelites to kill those babies. I may not be able to explain it in a way that you (or I) find completely satisfying. But it is true nonetheless.

Job 40:2

"Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? He who rebukes God, let him answer it."

Distracted and (Not) Glamorous

2008-08-03T22:35:00.005-04:00

I've been totally neglecting this blog for the past week. I've just been, well...distracted. By all sorts of regular life things, nothing particularly glamorous. I did go to the beach for a few days with some family, and that was nice, but still nothing out of the ordinary for most people.

I've also been spending a great deal of time researching, writing, deleting, and re-writing portions of a real-life Bible study I am working on. So most of my inspiration is being stored up for pouring out at some future date. My poor little blog has been getting scraps lately.

And, I don't have any scripture for this half-post. But I want to tell all of you something. There are no glamorous Christians. (And if there were, I want those of you who know me to understand beyond any shadow of anything that even resembles a doubt, I would not be one of them.) You might think there are. There are certainly some who seem to be. Some Christians have written meaningful books, or pack out stadiums when they speak in public. Some have been through traumatic experiences, and seem to have some kind of super-special connection to God as a result.

Well, you know what? God doesn't play favorites. We are all equal before God. And we all have equal access to God, and equal access to Scripture. There are not levels of glamour and glory in this walk with Christ through these little lives that we live here on Earth. We are all just people, alike in our need for a Redeemer, alike in our tendancy to sin, and alike in our inclination to glorify ourselves or other people instead of glorifying God Almighty.

So just don't do it. Don't glorify your fellow Christian. No matter how glamorous they may appear to be. Glorify God. He is the only one who deserves it anyway.

(OK, I changed my mind about not having a Scripture verse for this post.)

Romans 2:11

"For there is no partiality with God."

I hope to have something a little bit meatier to share in the next day or so, so check back. In the mean time, as always.....

But What If...

2008-07-25T13:54:00.003-04:00

As a Christian, have you ever had one of those moments when the thought hits you like a ton of bricks, "What if all of this is not true? What if it's just made up?"

I haven't been hit by that particular ton of bricks lately, but it has happened before. And it's likely to happen again. Fortunately, it doesn't take too much effort for me to resolve the issue. Pretty much, I just look at the nearest tree. Or, baring the availability of a tree, I glance up at the sky. And Psalm 19 immediately comes to mind.

Psalm 19: 1-4

The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language Where their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their words to the end of the world.

What the Psalmist is saying, in much prettier words than I could come up with, is that the very existance of creation makes the existance of a Creator obvious. And every single person, of every single language, in every single location in the entire world, knows it. Even those who might exist at the ends of the world, far away from the written language of Scripture or the organized nature of church, are aware that God exists. In fact, the sky, and the arch of the sky (that would be the firmament) not only speak to the existance of God, but they declare His glory. (Chill bumps!) Every single day, and every single night, creation "speaks" and "reveals" knowledge; specific knowledge: knowledge of God's existance and glory. (Chill bumps again!)

Rom 1:20

"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (emphasis mine)

Here in Romans, the Bible gets even more specific. Not only does creation declare that God exists, but now we see that the "things that are made" understand what is being said.

So why do some persist in disbelieving? Paul goes on in the next verse of Romans to give us an explanation.

Rom 1:21

"because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

Foolish, darkened hearts. That's the simple answer. The complicated answer involves a lot more than foolish, darkened hearts. But, I'm content to let Paul's words stand as he wrote them, because, although simple, they are vividly true.

It seems to me that I always have these flashes of doubt when I am riding around in my car, thinking. It makes me wonder where people went to do their serious thinking before cars were invented. For a walk maybe, or sitting in a rocking chair? Perhaps while staring into the leaping flames of a fire? It doesn't matter, I suppose. I do my serious thinking while driving to the grocery store. Which is probably a good thing. Because, while I am gripping the steering wheel of my car, another verse comes to mind and shuts down the argument completely.

2 Peter 3:10,11

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness," (emphasis mine)

I think that my car falls into the catagory of the "works" that are in the earth. And according to 2 Peter, my car is going to melt, or better yet, dissolve. That kind of puts things in perspective. Truth of God? Lasts forever. Steering wheel of my car? Melting like cheese on a hot burger.

And so, my friends, I can drive on with a light heart. It is real. All of it.

There is No Neutral

2008-07-23T17:28:00.005-04:00

As part of some research I've been working on, I'm reading through the book of Romans. I love the way my Bible describes Romans, in it's introduction to the book. "Its compressed declarations of vast truths are like coiled springs--once loosed, they leap through the mind and heart to fill one's horizon and shape one's life." (I really wish I wrote that sentance.)

One of those coiled springs has indeed been leaping through my mind for the past few days. It is found in Romans 8:7:

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be." (emphasis mine)

The first part of that sentance contains a very strong word, "enmity." The actual Greek word used is "echthra." According to Stong's, the definition of ecthra is: "hostility; by implication a reason for opposition: - enmity, hatred."

Hatred is about as far from indifferent as you can get. I can't be the only Christian who has been influenced by the messages of this world. According to wordly (or carnal) wisdom, there are an awful lot of good people in this world. And if you happen to come across one who is "not good," then the explanation for their lack of goodness must surely lie in some unhappiness or mistreatment in childhood, etc.

And I would agree that we are surrounded by nice, gentle, considerate, peaceful, moral, and generous people. That lady who cut in front of me at the grocery store doesn't make the list, but still, there are plenty of others who do. It's tempting to start thinking that there is nothing wrong with our nice, but non-religious, neighbor. It is even more tempting to go down the line of reasoning that because they are "good" by the standards of this world, that surely an eternity of conscious punishment, seperated from God, is far from what they deserve.

But as is often the case, what seems obvious, and what makes sense to our human minds, is just plain wrong. Because according to that little phrase in Romans 8:7, the carnal mind is locked into a relationship of hatred toward God. There is no neutral territory. Carnal, by the way, simply means "of the flesh." Its implications include everything that has to do with this world, and the desires that naturally result in our worldly, fleshly, lives. We ususally associate it with sexual connotation, but its true meaning is much broader than just sexual lust.

I have, on occassion, been very carnally minded about all sorts of things; like shoes (Cole Haan shoes if you must know), and a flat stomach, and a condo at the beach. None of which I currently posses. (Well, except for some Cole Haan shoes that I got on clearance, but that is a whole other topic.)

Getting back to serious business, though, if a person is carnally minded, then they hate God. It is as simple as that. For all the veneer of respectfullness and good-citizenship, those who are not renewed by the Spirit are at war with God. It might not seem obvious to our human eyes, but you can bet that God is fully aware of every skirmish.

And now that this particular coiled spring from the book of Romans has leapt through my mind, I see those around me in a slightly different light. Not in the light of judgment, but in the light of reality. There are no Switzerlands in this war. Everyone is in the trenches on one side or the other, aiming and taking shots. And my goal is to cause as many defections from the side of the enemy as possible.

James 4:4

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

Christian, What Do You Believe?

2008-07-21T15:41:00.005-04:00

There are all sorts of Christians in the world. We come under many banners, ascribe to various theories, and the "flavors" of belief we offer are almost endless. Which, nowadays, is not necessarily such a bad thing. A few hundered years ago you were liable to get yourself burned at the stake, or worse, if you happened to fall on the wrong side of a doctrinal issue. The right side, of course, was determined by whoever happened to be in power at the moment.

But one problem that arises from all of this diversity of thought and theology is this: Who can really be called a Christian, and who is disqualified from taking that label based on what they believe?

It can get sort of thorny. Are Mormons Christians? I don't agree that they are, but I think there are many Mormons who would take issue with me. Perhaps some non-Mormons as well.

One particularly distasteful (to me) breed of Christian thought goes something like this: My beliefs and my theology are perfect. Everyone else is totally wrong. And not only are they wrong, but they probably aren't even real Christians to begin with, because they don't see points x, y and z the same way I do.

Please don't misunderstand me. I believe that there is truth, and that God has revealed Himself to us in Scripture, and that Scripture is able to be discerned and its truths understood. But some topics are just plain gray. And some Christians, altough I would never argue that they are insincere, are wrong. But they are still Christians regardless.

So where are the boundary lines that determine what is essential and what is debatable? Well, far be it from me to consider myself smart enough to grasp all of the intricate ins and outs of that question. But, I'd like to offer you a tool that has been very helpful to me in determining what should be considered Christianity, and what is another religion altogether. It's called the Apostle's Creed.

Some of you know it by heart and have grown up repeating it out loud in church services. Others of you might be familiar with it, and even know it by heart, but rarely, if ever, used it in public worship. And to some of you, it might be brand new. So here it is:

The Apostle's Creed

I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord; He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilot, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; On the third day He arose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; I believe a holy catholic Christian church, the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

If a person can claim all of the elements of the Apostle's Creed, we should consider them to be a Christian. Their particular denomination might do things, or believe some things, that are different than our own denomination. But we are all Christians. And we need to keep that in mind.

I know I have been guilty in the past of thinking that my understanding of Scripture was so superior to other's understanding that it made me wonder if they were even really saved. I don't feel that way anymore. And I'm sort of ashamed that I ever did. I mean, when did God make Hadassah the judge of anyone else's salvation. He didn't.

Like I said before, I do think truth matters. And I happen to be convinced that my own beliefs are absolutly true, or else I wouldn't believe them. But you and I can disagree about all sorts of things, that don't happen to be part of the Apostle's Creed, and still embrace each other as fellow saints and believers.

Now, if you start trying to tell me that Jesus wasn't raised from the dead, or something like that, then... Houston...we have a problem. Or should I say, a chance for me to convince you of the truth?

Oh yeah, one more thing. Many thanks go to the Red & Black Redneck for inspiring this post. He will probably claim credit anyway. So thanks dear!

On Tennis and Assembling

2008-07-18T13:34:00.003-04:00

So, I had my first tennis lesson today. I've been playing for about a year now, and doing a semi-decent job of it. But I decided it was high time that I get the input of a real professional. For one thing, my forehand just plain stinks. I can hit a backhand all day, but give me a forehand, and I can only hit the ball decently about half the time.

The lesson was good, by the way. Almost immediately, the instructor told me two pretty vital things that I had no idea I was doing wrong. Really simple things, too, like keep your eye on the ball until you have hit it (duh!). But I have always looked at my opponent when I hit the ball. I expect to be playing at a professional level now that I have that problem fixed. OK, just kidding.

But I'll tell you what it made me think of, after I stopped feeling idiotic for making such a simple error. We all have things to learn from others. Not a single one of us has got this Christianity thing down so well that we can go solo from now on. I absolutely LOVE to spend time around women who are more mature in their faith than I am. One woman in particular always makes me wish I could just stand next to her and absorb her great wisdom and gentleness through osmosis. It doesn't work that way, unfortunately, but if it did, she is the one I'd be pushing people out of the way to stand next to. (See, I really can use some extra gentleness!)

There have been some people I've come across here and there who advocate leaving church altogether and just going it alone with God. I have such a hard time understanding how that could benefit anyone.

I know, I know, churches are far from perfect. They are full of sinners, and people who rub you the wrong way. There are all of those generational differences to overcome, and some people have some rather "interesting" views that are naturally a hairbreadth away from being heresy, in your humble opinion. And, of course, everyone knows that churches are full of hypocrites, and who wants to associate themselves with those sorts?

But the Bible speaks specifically to being part of a body of believers in Hebrews 10: 24-25:

" And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. " (emphasis mine)

You will notice something from that verse. The assembling together that is commanded is just as much for the benefit of "one another" as it is for each of us individually. We have each been gifted differently. We need each other because God has given us gifts that are to be used for the service of the body. Not just for our own selfish benefit.

Maybe you are a super-intelligent theological genius and all those unintelligent, theologically illiterate churchgoers get on your nerves. Well, maybe they have a thing or two to teach you about serving through love. Perhaps you are a humble servant who gets frustrated that nobody else wants to lend a helping hand and you end up with all of the grunt work. It could be that you need to be inspired to rest in the beauty of God's perfect grace. Whatever the case may be, we need each other.

Romans 12:4-6

"For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:"

I know some of you who read this blog, and I know that you are super involved in your church. But I certainly don't know everyone who stumbles by here. So if you happen to read this, and you aren't a member of a church, by all means find one and get involved. I can promise you one thing. You won't find a church that is perfect. And even if you did, chances are that you would ruin it the moment you walked in the door. So, give grace where grace is needed, but don't alienate yourself from God's established means of ministering to the saints: church.

I AM WHO I AM

2008-07-16T08:56:00.006-04:00

Exodus 3:14,15

"And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And He said, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."" Moreover God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: "The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.""

The literal Hebrew for "I AM WHO I AM" is "Eheyeh asher Eheyeh." It has been translated a few different ways throughout history, but our current translation of "I AM WHO I AM" is just as illustrative as any of the other translations, so let's stick with it for the purposes of this post.

We get the name "Yahweh" from this verse. The Hebrew for "I AM" sounds like the name "Yahweh." (I spent about 20 minutes typing a few paragraphs about different verb tenses and how they relate to the original Hebrew from which we derive the name Yahweh, but it's not like I can read Hebrew or anything, so just take the word of the 5 commentaries I read.)

If you are anything like me, you have spent some time being confused about the difference between the name "Yahweh" and the name "Jehovah." I understood that they both meant the same thing, but I wasn't really sure why there needed to be two different names with the same meaning. Let me see if I can explain it to you in the way that finally made sense to me.

The Jews were sort of superstitious about God's name. They considered it too holy to pronounce out loud. So instead of pronouncing "Yahweh" they would substitute the name "'adonay" which is translated "my Lord." In our English translations of the Bible, whenever you see the word "LORD" spelled in all capital letters, it means that the original language for that verse uses the name "Yahweh." Now to me, the use of the word "LORD" in place of "Yahweh" is unnecessary. Because the word "Lord," not spelled in all capital letters, can mean all kinds of things apart from "God." It can simply mean, "one with authority." It seems to me that all these different uses of the word "Lord" and "LORD" just muddy up the waters of identification. But, we seem to be stuck with it.

So, what does any of that have to do with the difference between "Yahweh" and "Jehovah?" Well, it all has to do with that Jewish reluctance to pronounce God's name. Because the Jews were so wary of saying the name Yahweh out loud, they added the verbs for the word "adonay" (remember, this word means Lord) in their written texts wherever the name Yahweh appeared. That way, as a Jew was reading out loud, he would be reminded not to pronounce the holy name, and would instead say "adonay."

Then in 1530 a man named William Tyndale combined the word "Yahweh" with the vowel sounds in "adonay" and the hybrid name of "Jehovah" was born. So really, Yahweh and Jehovah both mean the same thing, and they are both referring to God as He revealed Himself in Exodus 3:14. My personal preference is the name "Yahweh"over the name "Jehovah," because it seems closer to the original name that God revealed. But I don't think it is worth getting all worked up over.

So why does any of this matter, aside from just being interesting? Well, there is one very important reason that we should understand the name Yahweh, or I AM.

You may have heard it said that Jesus never explicitly called Himself God. But the truth is that He did, on more than one occasion, and the Jews that He said it to understood exactly what He meant. We don't always see it clearly because it gets somewhat lost in translation.

One of the most explicit examples is in John 8:58, 59:

"Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."

Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by."

It is not really that clear to us in English, but the two different verbs used when Jesus referred to Abraham, and then to Himself, imply two very different things. The verb used to describe Abraham means "was brought into being." The phrase that Jesus used of Himself means, "I exist." On the face of it, that might not seem like such a radical statement, to say "I exist." But Jesus was applying the name Yahweh to Himself when He said those words, and his audience, made up of Jews, understood His meaning perfectly.

That is why in the very next verse, the Jews picked up stones and sought to kill Jesus. They were infuriated that He claimed to be Yahweh.

It is pretty interesting to note that Jesus used the phrase "I am" several times in a way that indicated He was associating Himself with the name "Yahweh." The problem is, that when those verses get translated into English, the word "he" is usually added to help us understand the sentence. But, if you ask me, the real meaning is being obscured by the apparent meaning. Now, the translators will put the word "he" in italics, or some other color or font, as a way of indicating that the word has been added to help us understand the sentence. But, I'm afraid that your average Bible reader just skims over such textual nuances. For instance, here is exactly how John 8:28 appears in my Bible:

"Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things."

Notice the two words that appear in italics: He and that. Those italics mean that the words have been inserted during translation. Adding those words does help us to read the sentence in grammatically correct English. But, in my humble little opinion, the most profound implications are stripped out.

Just for fun, look up the following verses in your own Bible and take note of the words that appear in italics: John 8:24 and John 18:4-6.

It kind of reminds you to pay closer attention when you read the Bible, doesn't it?

Always Be Prepared

2008-07-10T15:40:00.006-04:00

I've been thinking a lot since yesterday. I suppose that the visit I had from the Jehovah's Witnesses may have been as much for my benefit as anything else. I promise I'm not going to let this blog shift its focus onto apologetics. (Apologetics, by the way, is the reasoned arguments that you provide to defend your faith, that is not the formal definition, but I think it works just fine. In other words, it is the reasoning that explains why you believe what you believe.)

But, ladies, I came to realize something yesterday. Far too many of us are woefully ignorant of Scripture. And I feel the need to gently fuss about it.

My misguided visitors were rather surprised when I not only opened the door and spoke to them, but when I also proved to know a thing or two about the Bible. If their reaction is to be trusted, this is a rare occurrence. Shame on us!

I know all the arguments against engaging the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons who come knocking: they have memorized their doctrine and the Bible verses that appear to support them, their logic is intentionally tricky and they might manage to confuse you, you won't change their mind anyway, so why bother.

But I'm afraid there are two bigger reasons we don't open the door. One, we don't really care about the lost souls on our front porch who are earnestly heading straight toward eternal damnation. That is simply terrible! Second, we don't know how to make a reasoned defense of our faith, and so we are afraid to even try. This is just as bad!

In 1 Peter 3:15, we are told, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;." (emphasis mine) I know that some people see this verse as encouragement to freely give your personal testimony. But even the Buddhist can give an honest and genuine testimony. That doesn't make his faith true, it just means that he really, sincerely believes it. We, who posses the truth, must be able to provide more than just our personal experience. We must be able to assert the authority of Scripture.

Now, don't think I'm going to fuss at you today without giving you a little help in the right direction. I can't pretend that I've memorized every single section of Scripture that points to, or explicitly claims, or obviously shows, the divinity of Christ. I did read many of them today, but in a pinch, I doubt I would be able to recall them immediately.

But I did see something that I thought I could remember, and you can too. Any one of you who read this blog can remember two numbers: 20:28.

That's right, before I even tell you what the verses are or what book they are in, I want you to make yourself a giant mental sticky note: 20:28. Say it out loud, write it down, or whatever helps you to remember. 20:28.

OK, now, remember this: the last and the first. That's easy isn't it? We are going to find our key verses in the last of the Gospels, which is John, and the first book that comes after them, which is Acts. John and Acts, got it?

Here we go:

John 20:28

"And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

In this verse, Thomas explicitly calls Jesus not only Lord, as he was accustomed to calling him prior to this point, but he also explicitly calls Jesus "God." The Greek word used here for God is "theos." And in your Bible this word is translated with a capital "G" not a small "g." That means God as in the one true God: Jehovah. Now, it is true that elsewhere in the Bible, this exact same word is translated with a little "g." But even if that were the proper translation, it doesn't matter. Because in the very next verse, John 20:29, Jesus commends Thomas for believing that He is God. Jesus cannot possibly be sinless as a man, AND accept worship as God. He must be either God, or a sinner.

You may get some convoluted argument about mistranslations, misunderstandings, etc. But stick to your guns. Either Jesus has just committed a sin by accepting worship as God, or Jesus is sinless AND IS GOD. The text is plain and speaks for itself.

Then we have Acts 20:28:

"Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (emphasis mine)

This one is simple. Here we have it explicitly stated that God purchased the flock (that would be the church) with HIS OWN BLOOD. This must mean that the blood which Jesus shed was the blood of God. Jesus, must therefore, be God.

Let me tell you, I've looked at so many Bible verses today pertaining to the divinity of Christ that my head started to spin at one point. I am realistic enough to realize that not all of you are going to do the same thing. But really, if you can remember these two addresses (verses) you are well on your way to being able to defend the divinity of Christ.

So, please, next time, open your door, too. Don't view the person on the other side as a threat. Allow the Holy Spirit to use you. Show love, be polite, be gentle and respectful. But be prepared to show the truth. Even if it goes badly, and you feel like you botched the whole thing, it is good practice. You can do better next time. More importantly though, it is not up to you to be perfect or to know every detailed argument. The Holy Spirit is the one who works in people's hearts to lift the veil and reveal the truth. It's an amazing privilege to be used by Him in the process. So even if you bumble and stutter and feel ignorant, fear not. If God has a purpose, it will be fulfilled, regardless of your abilities or lack thereof.

And don't forget: 20:28, the last and the first. How hard is that?

P.S. To my regular readers: I am well aware that this post may attract some strange comments. It's OK if that happens. They are welcome to read my post, but I really wrote it for all of you who normally drop by for a visit.

The Mission Field (That Came Right Up to My Front Door)

2008-07-09T14:14:00.002-04:00

I had some unexpected visitors this morning. Two very nice women rang my doorbell. I spotted them knocking on the front door of my neighbor, and sort of scoped them out as they made their way to my house. I figured they were with some sort of religious organization. Normally, I DO NOT open my door if I am unaware of who the person is on the other side. I live in a neighborhood that has a lot of character, and there have been some, um, interesting people that have come by.

But these two seemed harmless enough, so I said a quick prayer asking for grace, wisdom and knowledge, and when they rang, I opened the door.

They were Jehovah's Witnesses. It took a few minutes to get around to that, but eventually we got there. I am not all that familiar with the Jehovah's Witnesses and what they believe. But I thought that there was some major point of disagreement between their beliefs and the typical evangelical, so I asked them what it might be.

In a nutshell, they deny the Trinity. They believe that Jesus was a special, righteous man, but they don't believe that He was God in the flesh.

Oh, boy! How often is it that you have a chance to really talk, without any hesitation or constraints, about religion with a perfect stranger? This was an opportunity that I just couldn't resist! These two very nice ladies had come expecting to tell me about the kingdom of Heaven, and throughout our conversation, they kept trying to steer me back to their agenda. But I wanted to talk about Christ, so I did.

I don't remember everything that they said or that I said. But, as soon as they realized that I was an evangelical Christian who knew more about the Bible than the 23rd Psalm, they wanted to find common ground between us. I, however, had the exact opposite intent, and wanted to point out to them that we did not, in fact, believe the same thing at all. And I told them at least 6 or 7 times as they stood on my doorstep that I feared for their souls, because they did not believe in Jesus as He revealed Himself in Scripture.

Before I go on, I should say that I was extremely polite, and so were they. But there was no way I was going to let them leave my doorstep without telling them that they believed a lie, that they did not know the truth, and that come Judgment Day, they would be on the wrong side of God, unless they trusted in Jesus as Saviour and LORD. (LORD as in God.)

They shared some arguments against Christ's divinity, I opened my Bible to John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." They told me that my Bible had a mistranslation of that verse. They had an "explanation" for everything. Of course, they are well trained in their beliefs before they are sent out to knock on doors, so I shouldn't have been surprised about that.

At a certain point they decided to leave, once they realized that they were not going to convince me of anything. They gave me a few verses to look up that had to do with Heaven, which was what they wanted to talk about all along. Before they left I encouraged them to read the Bible for themselves, without the influence of what someone else told them to believe, and let Scripture speak for itself. They actually seemed to listen when I told them that. And then I parted by telling them that I would pray for their souls all day today, because they did not know the truth, and had not been brought to the light.

This was such a strange experience for me. I don't normally look people in the eye and tell them their souls are going to be separated from God for all of eternity. I sort of doubt that anyone had ever told them that before. But, there are times when we just have to speak the truth in love. And when a stranger comes to your door, and they want to talk about what you believe, then how can you pass up the opportunity to give them the TRUTH?

Naturally, after they left, I came up with about 5 good Bible verses that would have gone a long way toward proving my case. And a dozen arguments against their logic. But I suppose if they were supposed to hear those things, God would have impressed them on me before this encounter. But, I'll tell you one thing. I'll be even better prepared next time.

I should hang a sing on my door, "Jehovah's Witnesses Welcome!" OK, just kidding.

Justified by Faith

2008-07-08T12:19:00.008-04:00

Galatians 5:13

"For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another."

Some years ago, my husband and I participated in a couples Bible study on the book of Galatians. I believe it was a series based on the work of Tim Keller. Anyway, I have this verse (the one above) underlined in my Bible, and in the margin, I wrote the words, "we are free to not be centered on ourselves."

As I looked at my note in the margin last night, I thought, "Huh? What does that mean?" I bet you have done the same thing, wondering what thought process caused you to write a word or a phrase in your Bible. Or maybe it's just me?

Anyway, it got me thinking. What does it actually mean to be "free to not be centered on ourselves" and what does that have to do with "through love serve one another." I think I've reconnected the dots, so to speak, and you might enjoy following along the mental journey I engaged in to complete the picture.

It all has to do with the concept of faith as it relates to our justification. Now, justification is just a fancy word that means being declared righteous before God. We are all born as sinners before God. (Psalm 51:5) And in order to receive salvation, we must be declared righteous before God, or in other words, we must be justified. According to Galatians 2:16, "a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ...that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified."

This is a huge concept. What Paul is saying is that there are no rules or laws which we can keep in order for God to see us as righteous. The only way that we will ever be declared righteous before God is through faith in Jesus Christ. I could spend my entire life doing wonderful, charitable deeds; and come Judgment Day, God would still spit me out of His mouth if I did not have the one thing required to be justified: faith in Christ Jesus.

This is such a freeing truth that its importance can not be minimized. So many people, Christians included, have this notion that we are pleasing to God, and receive our salvation (or keep it) based on the things that we do or don't do. Paul is adamantly denying any such thing.

Now, you will never hear me say that keeping God's law doesn't matter. It matters a great deal. But it doesn't have anything to do with earning salvation. The importance of keeping God's law is a topic for another day. Suffice it to say that the law is still vital.

So, keeping that in mind, how should one react to this amazing concept of justification through faith? If we don't bear the burden of earning our salvation, than what are we to do?

Well, according to Galatians 5:13, we should, "through love serve one another." Allow me to illustrate what I mean by describing two different understandings of justification.

First, imagine that you believe it is up to you to make yourself righteous before God. You have a sense that if you are just "good" enough, then in the end you will make it to Heaven. Or perhaps you think that you have salvation, but it is up to you to keep it by obeying certain laws and rules. First of all, where is humility in either of those scenarios? But, more importantly, if you believe that you are earning or working towards something, than what do you suppose would motivate you to serve others? Would you be serving out of love? Probably not. When you get to the heart of the matter, you would probably be serving others, or doing "good" things, out of your own self-interest. (If I do xyz, then God will find me righteous.)

Contrast that with a person who knows that she is already declared righteous before God. This person knows that nothing can ever separate her from the love of Christ. She is therefore, free from the burden of working out her own salvation, and liberated to serve others out of genuine love, rather than self-interest.

In others words, as my Bible note declares, she would be, "free to not be centered on (herself)."

And the key to all of this working the way it should, is understanding that we are justified, or declared righteous, before God by our faith. Nothing else. Period. End of story.

Galatians 5:1

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage."

Immanuel

2008-07-03T21:37:00.005-04:00

In the second chapter of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He is so troubled by this dream that he is unable to sleep. He calls all of the magicians and sorcerers of his court to come before him and explain this dream to him.

Only it would seem the King had reason to believe that his “wise men” were full of baloney. He tells them that not only must they explain the meaning of his dream, but they must also tell him what happened in the dream. And if they can’t deliver, then they are all going to be cut to pieces and their houses will be turned into heaps of ash. Sounds like a nice boss, huh?

You can imagine that the sorcerers and magicians were pretty upset by the request, because they certainly had no ability to tell him the contents of his dream. And so they responded to him in part by saying, “It is a difficult thing that the king requests, and there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” (Daniel 2:11, italics mine)

Those sorcerers were dead wrong.

God does indeed dwell with us, and at a specific point in history, He even came to earth and dwelt with us in the flesh. Check out these two verses:

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.

Mat 1:23 "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which is translated, "God with us."

Don’t miss the last few words in the verse from Matthew. Immanuel is literally translated, “God with us.”

This is probably one of those ideas that you have heard so many times it has become sort of rote. You say it or express it or read it, perhaps without thinking through what it actually means. God is with us. God is with me, as in right now while I am typing this post. And He will be with me all night long while I sleep in my bed. Tomorrow as well, as I, hopefully, play tennis and get some cleaning and laundry done. Even in those mundane moments, God is WITH me.

And there is more. On the day I almost bled to death, God was with me. On the day I had a hissy fit and kicked my kitchen cabinets, God was with me. As a child, when I flew away from a country and a life that I loved, never expecting to return to either one again, God was right there with me. Even as I was being knit together in the womb of my mother; God was there alongside my unformed frame. In all of the years that followed, even in the years that I didn’t want much to do with God, He was with me. What a thought.

There was a time when all of this “withness” would make me uncomfortable to think about. Because if God has been with me through it all; He has also seen it all. And some of it wasn’t very pretty. OK, most of it wasn’t pretty. Fine! All of it!

But I don’t even worry about that anymore. Honestly, I have made peace with the past. I know that my sins are forgiven. Not just kind of forgiven, but removed from me as far as the east is from the west. That’s a long way. And I have let the concept of grace sink deep down into my bones. But, I digress.

As I go about my day tomorrow, I am going to make a concerted effort to focus on the fact that God is with me every moment. I’m not expecting tomorrow to be any kind of extraordinary day, but you never know. As long as God is with me, I suppose anything could happen.

Isaiah 43:2 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

Matthew 28:20 “and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

(emphasis mine)

Wrestling With God

2008-06-29T14:53:00.003-04:00

Genesis 32:24-31

"Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. And He said, "Let Me go, for the day breaks."

But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!"

So He said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob."

And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me Your name, I pray."

And He said, "Why is it that you ask about My name?" And He blessed him there.

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Just as he crossed over Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip."

Have you ever wondered about this part of Jacob's story? I know that I spent several years being aware of it, but not really understanding its significance, or even what it really meant. I used to chalk it up as one of those strange Old Testament stories that just seemed plain confusing.

I don't feel that way anymore, but I only saw the meaning of this encounter between Jacob and the Angel after I went through something similar in my spiritual life. Don't get me wrong. I never have seen an angel, and I don't expect to in this lifetime. And that naturally precludes my wrestling with an angel in the flesh. But I have wrestled with God. In fact, I spent most of my young life and early adulthood doing exactly that.

You see, I have had the privilege of being raised in a Christian home. In fact, my parents were Christian missionaries in a foreign country for most of my childhood. And when we did return to America, I was brought up in a wonderful, Biblically solid church.

Jacob, likewise, was brought up by parents, who, however flawed, believed in and worshiped the one true God, Jehovah. Yet for all of his life up until this wrestling match with the Angel, Jacob was a striver and a schemer who relied on his own cunning and trickery to get ahead. His very name, Jacob, means trickster. And his name proved to be an accurate appraisal of Jacob's character. We see it in his dealings with his father Isaac and his brother Esau, and again in his dealings with his father-in-law, Laban.

Then here, in this climatic episode, Jacob and God have it out. They literally wrestle together in full body-to-body contact. Interestingly, it is God that initiates this struggle. And it is not an easy match, Jacob does not willingly concede to his opponent. In fact, Jacob struggles so hard and for such a long period of time, that the Angel reaches out and touches (strikes) the hip of Jacob, putting it out of joint.

If Jacob had any doubt that he was wrestling with God, at this point you would have to assume he realizes that this is no ordinary man he is fighting with. So does he give up the fight, realizing that his opponent is God? Nope. We read that "the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him."

I hate to admit, but I can relate to that. I've had a few experiences that, in retrospect, I would characterize as God "touching" my hip. In other words, things have happened to me that should have caused me to submit. I should have given up and given in to the Lord. But, in my stubborn resistance and pride, I didn't. I stupidly kept up the struggle: "I want to be in charge, I want to have my way, I want to be right, I don't want to submit to anyone, even God."

So the wrestling continues, until the Angel brings it to a close by announcing, "Let Me go, for the day breaks."

It is at this point that a change occurs in Jacob. All of his life up to this point, he has relied on himself, his smarts, his cunning, his trickery and strength to get what he wants and needs. Now, after wrestling with God, and continuing to wrestle even after he has been disabled, he finally submits, and pleads, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!"

It might seem like a simple statement at first, but loaded into it is the implication that Jacob recognizes and admits that the Angel (God) is the one with the power to bless, and that Jacob's power lies in seeking God's blessing. It is a paradigm shift, as our popular culture likes to say. The rules have changed. Jacob has admitted he cannot prevail, He has recognized God's ability to bless, and he has pleaded with God to give him blessing. In prayer and supplication his strength now lies, and that is exactly where our power lies as well.

Then, what I think is the best part of the story takes place. The Angel asks Jacob his name. Now clearly God is perfectly aware of what Jacob's name is. I always assume that when God asks a person to speak something out loud that God obviously already knows, it must be for the benefit of the speaker, and not for the benefit of God. I think that is the case here. Jacob admits, out loud, that he is Jacob, the trickster, the striver.

The Angel answers, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." God has changed who Jacob is! The name Israel is translated "Prince with God" or, alternately, "One who has power with God." Jacob is no longer the trickster, he has been remade as the prince. Interestingly, throughout the rest of his life, Jacob is referred to sometimes as Jacob, and sometimes as Israel. I think, that just like us, Jacob continued to struggle with his "old" nature even after this experience.

God doesn't typically go around changing our names nowadays. However, God does indeed change who we are. He changes our character. Each of us is allowed to change from being a self-reliant creature to one who has "power with God." But an important aspect of this "power" is submission.

I spent so many years of my life giving lip-service to God. It was only after I fully submitted, gave up the wrestling match, and recognized God as the one with power and authority that I started to experience Christianity in a life changing way. Don't suppose for one moment that I think I have done anything special by "giving up." God was practicing condescension when He engaged Jacob in a wrestling match. God could have just reached down from His throne and struck Jacob dead. But in His infinite mercy, He allowed a struggle for dominion to take place. I don't think there was ever any doubt that God would prevail. But I suppose that Jacob's human nature needed to fight it out before he surrendered. I know that I needed to, and I think most of us are similar in that regard. But we can't ever forget that God is merciful in even allowing us the struggle.

Finally, there are two more details about this story that I love. After the wrestling, after the submission and the change in character, Jacob sets about to go on his way. In verse 31 we read, "Just as he crossed over Penuel, the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip." Notice that the night is over, day, light, power, have broken forth over Jacob. There are so many references to God as light in the Bible that I think the symbolism in this verse screams out for recognition. Jacob has come to the light, he has submitted to God as Adonai, Lord and Master. But don't overlook the fact that Jacob is now limping.

Jacob, the formerly self-reliant one, has a critical injury that he will carry with him for the rest of his life. It brings to mind this verse from 2 Corinthians,

2 Corinthians 12:9

"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

Jacob's newfound weakness is exactly why God's strength will be made perfect. That is the way God wants it. When we are weak, His power is evident. When we are broken and humble, God's grace is fully sufficient for us. Some of us just have to wrestle it out with God before we get to the point of weakness and submission. But, in the end, that is where our power lies. It's one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith--strength in weakness.

It's Not About How Great We Are

2008-06-26T15:48:00.002-04:00

Ezekiel 36:22-23

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God: "I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name's sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord God."

Has anyone else noticed how self focused modern Christianity seems to be? I keep hearing about how wonderful I am and how God desires me so much. Certainly God does love me, just as He loves all of His children. But its not because I'm so great. If God's love depended on me being great and desirable, I think I'd be in pretty big trouble.

Because the truth is that apart from God's sanctifying work in my life, there's nothing all that desirable about me personally. Why does this matter? Well,I think we see ourselves as much too important in the grand scheme of things. Yes, I know, nobody likes to be told that they aren't important. But that's not what I am saying at all. What I'm saying is that we find ourselves too important.

The truth is that God is the one who is important, not us. He is the one who has glory, not us. He is the one that is worth pursuing,not me. He is all-knowing, perfect, righteous, beautiful, wise and holy. Me? nope, none of the above.

And it struck home to me last week as I read the verses from Ezekiel at the top of this post. In the first part of chapter 36, God has given Ezekiel a prophecy about how He is going to bless Israel once again. Remember that Ezekiel's contemporaries are living in Babylonian exile. They are experiencing firsthand the punishment brought about by their great sins.

And after God has told Ezekiel that He will restore Israel and bless them, He goes on to tell them that they have done nothing to deserve it. In fact, wherever they have gone, they have profaned the name of God. And because they have behaved so wretchedly, they need to understand that God is not about to extend His blessing to them because they have eared it. They have done the contrary. It is for God's own sake, and for His name's sake that He will bless Israel.

I think we can say the same is true in each of our individual lives. We haven't done anything to deserve God's grace and favor. We've all gone around profaning the name of God since we were born. But He is going to bless us anyway. Not because of us, but because of Him.

At first glance this might not seem like good news. Especially to a people like us, who believe that there is worth in earning things. But if you think about it a while, I hope you will agree with me, that this is the best news we could ever get. Its not about us at all. Its about God. We might fail, but God never will. We might be unworthy, but God is going to redeem us anyway. And even though we never have and never will deserve anything good from God, we're going to get things from God that are great. Why?

Because His name is at stake. That's why.

Feed My Sheep

2008-06-21T09:41:00.003-04:00

I came across some verses in Ezekiel a few days ago that have been running through my mind ever since.

Ezekiel 33:31-32

"So they come to you as people do, they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain. Indeed you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them."

The "you" in these verses is Ezekiel himself, and God is addressing Ezekiel directly. God is condemning the Israelites (they are in captivity in Babylon) who come and listen to Ezekiel, and at times even seek him out, as a source of entertainment and amusement. The people seem to be paying attention, and a few verses earlier, we are told that they make Ezekiel and his prophesies a subject of frequent conversation. But after they have been entertained by him, they go their way and do their own thing. They are unaffected by the message he shares with them. And this is a message that comes straight from God, bear in mind.

I will admit, if I had lived as a contemporary of Ezekiel, I would probably have been pretty entertained by him too. God made Ezekiel do some pretty strange things, as a way of "acting out" the judgments and prophecies that were given through him. I'm sure his friends and neighbors thought he was a bit "off." That is, until everything he revealed to them came true.

But back to our verses. When I first read them, I thought, "Ooh, good post material here. It looks like things haven't changed much in all these thousands of years! People still go to church to be entertained by "a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument."" And I'm not even talking about church service music, I'm talking about the message from the pulpit. There are plenty of modern day church attenders who go to church, listen to the nice sermon, walk out the door, and completely revert to a self-motivated lifestyle.

And I stayed in that train of thought for a couple of days. I even started thinking though the great points I would make in my post. And then, of course, I was convicted of a recurring problem I have.

I can be kind of self-righteous. If you know me, you might be surprised by this confession. I TRY not to be self-righteous in my interactions with other people. And I've come a long way in this area. I am convicted of self-righteous thinking pretty quickly nowadays. Sometimes, immediately. But still, it keeps popping that nasty little head up in my thought patterns.

After thinking about our "entertained" churchgoers for a day or two, I looked at the verses again, and a new thought occurred to me. God specifically calls these Ezekiel-listeners, "My people." Ouch. Do I really think that I am supposed to be self-righteously comparing myself to God's people? No. And then, I remembered who it was they were gathering to listen to: Ezekiel, God's chosen mouthpiece, His chosen watchman, His chosen prophet. The people weren't gathering to listen to some nice sounding, empty messaged smooth talker. This man was the real thing, a man of God, speaking God-breathed truth.

I realized that I was making an unfair comparison. Sure, you can find plenty of churches today that have sweet sounding preachers who have very little gospel truth in their sermons. And I betcha they've got a big audience showing up every Sunday to be filled with a bunch of nice sounding emptiness. But, as I have realized again and again, there are also wonderful, Bible teaching churches out there who are filled with genuine Christians, and some of them are simply immature. They believe God, they attend church, they live a "clean" lifestyle, but their hearts are unaffected by God's Word to the point of real change. I used to be one of them.

And believe me, when that attitude changed in me, it wasn't because of anything I did. God shook me so hard that I had to stop and pay attention to Him. I didn't have a choice. Well, I suppose that technically I did, but in reality, the shaking was so severe that it would have been almost impossible for me to ignore Him.

After the shaking, which was no fun at all by the way, major change took place in my heart, and thus in my life.

Now I want to share something with you that is kind of personal. There are some verses in John 21 that the Holy Spirit will often quicken in my heart. In fact, these verses are the main tool that God uses to convict me of self-righteousness when it pops up. And I call this personal, because this is the personal application that I have taken from them.

In John 21:15-17, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Him. And every time Jesus asks, Peter answers with a yes. And all three times, Jesus says in essence "Feed My sheep." In other words, if what you say is true, if you really do love me, then you must feed My sheep as a result of that love.

I can't tell you how many times my heart has had this "conversation" with God. It goes something like this: Hadassah sees error in other people, Hadassah starts to feel self-righteous, the Holy Spirit hammers Hadassah's heart with the question: do you love Me?, Hadassah says, yes, or course You know I love You!, the Holy Spirit hammers Hadassah with the command: feed My sheep.

Self-righteousness is of no nutritional value to God's sheep. They will starve to death if that is all I have to feed them. And, hey, I don't think that I am Peter or anything like that. But I have an overwhelming urge to take people by the hand and lead them where God has led me. And I believe that God has given me this desire to feed His sheep. By the way, implicit in this motivation is the requirement to feed myself, a fellow sheep, from God's Word.

John 21:17

"He said to him a third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love me?"

And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You."

Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."

But Rejoice?

2008-06-18T14:56:00.003-04:00

1 Peter 4:12-13

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning this fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." (Italics mine)

I've been thinking about the problem of pain lately. Maybe it would be more correct to say the confusion of pain, rather than the problem of it. It seems that every few weeks or so, I am made aware of something that is simply devastating.

Inevitably, when these stories of suffering are related, there is some confusion involved. "Why is this happening?" "What have I done to deserve this?" "Why didn't God answer my fervent prayers in this matter?" "What could I have done to keep this from happening?"

Honestly, I think that this great confusion over pain is a relatively modern phenomenon. We happen to live in a day and age where we are often insulated from the brutal realities of life. I'm thinking mostly of modern Americans, but anyone who lives in a developed part of the world probably qualifies here. We have enough to eat, we live in safe and comfortable structures, we have access to medicine which treats a wide variety of common ailments. Most of our babies survive to adulthood. Most of us expect to reach a ripe old age, after living a healthy and fruitful life.

But even with all of the comforts of our modern society, there are disasters and problems that no technology can prevent. Children are killed in accidents, or born with physical and mental problems. Some children are never born at all. Young people die suddenly or are swept away by incurable diseases before their time. Parents die. Husbands die. People are paralyzed or disfigured. It happens every day to people all around us.

But somehow we have managed to make those things rare enough that they still shock and confuse us. I suspect that in many generations past, difficulty of life was the norm. It didn't confuse people like it does today.

And to compound our confusion, there seems to be a great deal of misinformation in the Christian community about how to deal with suffering and tragedy. I don't know where the idea originated, or when it first began to take root, but we seem to have convinced ourselves that Christians are supposed to be happy and joyful all the time, no matter what is happening to them.

Huh?

If that is true, then why is the Bible full of great men and women of God who poured out pain and anguish and despair and even anger in the pages of Scripture? Has anyone read Psalms lately? David had some very unhappy things to say to God. Off the top of my head I can think of complaints/pain/despair/anger being poured out by: Moses, Elijah, David, Hezekiah, Jeremiah, Hannah and Ezekiel. They weren't walking around with some strange idea that if you knew God your whole life should be a rosy picture show. They lived in reality. And so do we.

I did a little experiment, because I was curious. I tried to look up every time the word "rejoice" occurred in the New Testament. (You should not consider this an exhaustive commentary on rejoicing, this is just a casual observation.) Because I thought, surely there must be some really strong verses that give us reason to think we are supposed to be happy all the time.

In the New King James Version of the New Testament, the word "rejoice" occurs in 42 verses. And in almost every one of them, this rejoicing has to do with rejoicing because of who we are in Christ or what awaits us in the end. The verse at the top of this post is a great example. Peter specifically says, don't be surprised when terrible things happen to you, yes, rejoice that you are able to share in the suffering of Christ, and when His glory is fully revealed, then you will be filled with exceeding joy.

He doesn't tell them to walk around with a serene smile and pretend like nothing bad is happening to them. That would just be weird. Instead, they should remember that there is joy to come, and rejoice in what is to come. No matter what happens in this life, fiery trials and all, then end is decided. And the end is full of exceeding joy. Take comfort in that, rejoice in that!

Please don't divorce yourself from the ability to "weep with those who weep." And never, never accuse someone of not being a "good Christian" because they experience a normal range of human emotion. God created us to feel things, and He knows when we do feel them. We aren't supposed to suppress our natural reactions to disaster and think that this somehow makes us Christ-like. Jesus wept! More than once! Isaiah calls Jesus "a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief!" Hebrews 5:15 tells us that Christ can "sympathize with our weaknesses." He knows. He understands. And He wants us to bring it to him in all of its fullness. That is the only way it can be healed. A doctor can't prescribe a cure for the patient who refuses to come to him. (I'm not suggesting that we are supposed to stay in our deep grief or despair. But why do some people think we can't even experience grief and despair at all?)

I could go on and on about our cultural failings when it comes to grieving. We don't even wear black anymore when someone close to us has died. But lets not make the mistake of applying our culture's mistakes to the church body. Let's give each other room to feel pain, because life is just painful sometimes.

A Thought

2008-06-16T16:27:00.002-04:00

To tide you over until my next real post:

Sin is a lot like laundry. If you don't deal with it, it piles up. And it gets to stinking. And then, when you do look, you have 18 loads to wash instead of just a basket of whites.

Its much better to deal with sin and laundry on a regular basis. Like, daily. Can you tell I've been sick and let my house get out of control?

I'm feeling better, by the way.

Jas 5:16

"Confess faults to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous one avails much."

The Big Deal

2008-06-14T15:44:00.003-04:00

I haven't been ignoring this blog all week. I've just been sick. Still am. It's terribly annoying. I've hardly been able to string two thoughts together, which makes articulating a meaningful post rather difficult. So this is going to be brief.

I've been reading through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations and now I'm in Ezekiel. All four books deal primarily with Israel's great sin and coming destruction. But do you know what their big sin was? It is mentioned time and time again, so much so that you could easily start to skip over it when you read. You know, like you skip over the stuff you already know, in an effort to get to the interesting part of an article? Well, this great sin might not be what you think. There was plenty of sin being committed by Israel. The rich were oppressing the poor. Innocent people were being slain unjustly. Child sacrifice had become common. Foreign alliances were the norm. The Sabbath was being ignored. The list goes on and on. But the sin that God blames over and over for the judgment that He would no longer withhold was this: God's people were worshiping other gods.

And that was the greatest offense of all. More vile than sexual promiscuity, murder, child sacrifice or any kind of ritual impurity. God was getting cheated of His due. He deserved all of the glory and honor and worship from His chosen people. And they were throwing it away on images made of stone and wood. And that, dear reader, is why He brought down massive judgment on them.

I wanted to point it out because I think that we tend to focus too much on the things we "do" that are wrong: stealing, lying, cheating, gossiping, bad attitudes, sexual sins. But you can refrain from every single one of those and be committing sin every day of your life, simply by worshiping things other than God. Or to put it in common language, to place anything in your life above God.

I'm betting that you don't have a secret closet full of wooden idols that you bow down and pray to. But I'm also betting that you do have a life full of distractions and ambitions that don't involve giving God His due: all your heart, mind, soul and strength. This requirement, of utmost importance, is found in the Old Testament and the New.

Deuteronomy 6:4

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD you God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Matthew 22:37-38

"Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment."

Israel was failing miserably. I know that I have as well.

Jeremiah 2:32

"Can a virgin forget her ornaments
Or a bride her attire?
Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number."

There is hope, though, there always is. God didn't make a total end of His people. He preserved a remnant to bring back and reestablish. He makes a very similar offer to us, even if we have been chasing after other gods.

Jeremiah 3:1

"They say, 'If a man divorces his wife,
And she goes from him
And becomes another man's,
May he return to her again?'
Would not the land be greatly polluted?
But you have played the harlot with many lovers;
Yet return to Me, says the LORD."

God says, "Yet return to Me" no matter how thin we have spread our charms, no matter how many lovers we have chased apart from Him. A man cannot return to a wife he has divorced, but God will allow us to return to Him. No matter what.

Happy Birthday to ME!

2008-06-10T10:22:00.002-04:00

Y'all, this post is totally self indulgent. But it's my birthday today, and I just wanted to brag about it a little bit. And I wanted to brag about my husband, who gave me a very nice gift, which I wasn't expecting at all.

In honor of my birthday, I think we should all spend some time reflecting on these verses:

Psalm 71:6

"By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother's womb.
My praise shall be continually of You."

Psalm 22:9-10

"But You are He who took Me out of the womb;
You made Me trust while on My mother's breasts.
I was cast upon You from birth.
From My mother's womb
You have been My God."

(OK, did you notice all of the capital letters there? This whole Psalm is a peek forward to the birth and suffering of Christ.)

And finally:

Psalm 139:13-16

"For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother's womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet were none of them."

Like Honey in Sweetness

2008-06-08T11:21:00.003-04:00

Ezekiel 3:1-3

"Moreover He said to me, 'Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.' So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.

And He said to me, 'Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.' So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness."

I think that the account of Ezekiel's call to become a prophet is my favorite. He goes into such great detail about what he saw and heard and felt when he was first admitted into the heavenly courts and given his commission as God's prophet. You should really take the time to read chapters 1 through 3 of Ezekiel sometime. The angels with wheels covered in eyes is one of my favorite wild details.

But it is the part about eating the scroll that grabbed me the most. Ezekiel was shown a scroll and literally commanded to eat it. The scroll is God's Word. And Ezekiel is told to "eat," "feed your belly," and "fill your stomach" with it.

When Ezekiel obeys by opening up his mouth, it is God that causes him to eat the scroll. Be sure to take note that Ezekiel doesn't do this eating alone. God actually plays the most significant role. Ezekiel had to participate, by actually opening up his mouth, but in this account it is God that actually causes the eating to take place.

There is so much obvious symbolism in this for you and me. We are certainly not prophets in the same way that Ezekiel was. But we should be "eating" God's Word on a regular basis. When we eat something, it is more than just a casual interaction. We are taking something, and putting it in to ourselves. By the process of eating, the thing that we have consumed literally goes into us and becomes part of who we are. That is exactly how God's Word should affect us. It should literally change us by changing who and what we are.

I'm afraid that too many of us are walking around starving, because we have not fed our bellies and filled our stomaches with God's Word. There is just no substitute for actually opening the Bible and consuming it.

To take the analogy a bit further, how can a person expect to grow if he or she does not eat? Our bodies require food, which is digested and converted into energy, which is then used by our bodies as fuel for growth and activity. In the same way, as a Christian, we require filling with God's Word for our own health and growth. We, who live here in America, have absolutely no excuses for avoiding a regular feast upon the life-giving Word of God. Bibles are everywhere.

And if we will be obedient to "open our mouths," God will certainly "cause us to eat." He has given us a helper, the Holy Spirit, by whose assistance we are changed, we are filled, we are fed and nourished.

I've saved the best detail for last. In verse 3, Ezekiel says "So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness." There was nothing unpleasant about this experience. In Ezekiel's day they didn't know about triple chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. But they did know about honey, the purest and richest sweetness of their day. And it was this delightful sweetness that Ezekiel compares eating God's Word with. You can see this same comparison of God's Word to honey-like sweetness in Revelation 10:9, Psalm 19:10 and Psalm 119:103.

As an interesting side note, did you know that honey has antibiotic properties? It is an ancient form of medicine for healing and preventing infection. Need I draw this one out, or do you see my point?

So, girls, if you are feeling a bit hungry in your spiritual life, reach for something decadent and delicious. Open up a package of God-breathed truth and gorge yourself. You should even try to gain some weight. No diets are recommended at all. Let's get fat together.

Psalm 63:5

"My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips."

Lamentations (Updated, Yes, Again)

2008-06-05T14:13:00.005-04:00

I can only bear to do one post about the book of Lamentations. So here it is. But, just so you know, reading this post has the potential to ruin your day.

Lamentations is a short book, only 5 chapters long, which details the grief, anguish, indignities and horrors that the people in Jerusalem experienced while their city was under siege and then eventually destroyed. There are parts of it that are so horrible that they are hard to even read, much less think about.

Before the city was totally destroyed, the Babylonian army put it under siege for several months. This came at the same time as a famine, and the people who were trapped inside the city literally starved to death. There are verses that describe death by the sword as a fortunate fate compared to this slow starvation that the Israelites are experiencing. As a mother myself, the verses that talk about women literally eating their own children are really too much to bear.

Lamentations 4:10

"The hands of the compassionate women
Have cooked their own children;
They became food for them
In the destruction of the daughter of my people."

As horrid as that is, God warned the Israelites that this would happen. In Deuteronomy 28:57 God specifically lists this very thing as part of the curses He would bring down on Israel if they disobeyed Him. But we all know that Israel didn't pay any attention. Even with such wretched threats clearly laid out, the children of God disregarded His commands and did whatever they wanted.

Part of me just thinks, "What is wrong with these people? Its not like God hasn't explicitly told them what to do and not do! And not only that, but He keeps sending them prophets who warn that disaster is coming if they continue to disobey!"

Then I think about my own life. And the culture that I live in. And I stop casting stones at these people who lived thousands of years ago, but were still humans just like we are. Sigh.

I guess if you want to take a lesson from all of this destruction and heartache, it should be this: Sin is horrible. It causes terrible things to happen. The cost of it is always higher than we think it will be. And the cost of sin is very very real, for us, just as for those who came before us. No matter what small consequences we may face in this lifetime, for those who do not call upon Jesus Christ as their Savior, the full cost will be extracted after death.

I will say one surprising thing about the book of Lamentations. It contains at least one bright little gem gleaming from amidst the pain and death. There are a few verses about halfway through the book that must have served as the inspiration for one of my favorite hymns. I just never knew that these verses, so filled with hope and mercy, were to be found right here, in the middle of weeping and lament.

Lamentations 3:22-24

"Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul.
'Therefore I hope in Him!'"

Great is Your faithfulness, O God our Father
There is no shadow of turning with thee.
Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not,
As thou hast been thou forever will be.

Great is Your faithfulness
Great is Your faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed thy hand has provided
Great is Your faithfulness
Lord unto me.

**OK, I can't stand to leave this post as is. After you've read the verses about mothers cooking and eating their babies, you are probably so horrified that you don't even know what to think. "Who is this God?" you might be thinking. "Can this possibly be the same God who we call Abba, Father?"

Well, yes it is exactly the same God. And I don't mean for this postscript to negate anything I said earlier about the consequences of sin. But, just so you don't walk around feeling sick for the rest of the day, read these verses, which also come from Lamentations.

Lamentations 3:31-33

"For the Lord will not cast off forever.
Though He causes grief,
Yet He will show compassion
According to the multitude of His mercies.
For He does not afflict willingly,
Nor grieve the children of man.

I should probably have made this a separate post, but since I'm not going to, here are three points to consider, very quickly:

1. God does not afflict willingly. The Israelites were many many generations into horrid sin and disgusting practices by the time God brought down this judgment on them.

2. God did bring about the famine and the siege. But He didn't make those women resort to cannibalism. They did that abomination on their own.

3. He had their ultimate good in mind even during this very painful time. He was purging His children of their sin, so that they could eventually be healed, restored, and blessed by Him again. He still does exactly this in our lives today. And I don't think it has gotten any easier.

They Shall Never Perish

2008-06-01T21:28:00.003-04:00

John 10: 27-29

"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."

Have you ever wondered if it is possible to lose your salvation?

I've avoided posting on this topic in the past, because, well, some people might consider it controversial. But I've changed my mind for two reasons. First Scripture speaks clearly about it, and on those grounds it should not be considered controversial at all, but rather obviously settled and decided. And second, it is a timely topic for a dear friend of mine whose family is suffering from a sudden loss.

This verse is the quintessential text that removes all doubt about whether it is possible to lose genuine salvation. I'll cut to the chase: it absolutely cannot happen. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

(The big theological term for this, by the way, is "perseverance of the saints.")

Our key phrase is this, "neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." It is reiterated almost immediately as "no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand."

What that means for us is that there is no thing, no person, no power at all that can take away the property of Jesus Christ. That property is the sheep. Those sheep are Christians, all of the Christians that have ever lived or will ever live. For every Christian, the following three things will take place: they will hear the voice of the Shepherd, He will know them, and they will follow Him.

Once this has happened, it is a done deal. The very power and authority of God are the criteria by which we can be certain of it. We can see that in the words, "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all." God is greater than all. The word "all" in this verse even includes the sheep themselves. That means that even if they wanted to, the sheep could never remove themselves from the hand of the Father. He is the one whose authority and power are at stake. And we've already established that His power and authority trump anything, anything else.

Albert Barnes, whose commentaries I regularly read, said it much better than I ever could:

"It would be impossible for any language to teach more explicitly that the saints will persevere."

(Now you see why I gave you the big terminology, 'cause that's the language that the commentaries usually use.)

So what does all of this mean for us, or for our loved ones? Well, first let me say that not everyone who calls themselves a Christian actually is one. But in the case of a genuine conversion, a genuine calling, there is nothing that can undo what has been done. Even if the person goes on to fall into a terrible pit of sin, or experiences a great rebellion against God, it doesn't matter. If they are one of God's sheep, those offenses are totally forgiven.

The point of this post is not to lay out what means we have for determining if a conversion is genuine. That is a topic for another time.

The point today is that if the conversion was genuine, it is for all of eternity. If you need a few more verses to convince you, take a moment to read through these.

John 6:37

"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."

John 6:39-40

"This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

Isaiah 43:13

"Indeed before the day was, I am He;
And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I work, and who will reverse it?"

This is a serious issue, my dear reader. Imagine living in terror of losing your salvation. Imagine what it would be like to seriously believe that it could somehow all be taken away, and you could end up in Hell because you managed to "mess it up" somehow. Do you really think that God is so arbitrary with His sheep?

Well, I'll tell ya, if it was up to our ability to stick by God's side, the situation would not be nearly so secure. But the beautiful thing is that none of it depends on our ability to stick with God. All of it depends of His promises to stick with us. And He is in the business of keeping His promises.

Isaiah 43:1

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name;
You are Mine."

The Ark of the Covenant

2008-05-27T20:42:00.005-04:00

With the new Indiana Jones movie hitting theaters, I started thinking about that older Indiana Jones movie. You know, the one where he races against the evil Nazis to find the ark of the covenant. That scene, when the ark is opened by the bad guys, and their faces melt, is forever imprinted on the memory of my childhood. Never had a cooler or creepier movie been made as far as my preteen self was concerned.

And then last weekend, my husband and I watched a rather fascinating documentary about a man who set out to track down and discover the real ark of the covenant. He didn't find it. He did find something sort of like it that was about 800 years old (maybe 600, but pretty old nonetheless) which was located in modern day Zimbabwe.

A few days later, I came upon this verse in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 3:16

"Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days," says the LORD, "that they will say no more, "The ark of the covenant of the LORD". It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, not shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore."

Hmm. That last part, "nor shall it be made anymore" intrigued me. Does that mean that the original ark is now "unmade" and therefore doesn't even exist? I sure could have saved Mr. Documentary a whole heap of trouble if that were the case.

A couple of different commentaries seemed to think that that last phrase meant the ark wouldn't be repaired anymore. It would just sort of be forgotten and allowed to deteriorate. It is fairly certain that the ark was carried away during the Babylonian captivity, and we know that it was not restored when the temple was rebuilt. So I suppose that the physical form of the ark could possibly exist somewhere amidst undiscovered Babylonian or Assyrian treasures. But, I kind of doubt it. I think the thing has ceased to exist.

More importantly, though, is the reason that the original ark, and its current location, are completely irrelevant to us, except as a historical curiosity.

The ark served as God's dwelling place on earth. It was his figurative throne, and all of Judaism, with its intricate ceremonies and symbolism, revolved around it. The ark was so holy that touching it brought certain death. Only after going through excessive ritual cleansing could a priest approach the ark, and then only once a year, and then bearing blood to atone for Israel's sins.

Once, when the Philistines captured the ark,their cities were afflicted with tumors and plagues of rats. Nice. The Philistines returned it pretty quickly. Upon its return, the Israelites treated it casually, and they were struck dead. You can read the full story in 1 Sam 4-6. In other words, the ark was holy, precious and terrifying, all at the same time.

OK, but why is the ark now irrelevant? Quite simply, its because God doesn't dwell in it anymore. He has abandoned the ark for, what I think, is a much better throne: the hearts of His children.

1 Corinthians 3:16

"Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"

One more thing. The ark held several items: a golden pot with some manna in it, Aaron's rod that budded (Aaron was a priest), and the stone tablets on which were written the ten commandments (the law).

Well, guess what else God has put in our hearts besides His Spirit?

Jeremiah 31:33

"But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

Did you see that? The law, which was once written on tablets of stone and kept in a box, is now carved into our very hearts and minds. Amazing.

I suppose that I could stretch this post out and explain that we now receive manna directly from God through His daily provisions for us, and we are all priests, just as the budding rod of Aaron indicated. But, that would make this post waaaay too long. Maybe you could just take my word for it?

So, next time a friend of yours starts to muse about "whatever happened to the ark of the covenant," you can tell them exactly why it doesn't matter anymore. (What? You and your friends don't talk about stuff like that? What kind of friends do you have, anyway?)

Do you think I should write Mr. Documentary a letter and fill him in too?

Unchangeable

2008-05-26T16:26:00.003-04:00

There is a really big word that means God does not change. Immutable. That is the fancy word. But if you don't get into theology and its sometimes extremely complicated terminology, then you can just understand the definition of the word: God has never, and will never change. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

That means that the same God who walked with Adam in the Garden, told Noah to build the Ark, revealed Himself to Abraham and appeared to Moses in the burning bush is the exact same God that you and I pray to today. Talk about an incomprehensible idea. I have a hard enough time wrapping my mind around the fact that God was never created, He has always existed outside of of time and history (2 Pet 3:8.) Then, He never changes either?

I know that it is tempting to think that God somehow "changed" between the Old Testament and the New Testament, but He didn't.

Here are a few verses to consider.

Psalm 90:2

"Before the mountains were brought forth,
Or ever You had formed the earth and the world,
Even from everlasting to everlasting You are God."

From that we see that God existed apart from, and before, the earth was created. He has existed and will exist, from everlasting to everlasting.

In Hebrews 6:17, God's counsel is described as immutable. There is our big word again. The exact phrase is "the immutability of His counsel." All that means in easy language, is that God's purposes are unchangeable. The author of Hebrews is using the phrase to describe why God swore by Himself when He made His covenant with Abraham.

God wanted us to know that His covenant with Abraham was so infallible that He gave it a double security. Not only did God say it, and we know that God only speaks truth (John 17:17). But He also swore by Himself. Humans swear by a higher power when they make an oath. For God, there is no higher power, so instead He swore by His unchangeable and eternal nature.

So if God exists in eternity, and His purposes are never changed, then why would it follow that He or any part of Him would ever change? It just doesn't.

What did change was God's revelation to mankind. When Jesus came and sacrificed Himself on the cross for our sins, a new covenant was ushered in. Just as God divided the sacrificial animals and walked through their blood when He entered into covenant with Abraham (Gen 15:9-17), Jesus blood marked the onset of a new covenant for God's people.

Here is where it gets complicated, and way beyond the scope of this post to fully explore. The old covenant, the covenant of works, did not become void. What that means is that perfect righteousness, perfect adherence to the law, did not become unnecessary. All of those things are still required in order for us to receive the privilege of not only being reconciled to God, but being able to call on Him as our loving Abba Father.

Instead of becoming void, the old covenant of works became completed. Jesus fulfilled the old covenant by perfectly adhering to all of its (impossible for us) requirements. And then, oh! then! he credited His perfect work to us by covering us with His holy and righteous blood. It will never get better than that.

And so now, even though God has never changed, and He is the exact same God whose holiness demanded that he call up the Babylonian armies to utterly destroy His beloved Jerusalem, we are able to curl up on His lap as cherished children without any fear. We are able to take the most minute concern to Him in prayer, and He will hear us without fail. Because when He looks at us, we are perfect and holy. We are just as righteous in His sight as Jesus is.

No, God has never changed. And neither has His overwhelming love for us.

Jeremiah 31:3

"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you."

The Job We Don't Want

2008-05-23T16:32:00.005-04:00

I've been reading Jeremiah for the past week or so. I've got to tell you, its tough. It is some heavy, heavy stuff. It's kind of like watching a horror movie, and seeing that young woman, who you know is about to get whacked, walking slowly toward the strange sound she heard in the other room.

You want to scream out, "Stop! Don't do that! Turn around! Run!" And you might even. Scream, I mean. But it wouldn't do any good. That foolish girl is going to get it, and all you can do is watch in horror.

That is what I feel like while I'm reading Jeremiah. Those foolish Israelites are headed straight toward death and destruction, and they refuse to turn around. Poor Jeremiah is the prophet who is chosen to give them warning after warning about what is coming their way. But do they listen to him? Nope. They abuse him, they mock him, they beat him and imprison him.

This is not a man who came bearing popular news. But you know what? He came bearing the truth. And the truth was going to be told, whether the Israelites wanted to hear it or not. (They didn't, believe me.)

In Jeremiah 20:9, Jeremiah decides that he has had enough. He is tired of being mocked and abused, and he is just going to quit all this prophesying that has gotten him in so much trouble with his peers. Here is Jeremiah speaking in first person:

"Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name."
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.

I love that. God's Word was like a burning fire in his bones, and he couldn't keep it inside. He had to just get it out, not matter the cost.

Just a few verses later, Jeremiah indulges in a major pity party. Not that I blame him at all, it's hard to imagine feeling happy and joyful about such extreme persecution. But listen to the depth of his anguish in 20:14-18:

"Cursed be the day in which I was born!
Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
Let the man be cursed
Who brought news to my father, saying,
"A male child has been born to you!"
Making him very glad.
And let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew, and did not relent;
Let him hear the cry in the morning
And the shouting at noon,
Because he did not kill me from the womb,
That my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always enlarged with me.
Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow,
That my days should be consumed with shame?"

Was the cause of his great pain some kind of sin he committed? No, his pain came as a direct result of being a faithful servant of the LORD. That is probably a foreign thought to most of us. We usually imagine that being a great servant of the LORD is the kind of job that involves lots of glory, miracles, maybe even a book deal and a speaking gig. But that is not always true. In fact, its probably not even true most of the time.

Oh, don't get me wrong. It is the greatest privilege in this life to be called to serve God. And God always makes provision for us in whatever circumstances He gives us. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that serving God is always a bed of roses. The history of our religion is full of people who have endured severe persecution in order to serve God. Our current state of religious freedom is a historical anomaly, and even now there are millions of Christians who endure real persecution for their beliefs.

Poor Jeremiah. He had a rough job. But it turned out OK for him in the end. The LORD personally reassures Jeremiah in 15:21:

"I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible."

According to the study notes in my Bible, when all of Jeremiah's prophecies came true and Israel was decimated by Babylon, the Babylonian commander had a special order to take care of Jeremiah. Apparently his prophecies had spread far and wide and Nebuchadnezzar felt kindly toward the rebel prophet who kept telling Jerusalem that Babylon was going to win.

Hundreds of years later, Jesus told us, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

I bet Jeremiah is due for an amazing reward come Judgment Day.

Be Still and Know

2008-05-20T09:03:00.003-04:00

Psalm 46:10

"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"

If you are anything like me, you have heard this verse many times. And you have probably heard it used to convey the idea that when we are still and quiet, we can "hear from God." Or maybe it was used to encourage you to go to a quiet, still place to pray.

Would you be shocked if I told you that the verse has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with getting still, peaceful and quiet so you could hear from God?

The first time I read Psalm 46 in its entirety, I suspected that somehow verse 10 tended to be misapplied. You see, Psalm 46 is about God's strength and His glory and His power. It is a picture of His ability to totally vanquish His enemies. It also illustrates His sovereignty over the outcome of situations that are frightening to us.

We should see this from the way the Psalm starts out in verse 1:

"God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in time of trouble."

The focus is on God and His strength, His ability to provide refuge for us in times of trouble. In verses 2 and 3, great turmoil is described, with images of mountains falling into the sea, the earth being moved and the oceans roaring and troubled. And even in all of that, we are not to fear.

In verse 6, entire nations are raging, and kingdoms are rising and falling, and against all of this, God simply utters His voice. That small act of uttering the voice is so powerful that the earth melts in response. Whoa. All of the fury and power of the kingdoms of earth cannot even begin to withstand the power of God when He only opens His mouth and utters.

In verse 7 we are reminded that this same God, whose utterance of voice can melt the earth, is with us. He is our refuge. So what on earth should we be afraid of? If such a holy, consuming fire is on our side, what can possibly bring us harm?

Verses 8 and 9 again display God's mighty power. He makes desolations in the earth. He causes wars to cease. He is the one who thwarts all the weapons that man can create-bows and spears and chariots. They are all completely useless against God!

So why, then, does it make any sense at all, that suddenly in verse 10, we should associate the words "Be still and know that I am God," with quietness and meditation? That would be taking the verse totally out of the context of the rest of the Psalm.

Even the rest of the verse, "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth," is all about God's awesome power and glory. Not at all about us. And certainly not at all about us praying and "hearing from God."

I thought we should understand it to mean something more along the lines of: I am all-powerful! I am all-glorious! I will make myself known and exalted! Therefore, you small person without power and without glory, you be still and see ME in all of my power and all of my glory. THEN, remember that I am for you and against your enemies, and have NO fear. I can defeat them with only the power of my voice.

That's what I thought anyway. But then I read some commentary. And almost every single commentary I read said that we should understand the words, be still, as addressed to God's enemies, not God's people. Huh. That makes even my initial interpretation way off the mark.

It makes the sense of the verse more like this: All of you enemies of Me and My people, just be still, stop resisting. The outcome is certain. I will be victorious, I will be the one exalted. You will be defeated, and My children will be safe.

Who knew? I guess that is the trouble we can get ourselves into when we hear verses over and over again out of their context and start assigning meaning to them based on what they seem to be saying. It makes a strong case for opening up our Bibles and reading passages in the context in which they were meant to be understood. I've always known that, but even I was surprised at how off base the common understanding of this verse was.

Or maybe it was just me? Did all of you already know this?

By the way, this Psalm is the inspiration for the hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." It's one of my favorites.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

2008-05-16T15:54:00.002-04:00

You all know the verse from Psalm 23:4

"Yea, though I walk though the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

I've been thinking about death a lot over the past several days, and whenever I do, this verse keeps coming to mind. I've always thought of that imagery of the valley of the shadow of death as representing difficulty, fearful times or impending danger. But recently, I've taken a new perspective.

Every one of us is going to die. There is no escaping it. We are all born once, and we all die once. (Heb 9:27) Admittedly, there are some of us who will be alive on the day that Christ returns, and I suppose that technically those will not experience physical death, but will instead be changed. (1 Cor 15:51)

You could in fact say that we all live every single day of our lives smack dab in the middle of the valley of the shadow of death. Even on days when the world is awash with delight and brightness, still the shadow of death hangs overhead. We might ignore it or refuse to acknowledge the reality of it, but eventually it will become impossible to brush aside.

Just so you know, I'm not feeling morbid about death, just serious and reflective about it.

For the Christian, death shouldn't be frightening or dreaded. It should be seen as the beginning of real life, life in perfect union and fellowship with God, who is the author and creator of all life. This world, with all of its wonder and beauty, is still stained and imperfect. What is in store in a world free from the blemish of sin is hard for me to even imagine. But I know it will be wildly superior to this world.

What IS scary is the idea of those I love dying and leaving me here. That thought, I will admit, causes me some anxiety. But my own death, that is not a scary thought at all.

It might be a long while before it happens, and I certainly don't mean that I want to quit this life. I have so much to live for, so many things I want to do and see still. But I realize that all of those expectations pale in comparison to Heaven.

Grief and sadness at death are for those who are left behind here. Those who have gone on, if they belong to Christ, have nothing whatsoever to grieve over.

So while there is nothing we can do to prevent the shadow of physical death from hanging over our heads, that doesn't mean it must be a terrible thing. Real, everlasting, perfect, rejoicing life begins on the other side.

Matthew 4:16

"The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death
Light has dawned."

Isaiah 60:19-20

"The sun shall no longer be your light by day,
Nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you;
But the LORD will be to you an everlasting light,
And your God your glory.
Your sun shall no longer go down,
Nor shall your moon withdraw itself;
For the LORD will be your everlasting light,
And the days of your mourning shall end."

Planting and Watering

2008-05-13T16:47:00.003-04:00

1 Corinthians 3:6-8

"I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor."

I have never considered myself a "planter," or an evangelist of any kind. I don't think that I'm relieved of an obligation to declare the gospel; it's just that it's not a natural gift of mine. Some people are incredibly gifted in evangelism, and we tend to think of the evangelist as the ones with the glamorous side of the equation. At least I tend to think so.

The image of a missionary in a foreign country proclaiming the Good News and winning dozens of souls is highly romantic indeed. And there are people who literally do that. I'm just not one of them. But note in the verses above, that watering is an important job, too. That's what my passion is--watering, as in nurturing, encouraging, learning and teaching with other Christians.

We see that God is the one who is responsible for the outcome-Paul is the one who planted, Apollos is the one who watered, but God was divinely in charge of any growth that occurred. What a privilege it is that God even uses us at all. He could just make it happen, but He has chosen us as His divine instruments to accomplish His plan. And above and beyond the privilege of just being of use to God, there is more in store at the end, but we will get to that in a minute.

As I read these verses, another scripture immediately sprung to mind.

Isaiah 55: 10-11

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But is shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."

Notice that again we have the "watering" analogy, only this time God is the actual waterer. And the tool He uses to accomplish what He pleases is: His word. That is exactly what He still uses to accomplish what He pleases in the hearts of men. And sometimes, He uses one of His servants (that would be you and me) to proclaim His word and bring forth the increase/bud. (I say sometimes He uses us because, certainly, God could drive someone to pick up Scripture and read it without the influence of another person.)

But here is the amazing part for each of us, whether we are called to plant or to water.

Just to make the point fine, let me add here that God's word for us is the Bible, and the Bible alone. I don't want to cause any confusion on that score.

OK, did you notice the last part of the passage from 1 Corinthians? "And each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor" The part that I found so encouraging is that our reward is based on our labor, not on the outcome of our labor. See the difference?

One Christian may work diligently and be blessed to see massive fruit from the work he or she does. She may write books that get published, and receive dozens of letters thanking her for her godly influence every week. Or, he may see entire communities or families come to Christ and be thanked by them in this life.

On the other hand, another Christian may toil away without seeing much progress, without enjoying any outwardly apparent success.

But it doesn't matter what each of their outcomes are, because God takes responsibility for the outcomes. We are to do the work regardless of the outcomes. And in the end, it is not the results that get rewarded, it is the labor.

We can see this principle again in Matthew 25:23, when Jesus says during the telling of a parable, "well done, good and faithful servant." He doesn't say, well done good and successful servant. Nope, He says, well done good and faithful servant.

What a relief! And what an amazing twist. God is responsible for the outcome, and we get to receive a reward just for doing the labor.

The Children in the City

2008-05-10T20:56:00.005-04:00

If you have been reading my most recent posts, you will know that I have found myself in a time of intense healing and freedom from past sins. And since I'm going to be talking about that same subject yet again, I thought I might need to clarify some things, particularly for those of you who know me personally.

You might be tempted to let you imagination run wild and begin speculating about all of the horrendous things that must be lurking in my past. Don't do that. You'd be terribly disappointed anyway. Not that my sins, and the specific sins I have been dealing with, aren't terrible enough. But, the average run of the mill sinner has enough darkness in their heart, and enough bondage and slavery to sin, to scandalize all of us.

The thing is, I spent many, many years quite aware of my sin, but unwilling to treat it as harshly as it deserved to be treated. I took it lightly. I saw it through the lenses of our culture, which is exceedingly tolerant and encouraging of sin. I made excuses. I rationalized. Most of the time, I just plain ol' didn't think about my sin very much.

But when I began to, I was broken hearted. I saw and felt my sinfulness so clearly, it mourned me. It caused me deep grief. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." What I experienced is exactly the kind of mourning that Jesus was referring to. Mourning over the wretchedness of personal sin. The comforting is what comes after you have mourned properly.

So this is what brought me to tears yesterday. The comforting that God gives to us is so abundant, so full and consumingly rich, that we don't really believe it can happen until we've experienced it. We sort of think that, yeah, God can take away our sins, and forgive us of our sins, and then we can look forward to Heaven where we won't suffer from our sins anymore. What I have personally discovered is that God can not only forgive, and take away, and heal, but He can also make us completely whole again in spite of our sin. Praise the LORD. He can literally change us and make us a new creation. It happened to me. It has happened to me. It has really happened to me.

So, in Isaiah 49, in verses 15-21, there is a long description of the way that God is going to restore Israel after she has been devastated because of her sins. You have to read the following verses with a few things in mind to even begin to get a sense of the joy I have experienced. Just so you know, I read every commentary I could find to see if my personal application was somehow universally recognized. It's not, and you should know that. I'm not trying to press any kind of theological point here. I am just trying to express to you the way that these verses spoke to my heart and overwhelmed me with joy.

What you will read is an account of a city that has been devastated by destroyers and "swallowers up." If those two words aren't poetic descriptions of sin, I don't know what are. The children in this devastated city have all been taken away. Think of that as the real, practical consequences of sin. The LORD is then going to reestablish this destroyed city (me!) and fill it with so many children (abundant blessings) that the city is confused and stunned by the amount of children found within its walls.

All of a sudden, the city is so full of children that there isn't even enough room for all of them. That is exactly how I feel. I look around sometimes and think, where did all of this come from LORD? I was such a sinner, I offended you in so many ways. I did every wrong thing in the book. How is it that You could ever bless me like this?

OK, are you ready to read it now? Are you ready to try and understand what got me all worked up (in a good way) yesterday? It's kind of long, but worth the attention.

Isaiah 49: 15-21

"'Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
Your sons shall make haste;
Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
Shall go away from you.
Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
All these gather together and come to you.
As I live,' says the LORD,
'You shall surely clothe yourself with them all as an ornament,
And bind them on you as a bride does.

For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
The children you will have,
After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
'The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.'
Then you will say in your heart,
'Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?'"

I suppose I always believed abstractly that God could rebuild people, other people. You know, the ones that needed rebuilding. Not me.

When I finally opened my eyes and did an honest survey of the walls around my city, I saw the devastation. It was there all along. But somehow, I had been skipping around and having picnics in a bomb crater without even realizing it. That honest appraisal was the beginning of the rebuilding process. And it took a while, several years I would say. But one day I looked around again. And there were children stumbling over each other in my streets. Children I didn't deserve, but had anyway. And that, is bringing me to tears all over again.