I’ve been thinking recently about writing a bible study but I have several ideas and can’t seem to settle on one. I realize this doesn’t surprise most of you. I think as women because we are able to multi-task then we are naturally inclined to multiple things instead of one thing. In other words, it is hard for us to make a decision. I’d rather you not give me a choice. Take for instance the Hallmark store. This would be my kryptonite. If you want to totally paralyze me for several hours, this is the place to send me. Then, if you want to keep me captive for the rest of the week just tell me that I have to narrow it down to one card! I literally break out into a nervous sweat trying to choose a card that says exactly what I want it to say, in the way that I would say it, with the right amount of humor balanced with a subtle seriousness, in five lines or less for $2.99. (I could be way off on the price since I haven’t physically visited a Hallmark store in years.) Even after it is all said and done I will second guess my choice 105 times before the card ever makes it to the recipient. (I realize I may be alone in my insidiousness and if so, keep calm and carry on to the third paragraph.)
I just thank God for the provision of the “return”. If it weren’t for that I would be surrounded by a wealth of “buyers remorse” purchases. This is the exact reason why I can’t do these bargain basement, all or nothing, fight off the fanatics sales. Not only is there no time to ponder the choice but I end up grabbing something I already have two of in order to make sure that I get the deal! I am a marketers dream! BUT! I am wise to my own weaknesses and therefore, I am not a BOGO queen or a black Friday diva and if you have ever gotten a present from me it probably didn’t contain a card...now you know why!
Now, after all-that-you-never-wanted-to-know-and-weren’t-wanting-to-ask, I come to this question: Help me blog readers! I need to know what you struggle with most in your walk with the Lord and in your lives as Christian women. You don’t have to go into any detail just make the explanation plain enough for me to decipher! You can comment here, send me a message on FB or feel free to email me at scmcbride@msn.com. I will keep my ideas secret for now and see if the Lord solidifies anything with your answers. Thanks girlies! I look forward to hearing from you!
P.S. Maybe I should write about how to make a decision...what do you think?
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
It's Resurrection Day!!
As we celebrate Easter I am continually reminded the importance of knowing Jewish culture in order to understand the Bible. Just this week I was listening to a brief excerpt about the Garden of Gethsemane. I was unaware that the word “gethsemane” means olive press. I have always pictured in my mind the Garden of Gethsemane being a lush garden with flowers and trees, much like what we have here on the east coast. The truth is that the Garden of Gethsemane was located on the side of the Mount of Olives - good clue there for us - it wasn’t called the Mount of Olives because it was full of fig trees!
Olives, but most especially their oil, were a prized commodity in Jesus’ day. The oil of the olive was used for many purposes including cooking, medicine for wounds and anointing. It’s uses were diverse and varied so anyone who owned olives, but more importantly an olive press or “gethsemane” was typically wealthy.
Extraction was an arduous process. The olives were first cleaned and then mashed into a paste. From there, they were placed on the press. The press consisted of a circular stone basin with a flat top where the paste was spread out. Then a large stone, fashioned to look like a wheel, was rolled over the paste to press out the oil. The stone created intense pressure in order to extract the precious oil.
Jesus prayed in the garden of the “olive press” the night before He died. Do you think there was any coincidence that the most intense prayer He had ever prayed was in this place? Jesus was so pressed by the weight of the cup of God’s wrath that He poured drops of blood from His brow. When I think of how God put all of this together I realize He leaves nothing to spare. There is no randomness with our God. Even the place where Jesus prayed was named appropriately.
How much more can we draw from Jesus being poured out for us! I can’t help but think that just as olive oil is used for food, how much more is He the Bread of Life? Just as the oil is used for medicinal purposes, how much more is He our Healer? Just as olive oil is used for anointing, how much more is the anointing from the Holy Spirit of our God and King?
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was CRUSHED for our iniquities and the WEIGHT of our sin fell upon Him and by His stripes we are HEALED” (Isaiah 53:5)! When Jesus breathed His last He had emptied Himself completely, there was nothing left He could have given. He cried, “It is finished!” and indeed it was. For thirty-three years He had given all of Himself to fulfill His Father’s perfect will and He fulfilled it perfectly! He spared no expense in pouring His entire life out for the purpose of bringing redemption to all mankind. With every miracle, every word, every step He gave His full effort and when He finally made His way to the cross there was no exception. He laid down His life to the fullest, He bore my sin with everything that was in Him and when He died He was empty. No stone left unturned, no word left unspoken, no miracle left unperformed and no energy left unspent. He gave ALL!
Thank you Jesus that you lived and died to the fullest! Thank you that you did everything in obedience to your Father’s will and that you humbled yourself even unto death so that I might live! Thank you for the “gethsemane” of Golgotha that was the sweetest oil of grace poured out for undeserving sinners such as I!
“There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again. And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost its grip on me! For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ!”
Olives, but most especially their oil, were a prized commodity in Jesus’ day. The oil of the olive was used for many purposes including cooking, medicine for wounds and anointing. It’s uses were diverse and varied so anyone who owned olives, but more importantly an olive press or “gethsemane” was typically wealthy.
Extraction was an arduous process. The olives were first cleaned and then mashed into a paste. From there, they were placed on the press. The press consisted of a circular stone basin with a flat top where the paste was spread out. Then a large stone, fashioned to look like a wheel, was rolled over the paste to press out the oil. The stone created intense pressure in order to extract the precious oil.
Jesus prayed in the garden of the “olive press” the night before He died. Do you think there was any coincidence that the most intense prayer He had ever prayed was in this place? Jesus was so pressed by the weight of the cup of God’s wrath that He poured drops of blood from His brow. When I think of how God put all of this together I realize He leaves nothing to spare. There is no randomness with our God. Even the place where Jesus prayed was named appropriately.
How much more can we draw from Jesus being poured out for us! I can’t help but think that just as olive oil is used for food, how much more is He the Bread of Life? Just as the oil is used for medicinal purposes, how much more is He our Healer? Just as olive oil is used for anointing, how much more is the anointing from the Holy Spirit of our God and King?
“He was wounded for our transgressions, He was CRUSHED for our iniquities and the WEIGHT of our sin fell upon Him and by His stripes we are HEALED” (Isaiah 53:5)! When Jesus breathed His last He had emptied Himself completely, there was nothing left He could have given. He cried, “It is finished!” and indeed it was. For thirty-three years He had given all of Himself to fulfill His Father’s perfect will and He fulfilled it perfectly! He spared no expense in pouring His entire life out for the purpose of bringing redemption to all mankind. With every miracle, every word, every step He gave His full effort and when He finally made His way to the cross there was no exception. He laid down His life to the fullest, He bore my sin with everything that was in Him and when He died He was empty. No stone left unturned, no word left unspoken, no miracle left unperformed and no energy left unspent. He gave ALL!
Thank you Jesus that you lived and died to the fullest! Thank you that you did everything in obedience to your Father’s will and that you humbled yourself even unto death so that I might live! Thank you for the “gethsemane” of Golgotha that was the sweetest oil of grace poured out for undeserving sinners such as I!
“There in the ground His body lay, light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again. And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost its grip on me! For I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ!”
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The Day Between Friday and Sunday...
As we look today at the day of transition from Good Friday to Easter Morning I can only imagine the despair that plagued the spirit of Jesus’ disciples, the victory that reigned in the hearts of the Jews that had pleaded for His death and the satisfaction of the Father knowing that His eternal plan of redemption was just hours away from total fulfillment! What a dichotomy of feelings. I can’t help but think that many of the Sanhedrin went home that night to their families feeling as if they had just solved the world’s problems all in a day’s work! I’m sure there were some that thought the hour of darkness, the earthquake and the veil being torn in two were odd but the sense of accomplishment at having silenced Jesus probably quickly overrode any meditation on these things. As they touched their doorposts, sat down to their kosher meals and followed the law to the letter, Jesus’ body lay inside a borrowed tomb.
The Jews believed that the spirit of man hovered over the body for three days but on the third day that the deceased was truly dead and could be buried. In the tombs there were two chambers, an inner and an outer chamber. The body was laid in the outer chamber and then eventually moved to the inner chamber as decomposition took place. Because of Sabbath regulations, Jesus’ disciples did not have time on Good Friday to properly prepare His body for burial so He was placed in the tomb quickly until after the Sabbath. But Jesus’ spirit did not hover there. His earthly tent, the body that He created, had proved a good home for Him as He accomplished the plan set forth from eternity past. He left that broken, bruised and crushed shell to rejoin His Father until early on Easter morning.
Can you imagine the joy of reuniting with God the Father? Joy unspeakable as the necessary separation was finally over and the wrath of God was satiated! It is almost as if Jesus took that Sabbath Himself to rest with His Father before He resurrected to fulfill the last details of the plan of redemption. Oh death, where is thy sting? O hell, where is your victory? That is what I rest in today! Knowing that on this side of the cross I have the full story so I do not sorrow as unbelievers! I know that my Savior lives and there is no despair for today!
Indeed the Jews believed they had solved the world’s problem and theirs by crucifying Jesus...they were more right than they could have ever known!
The Jews believed that the spirit of man hovered over the body for three days but on the third day that the deceased was truly dead and could be buried. In the tombs there were two chambers, an inner and an outer chamber. The body was laid in the outer chamber and then eventually moved to the inner chamber as decomposition took place. Because of Sabbath regulations, Jesus’ disciples did not have time on Good Friday to properly prepare His body for burial so He was placed in the tomb quickly until after the Sabbath. But Jesus’ spirit did not hover there. His earthly tent, the body that He created, had proved a good home for Him as He accomplished the plan set forth from eternity past. He left that broken, bruised and crushed shell to rejoin His Father until early on Easter morning.
Can you imagine the joy of reuniting with God the Father? Joy unspeakable as the necessary separation was finally over and the wrath of God was satiated! It is almost as if Jesus took that Sabbath Himself to rest with His Father before He resurrected to fulfill the last details of the plan of redemption. Oh death, where is thy sting? O hell, where is your victory? That is what I rest in today! Knowing that on this side of the cross I have the full story so I do not sorrow as unbelievers! I know that my Savior lives and there is no despair for today!
Indeed the Jews believed they had solved the world’s problem and theirs by crucifying Jesus...they were more right than they could have ever known!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Fieldtrips are for kids..not parents!
Lausyn had a fieldtrip today to Natural Bridge. She was so excited this morning that she was ready 30 minutes before it was time to leave. She even tried to hurry Landon along which is the total opposite of most school days. Her main reason for being so excited rested on the fact that her Daddy was going with her! I was quickly kicked to the curb on this one. The day she found out about the trip she came home begging Kraig to go. At first, he didn’t think he would be able to work it out so she was willing to “settle” for me. However, a few days later Daddy came through and I was out on my ear!
So, I have to state this fact: “Fieldtrips are for kids, not for parents!” Fieldtrips are one of those things that we have idealistic dreams about until reality sets in! You always believe as a parent that you and your child will bond and you both will have fond memories of “remember when” for many years to come. Let me dispell that myth right now...WRONG! I had a good, hard laugh this morning as I was reminiscing with my sister about fieldtrips from yesteryear that we had chaperoned in our blissful ignorance. She fondly retold about her own trip to Natural Bridge with her son back in the fall. I will grace you with some of the details so that you may laugh as well:
First, if you haven’t been to Natural Bridge from here the road is almost one of comical proportions. It might as well be something right out of Looney Toons because it is so winding that you can see it almost double up on itself! Now, combine that along with the back of a school bus. Not just the back, but the very last seat, you know, the short one next to the death trap exit where there is no shock absorption and you don’t have one complete window to yourself - except for the back one of course. This is the seat that most kids love because they feel hidden, bounced around and able to stare piercingly at the cars behind them. Fast forward twenty years and that seat doesn’t hold the same level of fascination! To top it off, you are only one of two adults on this bus full of six year olds. You can imagine that the volume would be deafening! It was probably at this point that my sister was thanking Jesus he had blessed her with a hole in one of her ears, seriously!
She retells it this way, “I must have been white as a sheet because I was going to lose every bit of what I had in my stomach onto the little girl in front of me who would not sit still or be quiet for even one nano-second. I was trying to focus on one thing instead of everything that was moving around me, which was nearly impossible. The little bit of fresh air I could get was continuously blocked by another kid who was obsessed with putting his hands, head and almost half his body out of the window. To top it off, all I heard the whole trip was, ‘Mama, when are we....Mama, what are we...Mama, who are we...Mama, Mama, Mama!’” When the bus pulled in and she stumbled off the last step onto solid ground she immediately reached for her cell phone and in absolute joy found that she had a signal to which she feverishly began to text her husband: “I am never doing this again and by the way, can you come get me?”
I laughed until I cried because who can’t relate? There hasn’t been one fieldtrip that I have chaperoned that hasn’t left me totally whipped, ready for a straight jacket and some Nyquil by the time it was over! The funny thing is, I keep volunteering in hopes that this time will be different. Besides, I love having these experiences with my kids even if they don’t live up to my expectations because let’s face it, most of life doesn’t but, at least it makes for a good laugh! That’s a memory in and of itself!
So, in case you’re wondering how things faired for my sister - her husband didn’t come to get her but she did secure two seats in the front on the short bus coming home. She has another fieldtrip coming up next week and of course I encouraged her to attend. I don’t want to keep all the misery to myself!
So, I have to state this fact: “Fieldtrips are for kids, not for parents!” Fieldtrips are one of those things that we have idealistic dreams about until reality sets in! You always believe as a parent that you and your child will bond and you both will have fond memories of “remember when” for many years to come. Let me dispell that myth right now...WRONG! I had a good, hard laugh this morning as I was reminiscing with my sister about fieldtrips from yesteryear that we had chaperoned in our blissful ignorance. She fondly retold about her own trip to Natural Bridge with her son back in the fall. I will grace you with some of the details so that you may laugh as well:
First, if you haven’t been to Natural Bridge from here the road is almost one of comical proportions. It might as well be something right out of Looney Toons because it is so winding that you can see it almost double up on itself! Now, combine that along with the back of a school bus. Not just the back, but the very last seat, you know, the short one next to the death trap exit where there is no shock absorption and you don’t have one complete window to yourself - except for the back one of course. This is the seat that most kids love because they feel hidden, bounced around and able to stare piercingly at the cars behind them. Fast forward twenty years and that seat doesn’t hold the same level of fascination! To top it off, you are only one of two adults on this bus full of six year olds. You can imagine that the volume would be deafening! It was probably at this point that my sister was thanking Jesus he had blessed her with a hole in one of her ears, seriously!
She retells it this way, “I must have been white as a sheet because I was going to lose every bit of what I had in my stomach onto the little girl in front of me who would not sit still or be quiet for even one nano-second. I was trying to focus on one thing instead of everything that was moving around me, which was nearly impossible. The little bit of fresh air I could get was continuously blocked by another kid who was obsessed with putting his hands, head and almost half his body out of the window. To top it off, all I heard the whole trip was, ‘Mama, when are we....Mama, what are we...Mama, who are we...Mama, Mama, Mama!’” When the bus pulled in and she stumbled off the last step onto solid ground she immediately reached for her cell phone and in absolute joy found that she had a signal to which she feverishly began to text her husband: “I am never doing this again and by the way, can you come get me?”
I laughed until I cried because who can’t relate? There hasn’t been one fieldtrip that I have chaperoned that hasn’t left me totally whipped, ready for a straight jacket and some Nyquil by the time it was over! The funny thing is, I keep volunteering in hopes that this time will be different. Besides, I love having these experiences with my kids even if they don’t live up to my expectations because let’s face it, most of life doesn’t but, at least it makes for a good laugh! That’s a memory in and of itself!
So, in case you’re wondering how things faired for my sister - her husband didn’t come to get her but she did secure two seats in the front on the short bus coming home. She has another fieldtrip coming up next week and of course I encouraged her to attend. I don’t want to keep all the misery to myself!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
There's a Snake In My Boot!
It looked like Green Acres around our house yesterday. Zsa Zsa in her movie star sunglasses and her gardening gloves took to the weeds like a...movie star in sunglasses. It seems that every Saturday I have planned to get things cleaned out and ready for planting it has rained or been ridiculously cold! These 80 degree Mondays don’t help me much! So, Thursday I came home and cleaned the house feverishly so that I could have Friday to do some things outside. Admittedly, I spent most of the day SITTING in the sun but who’s watching?
As I was raking out the herb garden I came to a corner that was full of leaves and other debris from the winter piled a mile high next to our deck. Our deck sits pretty low to the ground so there is only about a foot distance between the bottom and the ground - just enough for critters and small vermin, varmints and other distasteful forms of rodents and/or reptiles. As I began to rake away the leaves I was pensive, standing a good four or five feet from the pile as I held the rake by the end of the handle. I gingerly pulled one layer back at a time, sure that I would meet my demise or lose an arm in the process.
At one point, I called out to Kraig and asked for his assurance that there wasn’t anything that would slither out of the leaves unexpectedly. True to form, he laughed and took every opportunity imaginable to make fun of my phobia! Thanks honey! But, he was also quick to say that anything that would have lived under that pile was probably long gone after all of the ruckus I had made in the process! Sure enough, by the time I finished, I hadn’t come across anything more frightening than an earth worm, a few snails and several bees that weren’t too happy with me!
While I was taking all of this care with making sure I didn’t encounter a real ssssnake...there I said it, snake - which by the way, I think are the most unnatural looking things in the world. The way they move, how they eat, the way they can fit themselves into the most peculiar positions. Needless to say, they creep me out! I will do all I can to avoid the path of a snake at all costs! Okay, don’t even act like you don’t know what I’m talking about!
Anyway, as I’m raking I got tickled with myself because I can only imagine how I looked! But then, it’s like the Holy Spirit said, “When was the last time you took this much caution to avoid the Serpent, your adversary, the Devil?” You know, Satan can cause us much worse than most snakes ever could but rarely do you see anyone running from him! Most of us don’t believe there is a devil and if we do we think he’s just a cunning man in a dark suit with a pitch fork and a cigar. (Think Hugh Heffner with a devious grin.) And, if we do believe he exists, we don’t know much about him. We have even given ourselves over to blaming God for sin and evil rather than the father of lies!
Scripture says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light! He is also described as the great deceiver, the tempter and the accuser. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Let me translate - he doesn’t look like the boogey man! He isn’t walking around with a name tag on his shirt that says, “Hello, my name is the devil!” No, instead he masquerades as fun, fleshly indulgences that satisfy our desires and leave us empty. It says in James 1:13-15 that “God cannot be tempted, nor does He tempt anyone but each one is tempted when he is led away by his own desires and enticed and when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and when sin is full grown it brings forth death!” Satan points the way for our desires and when our desires have been satisfied by sin he accuses us, shames us and condemns us over and over again!
Girls, know your adversary the devil! He “walks about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, resist him and he will flee from you” (1 Peter 5:8; James 4:7) Be circumspect! Walk around and around those things that seem tempting for the moment before you dive in! Ask yourself, “does this glorify the Lord or does this seem right in my own eyes? How could this choice affect me tomorrow, next week, ten years from now? He is there, just beneath the surface, waiting...but he won’t jump out and say “Sin is right this way, follow me” but rather “Has God really said ‘you shall not have...?’”
As I was raking out the herb garden I came to a corner that was full of leaves and other debris from the winter piled a mile high next to our deck. Our deck sits pretty low to the ground so there is only about a foot distance between the bottom and the ground - just enough for critters and small vermin, varmints and other distasteful forms of rodents and/or reptiles. As I began to rake away the leaves I was pensive, standing a good four or five feet from the pile as I held the rake by the end of the handle. I gingerly pulled one layer back at a time, sure that I would meet my demise or lose an arm in the process.
At one point, I called out to Kraig and asked for his assurance that there wasn’t anything that would slither out of the leaves unexpectedly. True to form, he laughed and took every opportunity imaginable to make fun of my phobia! Thanks honey! But, he was also quick to say that anything that would have lived under that pile was probably long gone after all of the ruckus I had made in the process! Sure enough, by the time I finished, I hadn’t come across anything more frightening than an earth worm, a few snails and several bees that weren’t too happy with me!
While I was taking all of this care with making sure I didn’t encounter a real ssssnake...there I said it, snake - which by the way, I think are the most unnatural looking things in the world. The way they move, how they eat, the way they can fit themselves into the most peculiar positions. Needless to say, they creep me out! I will do all I can to avoid the path of a snake at all costs! Okay, don’t even act like you don’t know what I’m talking about!
Anyway, as I’m raking I got tickled with myself because I can only imagine how I looked! But then, it’s like the Holy Spirit said, “When was the last time you took this much caution to avoid the Serpent, your adversary, the Devil?” You know, Satan can cause us much worse than most snakes ever could but rarely do you see anyone running from him! Most of us don’t believe there is a devil and if we do we think he’s just a cunning man in a dark suit with a pitch fork and a cigar. (Think Hugh Heffner with a devious grin.) And, if we do believe he exists, we don’t know much about him. We have even given ourselves over to blaming God for sin and evil rather than the father of lies!
Scripture says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light! He is also described as the great deceiver, the tempter and the accuser. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Let me translate - he doesn’t look like the boogey man! He isn’t walking around with a name tag on his shirt that says, “Hello, my name is the devil!” No, instead he masquerades as fun, fleshly indulgences that satisfy our desires and leave us empty. It says in James 1:13-15 that “God cannot be tempted, nor does He tempt anyone but each one is tempted when he is led away by his own desires and enticed and when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin and when sin is full grown it brings forth death!” Satan points the way for our desires and when our desires have been satisfied by sin he accuses us, shames us and condemns us over and over again!
Girls, know your adversary the devil! He “walks about as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, resist him and he will flee from you” (1 Peter 5:8; James 4:7) Be circumspect! Walk around and around those things that seem tempting for the moment before you dive in! Ask yourself, “does this glorify the Lord or does this seem right in my own eyes? How could this choice affect me tomorrow, next week, ten years from now? He is there, just beneath the surface, waiting...but he won’t jump out and say “Sin is right this way, follow me” but rather “Has God really said ‘you shall not have...?’”
Saturday, April 9, 2011
What's For Dinner?? Part Two
So, what was God’s reaction in all of this? It says in v. 10 that His anger was kindled GREATLY! He wasn’t just like, “Oh, I understand you’re tired of manna after all this time! I never thought about that, let me get you something else to eat.” You see, God is never pleased when we impose upon His unmerited goodness toward us. In His controlled, deliberate anger, God determined to answer their prayer but in a way they would never forget. It says in verses 18-20 that the Lord commanded the people to consecrate themselves because He was going to give them meat, “not for a day, not for two days, not even for a week but for one month until it came out of their nostrils and become loathsome to them.” That’s no joke! And indeed, in verses 31-33 it says that God brought a wind that swept in quail that surrounded the camp all around within a days journey in any direction! Not only that but it was stacked three feet high! The circumstances were so extreme that even the laziest people gathered 60-70 bushels.
The Israelites were so excited to see something other than manna that they crossed over from need to greed! They collected manna for 36 hours! I don’t know about you, but I have never spent more than a few hours in one grocery trip and I wasn’t that excited about it to begin with! But, their fanaticism and greed displeased the Lord and while they were in the midst of taking their first, long awaited bite of meat, the bite they had salivated over while plucking and preparing, the Lord brought a severe plague to them. Don’t you imagine that this had to be some kind of stomach flu since God said it would become loathsome to them?
Let’s hit the pause button for a second while they are still chewing...do you remember the last time you had the stomach flu? Do you remember what you ate just before that made its way back up? How long did it take you to be able to eat that food again? When I was 15 I got sick after eating KFC. It has taken me 20 years to be able to eat a piece of fried chicken...and only in desperate situations like when there is nothing else to eat and I am thinking my arm might be okay with a little bit of salt! Needless to say, it is hard to find things palatable again once you have gotten sick from eating them.
However, God didn’t just take away the quail after the plague hit, they had to continue to eat this for another 29 days! The alternative: starve! There’s no biblical basis for this but it would seem highly likely that God took away the manna during this period so that even if they had wanted manna it wasn’t there for the taking. Can you imagine, approximately 5000 years prior to the Frigidare, the stench that lay over the camp? Can you imagine day 29 when you were preparing your last quail? Possibly it would take 5 - 10 decent sized birds to even fill up a grown man. At that rate, with an average of 2 meals a day, you would have cleaned and prepared a minimum of 300 birds for just one person! Get the picture?
Just because we don’t get all this detail in scripture doesn’t mean we don’t have enough information to fill in the blanks! The point to be grasped here is this: God is not okay with ungrateful people! These were His chosen people and they received stiff consequences for their disobedience! We as believers are His children and although He loves us, He will not allow us to continue in a spirit of greed, envy, jealousy and overall thanklessness. If you have read this post and you are convicted, act on that in repentance and make today the day you turn it around. Learn it off the pages of Numbers through the example of the Israelites instead of taking the field trip! God’s spankings are just and fair but they are not experiences we will soon forget! In closing, a bit of advice (for me and for you): Go fix dinner and be grateful for all of the wonderful variety that you have to work with and if your family complains, serve a little Numbers 11 for dessert!!
The Israelites were so excited to see something other than manna that they crossed over from need to greed! They collected manna for 36 hours! I don’t know about you, but I have never spent more than a few hours in one grocery trip and I wasn’t that excited about it to begin with! But, their fanaticism and greed displeased the Lord and while they were in the midst of taking their first, long awaited bite of meat, the bite they had salivated over while plucking and preparing, the Lord brought a severe plague to them. Don’t you imagine that this had to be some kind of stomach flu since God said it would become loathsome to them?
Let’s hit the pause button for a second while they are still chewing...do you remember the last time you had the stomach flu? Do you remember what you ate just before that made its way back up? How long did it take you to be able to eat that food again? When I was 15 I got sick after eating KFC. It has taken me 20 years to be able to eat a piece of fried chicken...and only in desperate situations like when there is nothing else to eat and I am thinking my arm might be okay with a little bit of salt! Needless to say, it is hard to find things palatable again once you have gotten sick from eating them.
However, God didn’t just take away the quail after the plague hit, they had to continue to eat this for another 29 days! The alternative: starve! There’s no biblical basis for this but it would seem highly likely that God took away the manna during this period so that even if they had wanted manna it wasn’t there for the taking. Can you imagine, approximately 5000 years prior to the Frigidare, the stench that lay over the camp? Can you imagine day 29 when you were preparing your last quail? Possibly it would take 5 - 10 decent sized birds to even fill up a grown man. At that rate, with an average of 2 meals a day, you would have cleaned and prepared a minimum of 300 birds for just one person! Get the picture?
Just because we don’t get all this detail in scripture doesn’t mean we don’t have enough information to fill in the blanks! The point to be grasped here is this: God is not okay with ungrateful people! These were His chosen people and they received stiff consequences for their disobedience! We as believers are His children and although He loves us, He will not allow us to continue in a spirit of greed, envy, jealousy and overall thanklessness. If you have read this post and you are convicted, act on that in repentance and make today the day you turn it around. Learn it off the pages of Numbers through the example of the Israelites instead of taking the field trip! God’s spankings are just and fair but they are not experiences we will soon forget! In closing, a bit of advice (for me and for you): Go fix dinner and be grateful for all of the wonderful variety that you have to work with and if your family complains, serve a little Numbers 11 for dessert!!
Friday, April 8, 2011
What's For Dinner?? Part One
I think it is safe to say that I could live out the rest of my life never having to think about what is for dinner again. Or, hearing the question, “What’s for dinner?” Followed by a myriad of responses that range from utter joy to total disdain and despair. Inevitably, I try to keep things varied, quick and nutritious but alas, nothing ever seems to rival the frozen pizza. I believe it holds top place among the members of this house. Cheese, pepperoni and a side of grease is always devoured with delight! My mother-in-law is quick to put things in perspective for me. After 53 years of marriage, which computes to roughly 55,000 meals, in case you were wondering, twelve piddly years of marriage at only one meal a day seems extremely pawtry. Here’s a woman who made a full breakfast every morning, packed everyone’s lunch and had dinner on the table promptly at 5:30p.m. complete with steam and a smile. I imagine over 53 years the smile has faded and slowly been downgraded by gravity. I’m working hard to keep mine at a consistent smirk!
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking, when I have the time - which isn’t very often. I just don’t like trying to be creative, while satisfying a group of extremely diverse palates. I have the 8 year old who is the pasta queen. She could survive off of boxed mac and cheese, spaghettios and ramen noodles. Then there is the 11 year old who literally has three food groups: peanut butter, jelly and balsamic vinegar...oh and bread for the pb&j so that ups the count to four. He can eat anything as long as one of these ingredients is included. It is a good night if he gets two or more together at once. The third is a forty-something year old who likes meat, potatoes and cookies, Oreos to be precise. Although he is branching out into onions, peppers and sauteed spinach, he can still give a good huff when we have something less than his favorite. I have to say they all do love candy, candy corn, candy canes and syrup (all you “Elf” fans will know what I’m talking about). So, the perfect meal would be meat, potatoes, ramen noodles, balsamic vinegar and plenty of sugar for dessert...every night. As for me, I don’t really care as long as it is quick, contains parts of most of the five basic food groups and doesn’t wreck my diet for the entire year!
I wonder if the Lord had this issue when He was determining what to feed the people in the wilderness? Was manna the ultimate super food? It would most certainly have been to sustain them for three years! It would most likely have contained the right balance of protein, carbs, vitamins and minerals in order to keep the Israelites healthy and strong. Remember, they weren’t heading to the gym in order to keep their weight down! They weren’t training for marathons or tri-athalons, they had to exert physical energy just to stay alive! They had to collect the manna, grind it, make it into cakes and cook it. They were constantly consumed with daily tasks to keep the camp running. Sweeping out the tents, gathering wood, fetching water, maintaining the tabernacle...just to name a few. Other than observing the Sabbath day, there wasn’t much time for rest. Not to mention the fact that every few months they were pulling up camp to journey on to the next location, only to go through the whole ritual again. Glamourous lifestyle huh? I have to say that I wouldn’t have been too thrilled with it myself. Actually, I think I probably would have been a token Israelite, complete with complaints, dissatisfaction, ungratefulness and a not so favorable opinion of manna!
All of this is good for a LOL and even a “thank you Jesus that I’m living in 2011!” But truthfully, not much has changed about the human condition. We look at those people and think, “How ungrateful, how dissatisfied, how influenced and fearful and unbelieving and idolatrous they were!” Newsflash: Even Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun!” People haven’t changed just because the age of technology has made life easier. On the contrary, we are more ungrateful, dissatisfied, influenced, fearful, unbelieving and idolatrous!
I’ve been studying Numbers 11 about the Israelites complaints against God and His provision of manna. I have seen myself in these scriptures and been brought to conviction over my ungrateful attitude and lack of humility over what God has so graciously provided for me. I like to think I don’t walk around a complaining bundle of angst but in my own way, in my own heart, I have been ungrateful. I have been envious of what others seem to have over me. I have judged how my neighbor spends her time, talent and treasure. I have coveted and desired the blessings of another over my own. I have WANTED someone else’s blessing! This, girls, is dangerous territory! We are trampling on the goodness and wisdom and grace of our Lord, just as the Israelites did so many years ago.
To be continued...
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy cooking, when I have the time - which isn’t very often. I just don’t like trying to be creative, while satisfying a group of extremely diverse palates. I have the 8 year old who is the pasta queen. She could survive off of boxed mac and cheese, spaghettios and ramen noodles. Then there is the 11 year old who literally has three food groups: peanut butter, jelly and balsamic vinegar...oh and bread for the pb&j so that ups the count to four. He can eat anything as long as one of these ingredients is included. It is a good night if he gets two or more together at once. The third is a forty-something year old who likes meat, potatoes and cookies, Oreos to be precise. Although he is branching out into onions, peppers and sauteed spinach, he can still give a good huff when we have something less than his favorite. I have to say they all do love candy, candy corn, candy canes and syrup (all you “Elf” fans will know what I’m talking about). So, the perfect meal would be meat, potatoes, ramen noodles, balsamic vinegar and plenty of sugar for dessert...every night. As for me, I don’t really care as long as it is quick, contains parts of most of the five basic food groups and doesn’t wreck my diet for the entire year!
I wonder if the Lord had this issue when He was determining what to feed the people in the wilderness? Was manna the ultimate super food? It would most certainly have been to sustain them for three years! It would most likely have contained the right balance of protein, carbs, vitamins and minerals in order to keep the Israelites healthy and strong. Remember, they weren’t heading to the gym in order to keep their weight down! They weren’t training for marathons or tri-athalons, they had to exert physical energy just to stay alive! They had to collect the manna, grind it, make it into cakes and cook it. They were constantly consumed with daily tasks to keep the camp running. Sweeping out the tents, gathering wood, fetching water, maintaining the tabernacle...just to name a few. Other than observing the Sabbath day, there wasn’t much time for rest. Not to mention the fact that every few months they were pulling up camp to journey on to the next location, only to go through the whole ritual again. Glamourous lifestyle huh? I have to say that I wouldn’t have been too thrilled with it myself. Actually, I think I probably would have been a token Israelite, complete with complaints, dissatisfaction, ungratefulness and a not so favorable opinion of manna!
All of this is good for a LOL and even a “thank you Jesus that I’m living in 2011!” But truthfully, not much has changed about the human condition. We look at those people and think, “How ungrateful, how dissatisfied, how influenced and fearful and unbelieving and idolatrous they were!” Newsflash: Even Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun!” People haven’t changed just because the age of technology has made life easier. On the contrary, we are more ungrateful, dissatisfied, influenced, fearful, unbelieving and idolatrous!
I’ve been studying Numbers 11 about the Israelites complaints against God and His provision of manna. I have seen myself in these scriptures and been brought to conviction over my ungrateful attitude and lack of humility over what God has so graciously provided for me. I like to think I don’t walk around a complaining bundle of angst but in my own way, in my own heart, I have been ungrateful. I have been envious of what others seem to have over me. I have judged how my neighbor spends her time, talent and treasure. I have coveted and desired the blessings of another over my own. I have WANTED someone else’s blessing! This, girls, is dangerous territory! We are trampling on the goodness and wisdom and grace of our Lord, just as the Israelites did so many years ago.
To be continued...
Monday, April 4, 2011
Teaching our Girls How to Shop, Amen!
Shopping. Don’t you just love how the word rolls right off your tongue? I have rarely met a woman who doesn’t love to shop or at least dabble in it every once in a while. Even from toddlerhood most little girls begin to gravitate toward accessories and feminine touches. This fetish rarely subsides as we age. There is something that just feeds us as women when it comes to shopping. It appeals to all of the senses and can easily be as good as any medical cure for what ails you!
My daughter is eight. She has discovered Justice. Need I say more? What a retail paradise for little girls! I have to admit that at times it is more fun for me to go there and shop with her than it is to shop for myself! I am immediately transported back to a time when everything had to be pink, frilly and sparkly. (I still favor all of these adjectives when shopping as an adult...I just try to keep the squealing confined...to my head!) However, since our first purchase at Justice, which I think was a $6 bottle of mood changing nail polish, (yes, I have used it myself, unashamedly EEEK!) they have been automatically sending us direct mail circulars not quarterly, not even monthly but weekly! Within the last month we have gotten no less than three mini-catalogues containing coupons galore. No one can say these marketing people don’t know what they’re doing. My daughter is even sold and this is evidenced by the way she so subtly places the coupon, catalog and her “wish list” right next to the coffee pot. She knows this is the one place I will inevitably visit multiple times in one day and so she cunningly implements her plan!
Now, I have to laugh as I type this because this genetic disposition is clearly my fault! If anyone has ever seen my shoe collection there will be no doubt as to the origin of her fascination. Although I have had to learn to temper my shopping sprees as her list of expenses grows, I find that this is something we enjoy as mother and daughter. It doesn’t have to be anything huge, just time spent together, sharing our opinions, laughter and love for all things pink! I have also taken it as an opportunity to teach her about modesty, being a good steward of her money and being a wise shopper. These are all things that the word of God encourages us to do. So, even if she is just shopping for earrings the lessons will hopefully transfer over to larger purchases as she grows and shops on her own.
I feel a fabulous analogy coming on Moms! I will have to say that I have heard, more than once, over the last few months a lot of talk about allowing our children to choose for themselves. Some of us are still holding on to resentment from a strict childhood all these years later and we are making decisions based on being friends with our children instead of parents! I have to qualify, that my children are still young. We have not hit the teen years and as of now the unpopular decisions we make as parents are not causing a severe amount of backlash, at this point. However, I have no doubt that with these two being MY children that this will not last long. (This is where I have to say, thank the Lord for Daddys!) Anyway, with that being stated, I still see so much harm in this whole philosophy first and foremost because it isn’t biblical! Need I say more? But aside from that, I am face to face with many teenagers on a weekly basis through the pregnancy center that are products of parents who are still rebelling themselves! (Side note: I am not saying that this means your child will become pregnant out of wedlock!) The pregnancy is just a symptom of a greater problem. You want to know the irony? Most of them WANT their parents to be their parents! I sat across from a young lady not long ago that said, “My Mom let’s me do whatever I want. I used to have rules but not anymore. I feel like she has just given up, that she doesn’t even want to be my Mom anymore!” How’s that for “my kids don’t listen to me, don’t care what I say and don’t want me to be their parent??”
It is inherent within our sinful flesh to buck the system and rebel against authority. BUT, there is also something within our hearts that makes us feel safe when we have rules and guidelines. Without rules, without laws to protect and govern we would all be lawless. What is there to restrain people without rules? If there was no law to give us the standard of right and wrong and the judicial system to back it up then people would all do what they wanted! Can you imagine the state of our world if that occurred? Murders, theft and all kinds of debauchery would abound! Thank God for rules! Thank God for the law that keeps us safe!
Moms, if we could be eyeball to eyeball I would say this, “You are the parent for a reason!” God has given you this child for you to PARENT!” If children could decide on their own they wouldn’t need parents! Scripture uses words like “train”, “discipline”, “instruct” and “guide” when it comes to parenting. If He had not meant for you to parent He would not have given you this child nor would He have made it so that YOU would be held accountable for their upbringing. Listen, we have so many spheres of influence but none greater than with our children, use it for good! Don’t give up, don’t grow lax, don’t cower! Be courageous and stand firm in the power that the Lord has given you!
So, before you think I’m totally off on a rabbit trail, how does this apply to shopping? You’ve already been to the mall! And probably more than once! Wouldn’t it seem wise to instruct your daughter (children) where to shop? Wouldn’t you tell her what stores charged too high a price or which ones sold cheap merchandise? Wouldn’t you tell her which stores had the best deals and which ones are your favorite? Of course you would! We do this with even the most mundane things in life... “brush your teeth, eat your veggies, get a good nights rest.” So, why, pray tell, would we leave the greater things undone???? Things like relationships, marriage, motherhood, purity and above all ETERNITY? I don’t trust my children, at 8 and 11, to decide anything decent apart from my instruction. They wouldn’t know to brush their teeth by osmosis! They wouldn’t know to eat their veggies if they hadn’t been taught. If they had to choose they would stay up until 2 a.m. every night playing video games and watching t.v.! Most of us have twenty plus years of wisdom, and just plain living, up under us that can benefit our children. Why would you withhold that wisdom from them? Why wouldn’t you tell them? Why?
So, I implore you, indeed I plead with you for our children! Be honest with them. Be open with them about failures and forgiveness and God’s grace in your own life. You don’t even realize the power, the God-given power that you have as a mother to influence the life of your child - for good or for evil. Pray that the Lord would equip you with wisdom, courage, boldness and an unwavering consistency to all that is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and praiseworthy (Phillipians 4:8)!
Scripture says in Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to themselves brings shame to their mother.” Moms, God has given you a special relationship to your children. The world is trying to sell our daughters (and our sons) a bag of goods that are cheap and come at a price that they cannot afford to pay. We have to speak up! After all of these years, what would you have said to yourself twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, ten years ago? Say it! Speak the truth about the lies of television, movies, internet and culture as a whole. Call them on the carpet and proclaim, “This is not good for you, this is not true and this is sin!” Let’s be diligent in teaching our daughters how to shop. Let’s help them get the best deals with no buyers remorse! You have the knowledge, use it and use it wisely!
My daughter is eight. She has discovered Justice. Need I say more? What a retail paradise for little girls! I have to admit that at times it is more fun for me to go there and shop with her than it is to shop for myself! I am immediately transported back to a time when everything had to be pink, frilly and sparkly. (I still favor all of these adjectives when shopping as an adult...I just try to keep the squealing confined...to my head!) However, since our first purchase at Justice, which I think was a $6 bottle of mood changing nail polish, (yes, I have used it myself, unashamedly EEEK!) they have been automatically sending us direct mail circulars not quarterly, not even monthly but weekly! Within the last month we have gotten no less than three mini-catalogues containing coupons galore. No one can say these marketing people don’t know what they’re doing. My daughter is even sold and this is evidenced by the way she so subtly places the coupon, catalog and her “wish list” right next to the coffee pot. She knows this is the one place I will inevitably visit multiple times in one day and so she cunningly implements her plan!
Now, I have to laugh as I type this because this genetic disposition is clearly my fault! If anyone has ever seen my shoe collection there will be no doubt as to the origin of her fascination. Although I have had to learn to temper my shopping sprees as her list of expenses grows, I find that this is something we enjoy as mother and daughter. It doesn’t have to be anything huge, just time spent together, sharing our opinions, laughter and love for all things pink! I have also taken it as an opportunity to teach her about modesty, being a good steward of her money and being a wise shopper. These are all things that the word of God encourages us to do. So, even if she is just shopping for earrings the lessons will hopefully transfer over to larger purchases as she grows and shops on her own.
I feel a fabulous analogy coming on Moms! I will have to say that I have heard, more than once, over the last few months a lot of talk about allowing our children to choose for themselves. Some of us are still holding on to resentment from a strict childhood all these years later and we are making decisions based on being friends with our children instead of parents! I have to qualify, that my children are still young. We have not hit the teen years and as of now the unpopular decisions we make as parents are not causing a severe amount of backlash, at this point. However, I have no doubt that with these two being MY children that this will not last long. (This is where I have to say, thank the Lord for Daddys!) Anyway, with that being stated, I still see so much harm in this whole philosophy first and foremost because it isn’t biblical! Need I say more? But aside from that, I am face to face with many teenagers on a weekly basis through the pregnancy center that are products of parents who are still rebelling themselves! (Side note: I am not saying that this means your child will become pregnant out of wedlock!) The pregnancy is just a symptom of a greater problem. You want to know the irony? Most of them WANT their parents to be their parents! I sat across from a young lady not long ago that said, “My Mom let’s me do whatever I want. I used to have rules but not anymore. I feel like she has just given up, that she doesn’t even want to be my Mom anymore!” How’s that for “my kids don’t listen to me, don’t care what I say and don’t want me to be their parent??”
It is inherent within our sinful flesh to buck the system and rebel against authority. BUT, there is also something within our hearts that makes us feel safe when we have rules and guidelines. Without rules, without laws to protect and govern we would all be lawless. What is there to restrain people without rules? If there was no law to give us the standard of right and wrong and the judicial system to back it up then people would all do what they wanted! Can you imagine the state of our world if that occurred? Murders, theft and all kinds of debauchery would abound! Thank God for rules! Thank God for the law that keeps us safe!
Moms, if we could be eyeball to eyeball I would say this, “You are the parent for a reason!” God has given you this child for you to PARENT!” If children could decide on their own they wouldn’t need parents! Scripture uses words like “train”, “discipline”, “instruct” and “guide” when it comes to parenting. If He had not meant for you to parent He would not have given you this child nor would He have made it so that YOU would be held accountable for their upbringing. Listen, we have so many spheres of influence but none greater than with our children, use it for good! Don’t give up, don’t grow lax, don’t cower! Be courageous and stand firm in the power that the Lord has given you!
So, before you think I’m totally off on a rabbit trail, how does this apply to shopping? You’ve already been to the mall! And probably more than once! Wouldn’t it seem wise to instruct your daughter (children) where to shop? Wouldn’t you tell her what stores charged too high a price or which ones sold cheap merchandise? Wouldn’t you tell her which stores had the best deals and which ones are your favorite? Of course you would! We do this with even the most mundane things in life... “brush your teeth, eat your veggies, get a good nights rest.” So, why, pray tell, would we leave the greater things undone???? Things like relationships, marriage, motherhood, purity and above all ETERNITY? I don’t trust my children, at 8 and 11, to decide anything decent apart from my instruction. They wouldn’t know to brush their teeth by osmosis! They wouldn’t know to eat their veggies if they hadn’t been taught. If they had to choose they would stay up until 2 a.m. every night playing video games and watching t.v.! Most of us have twenty plus years of wisdom, and just plain living, up under us that can benefit our children. Why would you withhold that wisdom from them? Why wouldn’t you tell them? Why?
So, I implore you, indeed I plead with you for our children! Be honest with them. Be open with them about failures and forgiveness and God’s grace in your own life. You don’t even realize the power, the God-given power that you have as a mother to influence the life of your child - for good or for evil. Pray that the Lord would equip you with wisdom, courage, boldness and an unwavering consistency to all that is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent and praiseworthy (Phillipians 4:8)!
Scripture says in Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to themselves brings shame to their mother.” Moms, God has given you a special relationship to your children. The world is trying to sell our daughters (and our sons) a bag of goods that are cheap and come at a price that they cannot afford to pay. We have to speak up! After all of these years, what would you have said to yourself twenty years ago, fifteen years ago, ten years ago? Say it! Speak the truth about the lies of television, movies, internet and culture as a whole. Call them on the carpet and proclaim, “This is not good for you, this is not true and this is sin!” Let’s be diligent in teaching our daughters how to shop. Let’s help them get the best deals with no buyers remorse! You have the knowledge, use it and use it wisely!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
When God Breaks Your Heart, Part Two
If you are just tuning in, please read the previous blog post for clarity...thanks!
Continued from Part One:
I would like to say that after three years I am a prayer warrior and that I have all of the answers and that I have learned to pray like a champ but I can’t give you that. I can tell you that I am more consistent in prayer but the tone of my prayers are vastly different from what they were before. The Lord used those times to pull some things out of me that needed to go! He refined me in the fire of tribulation and I won’t lie, it wasn’t fun! Even the writer of Hebrews said, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). God wasn’t so much teaching me about prayer in that time as He was about Himself! Truthfully, I’d be lying if I said I have reached the pinnacle of James 1:2 where I can say that I “count it all joy when I fall into various trials.” I don’t enjoy trials. But, the Lord really used this to separate the wheat from the waste in my life.
I felt compelled to share a handful of things that I hope will be an anchor to you in the storm of a divinely broken heart:
1 - God is sovereign. This is either a comfort or a concern to you but mainly it depends on how you look at His sovereignty. Someone has to have ultimate authority. It will either be Him or Him. That isn’t a typo! Most of the control we think we have is an illusion. The reality is, HE IS IN CONTROL! But, along with that, He knows the beginning from the end. He isn’t running our lives blindly not knowing what tomorrow holds. All things that are mysteries to us are known to Him. In reality, if we are going to serve Him with any amount of trust at all we are going to have to be okay with not knowing all the answers, we just are! You know, He even knows us better than we know ourselves so we may be praying for something we think that we want so desperately and He knows it isn’t at all what we want! And, He is HOLY. Totally without sin or any evil thing. He is light and in Him is no darkness!
2 - Prayer is the means by which God accomplishes His will. Let’s face it, there are times when we pray for something and God grants us what we have requested and it builds our faith. If we had not prayed and asked then this cause/effect would not have occurred. Often times prayer is a great faith-builder. Prayer also teaches us perseverance. Think about a long delay in an answered prayer. Our perseverance is increased. Perseverance is absolutely necessary for the Christian life.
3 - Breaking our hearts makes us more like Christ. The scripture says that Jesus “was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3) Are there any two words that paint a picture of a broken heart like sorrow and grief? God’s will for our lives is our sanctification which simply means becoming more like Christ. Because we know how the story ends, that Jesus has risen from the dead and will come again, we picture partaking in His victory without the suffering. Jesus is King but He came as a suffering servant first. In order to taste the victory we must endure the suffering that paves the road to it. Take comfort in the fact that the victory is already sure and HE IS COMING!
4 - His glory is always His motive. God does not work based on our wants, desires or needs if they are for anything other than His glory. He is totally sold out for His glory in all things. So much so, that He takes sin and ultimately uses it for His glory. And rightfully so! He is God and there is none besides Him. He alone is worthy, holy and righteous, unlike us. So you can take this to the spiritual bank - if it is not going to bring Him glory, He is not going to endorse it, girls!
5 - His ways are not our ways. God doesn’t even think like we do. Yes, we are made in His image but scripture is clear that His thoughts are higher than ours. It says in Isaiah 40:13-14 “Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?” We see things from a human, temporal perspective. God sees things from an omnipotent, eternal, kingdom perspective. His moving in our lives is for the proclamation of His gospel and the exaltation of His Son. His word has always been about redemption through Jesus Christ and His eternal kingdom. Anything aside from that is a second class request. Not to say that He doesn’t answer those requests but that is not His main concern. However, we have a tendency to make these second class requests first class for us in prayer. Rarely do we spend time in prayer consumed with His Kingdom, His Gospel and His Coming.
Lastly and simply, God commands us to pray. Plain and simple, no explanation needed. Sometimes you just have to do the thing whether you understand or not. In this world where we cannot get away from suffering we need an anchor for our souls. People are hurting and struggling in many ways that we cannot know or understand. However, often times we hope in the answer instead of the God who provides the answer. Instead of waiting on the thing, we need to wait on the Lord. I know that’s tough but true nonetheless.
So, where does this leave us when our hearts are in our hands? It leaves us asking ourselves this: Is God good? To which we should then ask, “What does His word say?” Then, “Do I believe His word?” From here, I must choose to trust even when I don’t understand, even when it hurts, even when I can’t see the end from the beginning because He does! Ultimately, God is good. Whether we choose to believe that or not doesn’t change it, although He wants us to believe Him. Because, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Maybe right now you aren’t very interested in pleasing God. Your heart has been broken and you have more questions than answers. Ask Him to equip you with faith unto belief, to help your unbelief and then begin right now to think your way into feeling. “For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Continued from Part One:
I would like to say that after three years I am a prayer warrior and that I have all of the answers and that I have learned to pray like a champ but I can’t give you that. I can tell you that I am more consistent in prayer but the tone of my prayers are vastly different from what they were before. The Lord used those times to pull some things out of me that needed to go! He refined me in the fire of tribulation and I won’t lie, it wasn’t fun! Even the writer of Hebrews said, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). God wasn’t so much teaching me about prayer in that time as He was about Himself! Truthfully, I’d be lying if I said I have reached the pinnacle of James 1:2 where I can say that I “count it all joy when I fall into various trials.” I don’t enjoy trials. But, the Lord really used this to separate the wheat from the waste in my life.
I felt compelled to share a handful of things that I hope will be an anchor to you in the storm of a divinely broken heart:
1 - God is sovereign. This is either a comfort or a concern to you but mainly it depends on how you look at His sovereignty. Someone has to have ultimate authority. It will either be Him or Him. That isn’t a typo! Most of the control we think we have is an illusion. The reality is, HE IS IN CONTROL! But, along with that, He knows the beginning from the end. He isn’t running our lives blindly not knowing what tomorrow holds. All things that are mysteries to us are known to Him. In reality, if we are going to serve Him with any amount of trust at all we are going to have to be okay with not knowing all the answers, we just are! You know, He even knows us better than we know ourselves so we may be praying for something we think that we want so desperately and He knows it isn’t at all what we want! And, He is HOLY. Totally without sin or any evil thing. He is light and in Him is no darkness!
2 - Prayer is the means by which God accomplishes His will. Let’s face it, there are times when we pray for something and God grants us what we have requested and it builds our faith. If we had not prayed and asked then this cause/effect would not have occurred. Often times prayer is a great faith-builder. Prayer also teaches us perseverance. Think about a long delay in an answered prayer. Our perseverance is increased. Perseverance is absolutely necessary for the Christian life.
3 - Breaking our hearts makes us more like Christ. The scripture says that Jesus “was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3) Are there any two words that paint a picture of a broken heart like sorrow and grief? God’s will for our lives is our sanctification which simply means becoming more like Christ. Because we know how the story ends, that Jesus has risen from the dead and will come again, we picture partaking in His victory without the suffering. Jesus is King but He came as a suffering servant first. In order to taste the victory we must endure the suffering that paves the road to it. Take comfort in the fact that the victory is already sure and HE IS COMING!
4 - His glory is always His motive. God does not work based on our wants, desires or needs if they are for anything other than His glory. He is totally sold out for His glory in all things. So much so, that He takes sin and ultimately uses it for His glory. And rightfully so! He is God and there is none besides Him. He alone is worthy, holy and righteous, unlike us. So you can take this to the spiritual bank - if it is not going to bring Him glory, He is not going to endorse it, girls!
5 - His ways are not our ways. God doesn’t even think like we do. Yes, we are made in His image but scripture is clear that His thoughts are higher than ours. It says in Isaiah 40:13-14 “Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?” We see things from a human, temporal perspective. God sees things from an omnipotent, eternal, kingdom perspective. His moving in our lives is for the proclamation of His gospel and the exaltation of His Son. His word has always been about redemption through Jesus Christ and His eternal kingdom. Anything aside from that is a second class request. Not to say that He doesn’t answer those requests but that is not His main concern. However, we have a tendency to make these second class requests first class for us in prayer. Rarely do we spend time in prayer consumed with His Kingdom, His Gospel and His Coming.
Lastly and simply, God commands us to pray. Plain and simple, no explanation needed. Sometimes you just have to do the thing whether you understand or not. In this world where we cannot get away from suffering we need an anchor for our souls. People are hurting and struggling in many ways that we cannot know or understand. However, often times we hope in the answer instead of the God who provides the answer. Instead of waiting on the thing, we need to wait on the Lord. I know that’s tough but true nonetheless.
So, where does this leave us when our hearts are in our hands? It leaves us asking ourselves this: Is God good? To which we should then ask, “What does His word say?” Then, “Do I believe His word?” From here, I must choose to trust even when I don’t understand, even when it hurts, even when I can’t see the end from the beginning because He does! Ultimately, God is good. Whether we choose to believe that or not doesn’t change it, although He wants us to believe Him. Because, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). Maybe right now you aren’t very interested in pleasing God. Your heart has been broken and you have more questions than answers. Ask Him to equip you with faith unto belief, to help your unbelief and then begin right now to think your way into feeling. “For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
Friday, April 1, 2011
When God Breaks Your Heart, Part One
What do you do when God breaks your heart? What a weighty question for today! I look around and I see so many people who are hurting. So many who have journeyed in prayer through many trials and tribulations, disappointments and failures, loss and betrayals, all kinds of hurts. Is there a firm foundation when we are left waiting for the answer or worse, the answer comes and it is “No?” I was thinking the other day how very important it is for us to address this issue as believers because if you serve the Lord for any length of time this will happen. You see, we often talk about the wonder of answered prayer. We are quick to broadcast when God has “come through” for us but rarely do we openly proclaim, “I’m still waiting!” Or worse yet, He said, “No”. We are ashamed of the rush of emotions that come with this kind of disappointment so we bottle it up, never daring to say, “I’m angry, I’m bitter, I don’t understand...why?”
I have admitted on more than one occasion that prayer is something that is allusive to me. What I mean by that is truly, I don’t understand much about prayer. The type-A side of me has tried on many occasions to put prayer into a box or turn it into a tried and true method but alas, it will not concede to my efforts! My own prayer life can easily be divided into a before and after sequence. I have not always had this issue with prayer. Before, I used to be very heavy on prayer and less on study. I would have to set time limits on my prayers in order to have a few minutes daily in the word. However, after, the very opposite is true.
The shift occurred a few years ago when things in life began to take on a dramatic turn of events. I would say up to this point that tribulation in my life was scant with the exception of consequences that had fallen on me because of sin I had committed. But suffering for the sake of making me more like Jesus (aka sanctification), even when I hadn’t done anything to warrant it, was not a familiar concept to me.
I felt early on that prayer was my token way of communicating with the Lord on many levels. Time spent in Thanksgiving, time spent in praises, time spent in repentance and a lot of time spent in supplication, in other words, I had a long list of requests! However, let me clarify that not all of these requests were for selfish gain, although some were. Some of my requests dealt with healing illness, saving the lost, growing ministries, providing jobs, saving marriages etc; Prayers that were for the benefit of others and the furtherance of God’s kingdom.
During this time I began praying over two very specific things: one was healing for a friend and the other was a career that I was sure the Lord had been preparing me for - He had even lined up an interview that I had not persued or prompted in any way. The desire of my heart for both of these requests was so strong that I was sure they would be answered in the affirmative. The answers came nearly within a month of one another and both were a clear, resounding, “No.” Not maybe, not wait, but No! I was devastated. I was bitter. I was angry...at God and my heart hurt! Then, to place a nice big cherry on top, Kraig lost his job. At the time, we had no way of knowing that this would take us into a long, hard 18 months of despair. We were hopeful that things would turn around quickly. Little did we know.
In that time I felt that I could not trust Him with any prayer that stretched my faith ever again. If it was out of the realm of possibility then I did not want to let Him have it. I truly felt like the little girl who has had her heart broken and cannot afford to let anyone else touch it for fear that the next time it might not be repaired. I just kept thinking, “But you COULD have! You could have done this anyway you wanted to and you didn’t! You deliberately chose to break my heart! Who can serve a God like that?” Although I knew in my Spirit that I could not turn away from the Lord completely I cut my prayer life to nil. I thanked Him for blessings and continued to ask for forgiveness but I was so bitter that I refused to ask for anything that required any faith whatsoever. I can even look back in my prayer journal and see the anger and hurt that resided just below the surface in every journal entry. Deep within me I wanted to cry out in desperation but for fear or pride or both, I refused.
What made things worse was to look around and see others praying and claiming great feats of faith through their prayer lives. It was as if they were picking up their direct line straight to the throne and dialing in whatever it was that they desired from the Lord. What was it that I was missing? Had I lacked faith? Indeed, God doesn’t need my faith to fulfill His purpose. It pleases Him but He doesn’t NEED it. I really had turned it every which way in order to find my fault for the failure, for the answers that never came but in the end I really had no other explanation than these trials were simply God’s will for our lives at that time.
To be continued...
I have admitted on more than one occasion that prayer is something that is allusive to me. What I mean by that is truly, I don’t understand much about prayer. The type-A side of me has tried on many occasions to put prayer into a box or turn it into a tried and true method but alas, it will not concede to my efforts! My own prayer life can easily be divided into a before and after sequence. I have not always had this issue with prayer. Before, I used to be very heavy on prayer and less on study. I would have to set time limits on my prayers in order to have a few minutes daily in the word. However, after, the very opposite is true.
The shift occurred a few years ago when things in life began to take on a dramatic turn of events. I would say up to this point that tribulation in my life was scant with the exception of consequences that had fallen on me because of sin I had committed. But suffering for the sake of making me more like Jesus (aka sanctification), even when I hadn’t done anything to warrant it, was not a familiar concept to me.
I felt early on that prayer was my token way of communicating with the Lord on many levels. Time spent in Thanksgiving, time spent in praises, time spent in repentance and a lot of time spent in supplication, in other words, I had a long list of requests! However, let me clarify that not all of these requests were for selfish gain, although some were. Some of my requests dealt with healing illness, saving the lost, growing ministries, providing jobs, saving marriages etc; Prayers that were for the benefit of others and the furtherance of God’s kingdom.
During this time I began praying over two very specific things: one was healing for a friend and the other was a career that I was sure the Lord had been preparing me for - He had even lined up an interview that I had not persued or prompted in any way. The desire of my heart for both of these requests was so strong that I was sure they would be answered in the affirmative. The answers came nearly within a month of one another and both were a clear, resounding, “No.” Not maybe, not wait, but No! I was devastated. I was bitter. I was angry...at God and my heart hurt! Then, to place a nice big cherry on top, Kraig lost his job. At the time, we had no way of knowing that this would take us into a long, hard 18 months of despair. We were hopeful that things would turn around quickly. Little did we know.
In that time I felt that I could not trust Him with any prayer that stretched my faith ever again. If it was out of the realm of possibility then I did not want to let Him have it. I truly felt like the little girl who has had her heart broken and cannot afford to let anyone else touch it for fear that the next time it might not be repaired. I just kept thinking, “But you COULD have! You could have done this anyway you wanted to and you didn’t! You deliberately chose to break my heart! Who can serve a God like that?” Although I knew in my Spirit that I could not turn away from the Lord completely I cut my prayer life to nil. I thanked Him for blessings and continued to ask for forgiveness but I was so bitter that I refused to ask for anything that required any faith whatsoever. I can even look back in my prayer journal and see the anger and hurt that resided just below the surface in every journal entry. Deep within me I wanted to cry out in desperation but for fear or pride or both, I refused.
What made things worse was to look around and see others praying and claiming great feats of faith through their prayer lives. It was as if they were picking up their direct line straight to the throne and dialing in whatever it was that they desired from the Lord. What was it that I was missing? Had I lacked faith? Indeed, God doesn’t need my faith to fulfill His purpose. It pleases Him but He doesn’t NEED it. I really had turned it every which way in order to find my fault for the failure, for the answers that never came but in the end I really had no other explanation than these trials were simply God’s will for our lives at that time.
To be continued...
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