"For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." 1 Corinthians 2:11,12
I read this verse this morning and it was definitely a wow moment. I must have read this verse a hundred times before, but this time I REALLY read it. You know how that is? All the sudden a verse in the Bible will just jump out at you and you'll see what it's talking about. I love that, and as it happens, that is the help of the Holy Spirit, helping you to see what the Bible has to say to you.
When we become Christians, when we make that step and decide to live for Jesus and ask him to be a part of our lives, He sends us a helper, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the helper who dwells in us- he becomes a part of us. The Holy Spirit is that guide who often acts as a conscience, and helps us to make right decisions. Because he dwells in us, the Holy Spirit knows us. He knows us well, he knows our thoughts before we even think them. We are not mind-readers, but the Holy Spirit is, and he knows each and every thought that crosses our mind- good or bad. That's what the first part of this verse is saying- it's saying that there is no man who can know our thoughts, but the Holy Spirit can and does.
At the same time- and this is the really cool part- the Holy Spirit comes from God! The Holy Spirit is also a part of God, and the Spirit knows the thoughts of God. So think about that for a second. Think about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, knowing our thoughts and helping us from day to day, and then think that this exact same Spirit is dwelling in God! Oh my! And as He knows the thoughts of God, he can help us to reconcile our thoughts with what God may be thinking. That's not only really cool, but that's pretty crazy to think about! The one and the same Holy Spirit is our direct link to God at all times.
So those times where we are unsure what to do, and we lean towards one choice, but feel that uneasiness and sense of warning in the back of our minds, that could very well be the Holy Spirit prompting us- sharing with us what God's thoughts are about a particular situation. That's fantastic to think, that not only do we have the Holy Spirit with us at all times to help us, but that he is also with God at all times. So those times when we are reading our Bible and something really jumps out and grabs us, we can know that it's the Holy Spirit giving us a nudge and saying "Hey, this is what God is thinking about for you today." There have been times, where I am thinking that I'll get my Bible reading over quickly that day, and I open it up willy-nilly, hopeful that one lone verse will jump out and grab me. Of course, that doesn't always happen. Lately, when I open my Bible, my method is to read until something grabs me. Yet, when I have the mentality of "let's just get this over with" I find that the sense of humor of God comes through as I read 6, 7, 12 chapters before something really grabs me. But it's always the right something. Whether it be a word of encouragement, or a revelation applicable to my life. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what God is thinking, and he also knows where my heart and mind is that day, and He knows exactly what I need to read.
The end of this verse today is just as meaningful and a delight to read. We can rest secure in our knowledge that the spirit that dwells in us is not of this world. It is a Heavenly Spirit- a part of God, sent to us to help us to understand our God better. The spirit of our world is often one of sadness, depression, oppression and that sense of being lost. We can take heart and hope in knowing that the Holy Spirit does not want those things for us. When we feel those things (and many other not so desirable feelings) that's the world pressing in. And that's when we take some time to recharge our batteries. We spend some time focusing on God and asking the Holy Spirit to help us, and he will fill us with what we need to muster through. What God has freely given us is His Love. His Love will always, always see us through. The Holy Spirit will sometimes help us to see that love when it seems hidden to us, but it's always there. We have a God who loves us so much, His son died for us. We have a God who loves us so much, he truly wants to spend eternity with us. And he sends his Holy Spirit to dwell in us to help us get there. So let's listen when He speaks or prompts us. I like the idea of following what God is thinking.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Monday, October 06, 2008
Focus, Focus
"Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal." Isaiah 26:4
If we're not focused on God, we're focused on the wrong thing. While we've been going from church to church we kind of made a list in our heads- a list of what we were looking for in a church. We had ideas in our minds from different church experiences that there were things we wanted in a church, and things we didn't want, and it was important to us that for the most part, the church we decided to attend met most of our criteria. It's kind of funny, because we should know by now that God really doesn't care about our little lists and criterion, He knows where he wants us.
Yesterday we went to a church that we intended to be our "refill station" for lack of a better word. As we've explored a few churches, we had one church that we didn't think we were meant to be a part of, but it was a place where we knew if we became discouraged, we could go there to be encouraged and energized to continue on our way. Last week, our church experience was a bit of a bummer and completely disheartening to us. So this week we went to our refill station, and let me tell you, God was waiting for us. Every word that the Pastor said seemed to drill straight into our hearts and minds. He drilled smack dab into the things that we were thinking about a church and by the time church was done, I think Andy and I had both privately made the decision that we'd found our church for the time being, we just needed to discuss it. But we shared a look that we both knew what the other was thinking. Of course, it was capped off when the kids came out of their children's church angry at us because they really wanted to go back next week. More than anything, in our church search, we wanted to listen to our children. So there it is. At least for now, we've found the body that God would have us to belong to for a time. Whether it's a long term or a short term solution, we don't know. And we also have no idea what we are meant to contribute to this body, but God certainly knows and will reveal it as necessary.
One of the thing that the Pastor spoke right into our being was that we needed to keep our focus on God. As long as we did that, we were in the right place. If we were focusing on what else a church had to offer, we were focusing on the wrong things. If the social calendar had a place of importance, we were seeing the wrong things. If the quality of the worship was our focus, it was the wrong thing. What we need, is a body who keeps it's focus on God. We need to walk into church Sunday morning ready to worship and focus on God and what He would have for us that week, not focus on the bad week we had, or focus on the busy week ahead. We need to check those things at the door and just give our hearts to God. This totally applies to us- and it also applies to every area of our lives. I think if we focused more on God, the rest of life would fall more into line.
I think about my basic everyday. I do spend a bit of time at the computer. Some of it blogging, but much of it surfing and checking on other blogs and bulletin boards. And as a result, sometimes the housework kind of falls behind. Before I know it, a few hours have gone by and I spend time scrambling to get the basics done. This is just one area, where as a housewife and a mom, God is always working with me on. I really think that if I focus on God more, and make my choices with Him in mind, that I wouldn't be so wasteful of my time. I'm certainly not saying that computer time is evil, but I am saying that when it takes a priority and keeps me from doing other, more important things, I need to check on that. By shifting my focus, and keeping my thoughts on God, I can move closer to the woman that He wants me to be. And more importantly, it also serves as an example for my children. When they see mommy spend so much time at the computer, they just assume that it's okay for them too.
Focus on God. That's where my mind should be at all times. When I am God focused and God centered, I am listening for His Voice. I'm paying attention to what He might have for me, and as a result, I can know the difference between when God is calling and when the enemy is calling. When I'm not focused, that can be an opportunity for the enemy to squeak in and pretend to be good. Because during those times of being unfocused, I may not be so quick to recognize the enemy's tactics. That's such a scary thought.
Focus on God. Nothing else is really that important. I need to remember that.
If we're not focused on God, we're focused on the wrong thing. While we've been going from church to church we kind of made a list in our heads- a list of what we were looking for in a church. We had ideas in our minds from different church experiences that there were things we wanted in a church, and things we didn't want, and it was important to us that for the most part, the church we decided to attend met most of our criteria. It's kind of funny, because we should know by now that God really doesn't care about our little lists and criterion, He knows where he wants us.
Yesterday we went to a church that we intended to be our "refill station" for lack of a better word. As we've explored a few churches, we had one church that we didn't think we were meant to be a part of, but it was a place where we knew if we became discouraged, we could go there to be encouraged and energized to continue on our way. Last week, our church experience was a bit of a bummer and completely disheartening to us. So this week we went to our refill station, and let me tell you, God was waiting for us. Every word that the Pastor said seemed to drill straight into our hearts and minds. He drilled smack dab into the things that we were thinking about a church and by the time church was done, I think Andy and I had both privately made the decision that we'd found our church for the time being, we just needed to discuss it. But we shared a look that we both knew what the other was thinking. Of course, it was capped off when the kids came out of their children's church angry at us because they really wanted to go back next week. More than anything, in our church search, we wanted to listen to our children. So there it is. At least for now, we've found the body that God would have us to belong to for a time. Whether it's a long term or a short term solution, we don't know. And we also have no idea what we are meant to contribute to this body, but God certainly knows and will reveal it as necessary.
One of the thing that the Pastor spoke right into our being was that we needed to keep our focus on God. As long as we did that, we were in the right place. If we were focusing on what else a church had to offer, we were focusing on the wrong things. If the social calendar had a place of importance, we were seeing the wrong things. If the quality of the worship was our focus, it was the wrong thing. What we need, is a body who keeps it's focus on God. We need to walk into church Sunday morning ready to worship and focus on God and what He would have for us that week, not focus on the bad week we had, or focus on the busy week ahead. We need to check those things at the door and just give our hearts to God. This totally applies to us- and it also applies to every area of our lives. I think if we focused more on God, the rest of life would fall more into line.
I think about my basic everyday. I do spend a bit of time at the computer. Some of it blogging, but much of it surfing and checking on other blogs and bulletin boards. And as a result, sometimes the housework kind of falls behind. Before I know it, a few hours have gone by and I spend time scrambling to get the basics done. This is just one area, where as a housewife and a mom, God is always working with me on. I really think that if I focus on God more, and make my choices with Him in mind, that I wouldn't be so wasteful of my time. I'm certainly not saying that computer time is evil, but I am saying that when it takes a priority and keeps me from doing other, more important things, I need to check on that. By shifting my focus, and keeping my thoughts on God, I can move closer to the woman that He wants me to be. And more importantly, it also serves as an example for my children. When they see mommy spend so much time at the computer, they just assume that it's okay for them too.
Focus on God. That's where my mind should be at all times. When I am God focused and God centered, I am listening for His Voice. I'm paying attention to what He might have for me, and as a result, I can know the difference between when God is calling and when the enemy is calling. When I'm not focused, that can be an opportunity for the enemy to squeak in and pretend to be good. Because during those times of being unfocused, I may not be so quick to recognize the enemy's tactics. That's such a scary thought.
Focus on God. Nothing else is really that important. I need to remember that.
Saturday, October 04, 2008
Do Not Be Boastful
"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1
Isn't this the truth! I think we've all experienced this at one time or another. We're riding high, things are going fantastic and then poof- just like that there is a major shift or change. When I think back to my working days, I definitely experienced that one. I clearly remember one time in particular where I worked fantastically hard on a re-design of a section of the store, and by the time it was finished, I thought it was beautiful and functional, and exactly what the space needed. And no doubt, I pointed it out to anyone who would want to look at it. I went home from work that night feeling like I'd really made a major accomplishment and I was looking forward to the next day to show it off some more and gaze at my hard work. Wouldn't you know, the very next day the district manager dropped in unannounced and ripped my hard work to shreds- it was not meeting company standards at all and needed to be completely re-done. I had my share of humble pie that day, and learned a valuable lesson.
It's easy to talk about tomorrow or the days and times to come and talk about how we're going to do this or purchase that. But I need to point out the obvious- why do we do that? It's one thing to discuss tomorrow in a relationship, like a marriage. Andy and I can sit and talk for hours about our dreams and hopes for the future. Then there are times where we are sitting with others and those same dreams and hopes come out and become concrete plans- like we're bragging about what tomorrow may bring. Bragging and boasting are never good things. Usually, what comes of being boastful is someone else being hurt or feeling like they are inadequate compared to you. Someone may really be struggling financially to even put food on the table or pay rent, and there you are bragging about how you're buying expensive this and that. How horrible!
"Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18
Pride goeth before the fall. I know we have all heard that one. When we are boasting and bragging, we are being prideful, and I don't know about you, but looking at this from the outside, a braggart is just begging for the fall- don't you think?
And what would Jesus do in a fellowship of companions? Did he ever brag or boast even once about the things he'd done or accomplished in his life? Never once. Instead he used some of his accomplishments as tools for learning- either for himself or those around him. But he never bragged and said "look what I did." And we can totally learn from that and be more mindful to be more like Jesus. We can make the effort to not brag or boast. And most especially, we should not brag about what tomorrow may bring, because we truly don't know what God has in store for tomorrow. We need to focus on today- on the now and what we are doing at this very moment. Tomorrow will have it's own set of needs, problems and accomplishments. Lets just focus on what today is going to be and make it a great today instead of a so-so yesterday because we were so focused on tomorrow.
Isn't this the truth! I think we've all experienced this at one time or another. We're riding high, things are going fantastic and then poof- just like that there is a major shift or change. When I think back to my working days, I definitely experienced that one. I clearly remember one time in particular where I worked fantastically hard on a re-design of a section of the store, and by the time it was finished, I thought it was beautiful and functional, and exactly what the space needed. And no doubt, I pointed it out to anyone who would want to look at it. I went home from work that night feeling like I'd really made a major accomplishment and I was looking forward to the next day to show it off some more and gaze at my hard work. Wouldn't you know, the very next day the district manager dropped in unannounced and ripped my hard work to shreds- it was not meeting company standards at all and needed to be completely re-done. I had my share of humble pie that day, and learned a valuable lesson.
It's easy to talk about tomorrow or the days and times to come and talk about how we're going to do this or purchase that. But I need to point out the obvious- why do we do that? It's one thing to discuss tomorrow in a relationship, like a marriage. Andy and I can sit and talk for hours about our dreams and hopes for the future. Then there are times where we are sitting with others and those same dreams and hopes come out and become concrete plans- like we're bragging about what tomorrow may bring. Bragging and boasting are never good things. Usually, what comes of being boastful is someone else being hurt or feeling like they are inadequate compared to you. Someone may really be struggling financially to even put food on the table or pay rent, and there you are bragging about how you're buying expensive this and that. How horrible!
"Pride goes before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18
Pride goeth before the fall. I know we have all heard that one. When we are boasting and bragging, we are being prideful, and I don't know about you, but looking at this from the outside, a braggart is just begging for the fall- don't you think?
And what would Jesus do in a fellowship of companions? Did he ever brag or boast even once about the things he'd done or accomplished in his life? Never once. Instead he used some of his accomplishments as tools for learning- either for himself or those around him. But he never bragged and said "look what I did." And we can totally learn from that and be more mindful to be more like Jesus. We can make the effort to not brag or boast. And most especially, we should not brag about what tomorrow may bring, because we truly don't know what God has in store for tomorrow. We need to focus on today- on the now and what we are doing at this very moment. Tomorrow will have it's own set of needs, problems and accomplishments. Lets just focus on what today is going to be and make it a great today instead of a so-so yesterday because we were so focused on tomorrow.
Friday, October 03, 2008
Praying For Our Children
"For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding."
This is something that I could probably talk about every day, and it still wouldn't be enough. It's just so important, praying for our children. And not just praying for our children, but talking to them about God as moments come up. And then you can pray for more of those moments and opportunities. I pray for my daughter every day as she walks out the door for school, smiling as she goes. I pray for my son as I walk away from his preschool after dropping him off. I pray for both of them at night when I tuck them in, and I pray for them at night when I tuck myself in. I just so want them to know joy each and every day of their lives. Especially while they're children. I just want them to enjoy life, and enjoy being children- before they really need to begin growing up. This time in their lives is so fleeting.
This verse above is just a reminder to me today that we should never cease in our praying for our children- no matter how old they are. I know that God has blessed me greatly in my life, and I pray so much that God will bless my children even more, and that they will learn from my mistakes and not make them themselves. I pray that God will fill them with what they need when they need it. That they'll be filled with courage when challenged by their friends. That they'll be filled with humility and graciousness at just the right moments. And most importantly, that they'll be filled with love. That those around them, their friends and teachers, will look at my children and know that there is something different about that child. A something that makes them want to know more.
Children are true treasures from God. There is nothing more precious to me than the two little lives that God has placed in my care. I pray that God keeps it up- because so far they're two fantastic little people, and I just love being around them. I pray that never changes.
This is something that I could probably talk about every day, and it still wouldn't be enough. It's just so important, praying for our children. And not just praying for our children, but talking to them about God as moments come up. And then you can pray for more of those moments and opportunities. I pray for my daughter every day as she walks out the door for school, smiling as she goes. I pray for my son as I walk away from his preschool after dropping him off. I pray for both of them at night when I tuck them in, and I pray for them at night when I tuck myself in. I just so want them to know joy each and every day of their lives. Especially while they're children. I just want them to enjoy life, and enjoy being children- before they really need to begin growing up. This time in their lives is so fleeting.
This verse above is just a reminder to me today that we should never cease in our praying for our children- no matter how old they are. I know that God has blessed me greatly in my life, and I pray so much that God will bless my children even more, and that they will learn from my mistakes and not make them themselves. I pray that God will fill them with what they need when they need it. That they'll be filled with courage when challenged by their friends. That they'll be filled with humility and graciousness at just the right moments. And most importantly, that they'll be filled with love. That those around them, their friends and teachers, will look at my children and know that there is something different about that child. A something that makes them want to know more.
Children are true treasures from God. There is nothing more precious to me than the two little lives that God has placed in my care. I pray that God keeps it up- because so far they're two fantastic little people, and I just love being around them. I pray that never changes.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Do Not Be Afraid
"Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe." Proverbs 29:25
Well, the "verse of the day" is on a roll this week in my book. Today's verse kind of piggy-backs on yesterday's verse, because it's one of the reasons we choose not to share our faith. Because we're afraid. We're afraid of making the other person mad at us, or we're afraid of becoming "the Christian" in the office- we're afraid of the rumors and the gossip that may result in sharing our faith with others. Maybe there's a little bit of real physical fear. We live in an age of tolerance, and while people may tolerate our faith, maybe there are people who will not tolerate actually expressing some form of it. That fear, the fear of other people and what they may say or do, is exactly what this verse is talking about.
And let me say something about that- that is exactly what the enemy is hoping for. When you close your mouth and choose not to say anything about why you are different, the devil is thrilled. You've gotten caught in his snare, and he loves the fact that you are afraid to speak up. But as this verse says, when we put our trust and our faith in God, he will keep us safe. He will protect us from the slander and the gossip, and he will protect us from getting physically hurt by angry people. Placing your trust in God is a big deal, and He will reward you accordingly.
But maybe, just maybe, today's fear is a different kind of fear. Maybe it's an internal fear- a fear that I wrestled with so many times and over and over with. And that is a personal fear that if I get close to God, I'm going to turn into some kind of freak. I so didn't want to be "that person", the one who talks about God all the time- the one who always has the Christian music going and a Bible open and ready to read. I've already found myself on the outside enough times in my life that I didn't want to take that step and do it all over again. Oh I was so afraid to just let go and open my heart up to what God might have to say. What if he told me to do something I didn't want to do? What if he told me something I really didn't want to hear. I wrestled with that for a long time. I let the fear I talked about already clash with my internal fear and that certainly prevented me from taking that step of faith.
Have you ever spent time around someone who was just totally in love with God? First of all, it's contagious, you want what they've got. You can see that extra sparkle in their eye, the extra lift in their step. You watch them accept challenges head on and be excited to see what God's going to do next. And you see them embrace and love each and every person they come in contact with. Eventually, that longing and that desire to experience what they were experiencing won out. I placed my faith and my trust in God, I trusted that this was what he wanted for me and I took that step, and I've never looked back.
You know what? I have yet to hear something from God that I didn't want to hear. And I have yet to be told to do something that I wasn't expecting or already wanting somewhere in my heart. God shaped me to be a specific person, and as that specific person I have specific desires, wants and needs. And He knows that! He knows what makes my heart happy, and because He loves me, what He wants from me fits around who I am and what I am as a person. He made me this way for a reason. I love thinking on that. I love thinking that I am how I am so that I can fit in some specific way in God's Kingdom.
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14
I'm still working on that first fear. I'm working on the boldness and courage to speak up when I need to speak up. But it'll come, I trust in that.
Well, the "verse of the day" is on a roll this week in my book. Today's verse kind of piggy-backs on yesterday's verse, because it's one of the reasons we choose not to share our faith. Because we're afraid. We're afraid of making the other person mad at us, or we're afraid of becoming "the Christian" in the office- we're afraid of the rumors and the gossip that may result in sharing our faith with others. Maybe there's a little bit of real physical fear. We live in an age of tolerance, and while people may tolerate our faith, maybe there are people who will not tolerate actually expressing some form of it. That fear, the fear of other people and what they may say or do, is exactly what this verse is talking about.
And let me say something about that- that is exactly what the enemy is hoping for. When you close your mouth and choose not to say anything about why you are different, the devil is thrilled. You've gotten caught in his snare, and he loves the fact that you are afraid to speak up. But as this verse says, when we put our trust and our faith in God, he will keep us safe. He will protect us from the slander and the gossip, and he will protect us from getting physically hurt by angry people. Placing your trust in God is a big deal, and He will reward you accordingly.
But maybe, just maybe, today's fear is a different kind of fear. Maybe it's an internal fear- a fear that I wrestled with so many times and over and over with. And that is a personal fear that if I get close to God, I'm going to turn into some kind of freak. I so didn't want to be "that person", the one who talks about God all the time- the one who always has the Christian music going and a Bible open and ready to read. I've already found myself on the outside enough times in my life that I didn't want to take that step and do it all over again. Oh I was so afraid to just let go and open my heart up to what God might have to say. What if he told me to do something I didn't want to do? What if he told me something I really didn't want to hear. I wrestled with that for a long time. I let the fear I talked about already clash with my internal fear and that certainly prevented me from taking that step of faith.
Have you ever spent time around someone who was just totally in love with God? First of all, it's contagious, you want what they've got. You can see that extra sparkle in their eye, the extra lift in their step. You watch them accept challenges head on and be excited to see what God's going to do next. And you see them embrace and love each and every person they come in contact with. Eventually, that longing and that desire to experience what they were experiencing won out. I placed my faith and my trust in God, I trusted that this was what he wanted for me and I took that step, and I've never looked back.
You know what? I have yet to hear something from God that I didn't want to hear. And I have yet to be told to do something that I wasn't expecting or already wanting somewhere in my heart. God shaped me to be a specific person, and as that specific person I have specific desires, wants and needs. And He knows that! He knows what makes my heart happy, and because He loves me, what He wants from me fits around who I am and what I am as a person. He made me this way for a reason. I love thinking on that. I love thinking that I am how I am so that I can fit in some specific way in God's Kingdom.
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14
I'm still working on that first fear. I'm working on the boldness and courage to speak up when I need to speak up. But it'll come, I trust in that.
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Blessed For Being Dissed
"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matthew 5:11-12 (NIV)
I thought this morning I'd run this verse on here in a few translations, because they are slightly different.
"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble." (The Message)
"Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of your outward conditions) are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely on My account.
We live in a world that's dying. Literally. Our family, friends and neighbors are all doomed to the most horrible eternity unless we can do something about it. So we try. We invite them to church, or to church activities, hoping that if they come to an activity they'll want to come to the regular church service. I have to tell you, that usually isn't the case. Those people who are unsaved, who don't know God, are not fooled. They'll come to your picnic or your party, because they know that it's a fun event- they know that they aren't going to get preached at. What they don't want to hear is that they are going to hell. They don't want to hear that they need Jesus, because they think they're doing just fine on their own. And church makes them uncomfortable because they'll hear these things. So they agree to go to your fun activity, hoping that if they accompany you once or twice, that you'll stop asking them to come to a regular church service.
But today, today you need to ask them even more. You need to stop inviting them to the fun stuff, and invite them to the real stuff. As much as you may think that you are being a pest to your neighbor, you need to never stop. They could start swearing at you and leaving things in your yard, but you need to keep on it, because that means you're making progress. Rejoice in the fact that your friend is uncomfortable hearing about Jesus- because that means that they know they need something, and perhaps one day the time will come when they make that all-important decision.
Be assured, the Lord sees what you are doing. God sees your efforts with your loved ones, he hears you pray for them day in and day out, and you will be rewarded for your diligence. And one day, the Holy Spirit is going to reach out a grab that loved one and weave his way into their heart and soften it. That day, will indeed be a day of great rejoicing, because it will be the day that your loved one, your neighbor, or your friend will become part of your family.
So rejoice in the persecution you may run into as you share your faith. It means you are having an effect, and you should keep at it. You have a whole army of heavenly citizens at your back cheering you on. Take heart in that, lift your head up and tarry on. Do your absolute best, and God will take care of the rest.
I thought this morning I'd run this verse on here in a few translations, because they are slightly different.
"Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble." (The Message)
"Blessed (happy, to be envied, and spiritually prosperous--with life-joy and satisfaction in God's favor and salvation, regardless of your outward conditions) are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things against you falsely on My account.
12Be glad and supremely joyful, for your reward in heaven is great (strong and intense), for in this same way people persecuted the prophets who were before you." (Amplified)
"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." (KJV)
There are just some times when a different translation may bring different things to light, or it may simply be easier to extract a meaning. The one I like best here today is the translation from The Message. It expands on the original idea of feeling blessed for being persecuted. Look what it says here:
"What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable."We live in a world that's dying. Literally. Our family, friends and neighbors are all doomed to the most horrible eternity unless we can do something about it. So we try. We invite them to church, or to church activities, hoping that if they come to an activity they'll want to come to the regular church service. I have to tell you, that usually isn't the case. Those people who are unsaved, who don't know God, are not fooled. They'll come to your picnic or your party, because they know that it's a fun event- they know that they aren't going to get preached at. What they don't want to hear is that they are going to hell. They don't want to hear that they need Jesus, because they think they're doing just fine on their own. And church makes them uncomfortable because they'll hear these things. So they agree to go to your fun activity, hoping that if they accompany you once or twice, that you'll stop asking them to come to a regular church service.
But today, today you need to ask them even more. You need to stop inviting them to the fun stuff, and invite them to the real stuff. As much as you may think that you are being a pest to your neighbor, you need to never stop. They could start swearing at you and leaving things in your yard, but you need to keep on it, because that means you're making progress. Rejoice in the fact that your friend is uncomfortable hearing about Jesus- because that means that they know they need something, and perhaps one day the time will come when they make that all-important decision.
Be assured, the Lord sees what you are doing. God sees your efforts with your loved ones, he hears you pray for them day in and day out, and you will be rewarded for your diligence. And one day, the Holy Spirit is going to reach out a grab that loved one and weave his way into their heart and soften it. That day, will indeed be a day of great rejoicing, because it will be the day that your loved one, your neighbor, or your friend will become part of your family.
So rejoice in the persecution you may run into as you share your faith. It means you are having an effect, and you should keep at it. You have a whole army of heavenly citizens at your back cheering you on. Take heart in that, lift your head up and tarry on. Do your absolute best, and God will take care of the rest.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Praying for Discernment
"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ," Philippians 1:9-10
This was a fantastic verse to open up to this morning. There are a few things that sing out to me from this verse in Philippians, and the first one is the love. As I've been saying a lot lately, love seems to be the key to pretty much everything. When we can truly learn to love, then we will become more like Jesus. The bonus is that according to this verse, there are more perks to learning to really and truly love with the love of Jesus. As we use that love, and as we grow more in God's love, that love will help us in the art of discernment.
How many times do we stand at a crossroads and wonder which is the right decision to make? And I'm not just talking about the big decisions- even the small ones. Should we go to that meeting? Should we sign Junior up for Boy Scouts? Should we take down that tree that's hanging on the neighbors house? And the big decisions of course- which church should we belong to? Should we go into the missionfield? Is God really calling is to move to that part of the country? In all those things, we often seek God's direction. Which choice would he have us make? Discernment is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it helps guide us to making the right decision. It helps us to see the evil intentions of the devil and to stay away from poor choices.
Still, there are times where maybe we don't make the best choice. Where we really felt that one choice was better than the other, so we made that choice, only to discover that it wasn't the best one to make. What happens then? We can take heart in knowing this:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
Even if we don't make the best choice for us at the time, God will use whatever choice we make for good things. God works in all things- not just the good things. He may use our poor choices to help teach us a lesson, or to help us desire the gift of discernment, so we don't make those choices again. Discernment isn't some life changing, light bulb moment. It's something that we grow into, and as we recognize the Spirit's nudging, that prodding towards one decision over another, we will learn from it.
I think it's pretty cool to know that as we grow in love and in God's Word, that gifts like discernment just naturally follow. It's even cooler to see another verse basically say that with love, things are possible. After all, love is what gives us heaven and the opportunity to live there in the first place. If I can spend my lifetime making choices that only help me to love more and learn to love more like Jesus, I think that's a lifetime well spent.
This was a fantastic verse to open up to this morning. There are a few things that sing out to me from this verse in Philippians, and the first one is the love. As I've been saying a lot lately, love seems to be the key to pretty much everything. When we can truly learn to love, then we will become more like Jesus. The bonus is that according to this verse, there are more perks to learning to really and truly love with the love of Jesus. As we use that love, and as we grow more in God's love, that love will help us in the art of discernment.
How many times do we stand at a crossroads and wonder which is the right decision to make? And I'm not just talking about the big decisions- even the small ones. Should we go to that meeting? Should we sign Junior up for Boy Scouts? Should we take down that tree that's hanging on the neighbors house? And the big decisions of course- which church should we belong to? Should we go into the missionfield? Is God really calling is to move to that part of the country? In all those things, we often seek God's direction. Which choice would he have us make? Discernment is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it helps guide us to making the right decision. It helps us to see the evil intentions of the devil and to stay away from poor choices.
Still, there are times where maybe we don't make the best choice. Where we really felt that one choice was better than the other, so we made that choice, only to discover that it wasn't the best one to make. What happens then? We can take heart in knowing this:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
Even if we don't make the best choice for us at the time, God will use whatever choice we make for good things. God works in all things- not just the good things. He may use our poor choices to help teach us a lesson, or to help us desire the gift of discernment, so we don't make those choices again. Discernment isn't some life changing, light bulb moment. It's something that we grow into, and as we recognize the Spirit's nudging, that prodding towards one decision over another, we will learn from it.
I think it's pretty cool to know that as we grow in love and in God's Word, that gifts like discernment just naturally follow. It's even cooler to see another verse basically say that with love, things are possible. After all, love is what gives us heaven and the opportunity to live there in the first place. If I can spend my lifetime making choices that only help me to love more and learn to love more like Jesus, I think that's a lifetime well spent.
Monday, September 29, 2008
A Cautionary Tale
I'm reading further into 1 Kings this morning. And as I'm reading, I'm reading about King Solomon and how much the Lord blessed him. The verses about his legacy are just dripping with wealth and wisdom. Here's an example of the wealth:
"The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land. " 1 Kings 10:14,15
This amount, according to my footnote says that 666 talents is about 25 tons of gold. And here is more from a little later on in chapter 10.
"King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules." 1 Kings 10:23-25
God blessed Solomon richly and abundantly- so much so that silver was deemed worthless, because it was so plentiful. God followed through on the promises that he had made to David to prosper his family and bless them. But God has also issued a warning to Solomon.
"As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.' "But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples." 1 Kings 9:4-7
And wouldn't you know, what did Solomon do? He didn't heed the warning. In his lifetime, Solomon married 700 wives and many of them had come from foreign lands where they worshipped other gods. One of God's warnings to the people had been to avoid marrying with these people because they would turn away from Him and be swayed to follow these other gods. And Solomon did just that. Because he loved his wives, he allowed them to worship their gods, and he built altars and places of worship for them. And he turned his eyes away from his own God.
"So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." 1 Kings 11:11-13
What boggles my mind and really makes me think this morning is that Solomon was dripping in blessings. People came from the ends of the earth to meet this man who God blessed so richly. His people and his land prospered because of God's blessings upon his life, and Solomon simply turned away from that. I just cannot fathom why he would choose to turn his back on the God who gave him everything he had- including the wisdom for which he was famous. Yet, here in the verses, we see that he simply shifted his focus, and that, ultimately, was what did him in. Solomon shifted his focus away from solely on God, and shifted it to the 1000 women he had in his possession. And those women, in turn led him to the other gods that he began giving some devotion and worship to. We can learn from this.
We can do our best to remember Solomon. When good times are upon us and God is blessing us abundantly, we can remember what Solomon did, and keep our focus and our praise on God. We can continue to thank him and worship him for the blessings he has provided. I could see how it would be easy to let things and stuff get in the way of praising God. I could easily see how wealth could provide more and more opportunities to be away from the presence of God and away from that precious day of rest. You buy yourself a boat, and before you know it you justify taking a lazy Sunday to sail across the water. And you've enjoyed it so much that you do it again, and again, and again, and before you know it, it's been a month since you've been to church, and hey, there's that trip you've been meaning to take, what's a few more weeks away from church, and then poof. Just like that, God has taken a backseat. By remembering Solomon and his example, we can strive to do the opposite. We can strive to keep our focus on God.
What comes from Him can bless us abundantly, we just need to be prepared for those blessings. That is one of the reasons we go through times of change and growing, it's to prepare us for the abundance that God wants to bless us with. How we handle the abundance the first time around may set the stage for future blessings as well. When we're in dire straights, and we are blessed with a sum of money- what's the first thing we do with it? It used to be that we would take the opportunity to have the extra cash and go do something special. We'd go out to dinner or go buy something frivolous. We had our focus on ourselves, and what we could do with that money to make our lives better. But when we shifted that focus, when we had that sum of money and rejoiced first in the fact that we were able to put something in the offering plate, that's when we began to see that shift. We focused on God. We thanked him for providing that paycheck or that bonus or that surprise gift of cash, and then we gave a portion of it back to him. We also asked for an opportunity to pay it forward and that He bless the giver of that gift hundred-fold.
When you keep the focus on God, the money doesn't matter so much. (And this really wasn't where I intended to go today with the devotional, yet here it is.) This past winter as we watched the bills pile up and get bigger and bigger I just had to thank God. I had to thank Him for the lesson we were learning about debt, and I also thanked Him because I knew the means were coming to take care of them. Sure, a large part of me prayed for a miraculous answer, for the bills to simply go away. But no matter the means, isn't any of it miraculous? The fact that Andy's been prosperous at work has meant that those back bills have been disappearing one at a time. Not because of his hard work or my diligence at paying the bills, but because God provided for us. But first and foremost-the number one lesson that we have learned is that we have to keep God our focus, and keep God number one.
From every dollar that comes into the bank account, a portion goes back to God. God wanted to deal with us on that first, he wanted us to get into the routine of tithing. And this year, not only have we been tithing on the income, but also on the extras. Our regular tithe goes to church, our tithe from the extra income goes to other ministries that God places on our heart to support. When we tithe, we never, ever miss the money. But Erika, you're saying, it's easy to not miss the money when your paychecks are so nice. And that is so true, but. (Yes, there is a but.) Before we could get to where we are now, we had to start at the bottom. We started by tithing off those teeny tiny unemployment checks. We did not have enough coming in to make ends meet, yet we began tithing off that tiny bit. And as God saw that we were being responsible with what was coming in, he began increasing. We delighted completely the day Andy's first paycheck came in and I was able to call Andy and tell him how much our tithe check was going to be. We praised God with all our hearts that we were able to give back to him a portion of what he blessed us with.
And along the way, we've also learned about extra giving. And this, perhaps, is where we've seen the most growth. I know you know what I'm talking about today. You're sitting in church, and a missionary is visiting, and the church goes to take an extra offering, and there's one part of you that so wants to put that $20 in the plate, but you also know that's your last bit of money until Wednesday, and you'll need it for gas. What do you do?
Do you know that when you follow through on an act of blessing of this nature, it comes back to you? There was one week, not that long ago, where I felt that God wanted me to give to GodTV. We've been watching GodTV quite a bit, and the channel itself has been such a blessing. When we feel down and out, we just pop on GodTv and let whatever is on flow into our hearts and soul and it's almost like an infusion straight from God. But there was one day, I really felt strongly that I should give to GodTV. It was strange to me, because I was used to tithing, I wasn't used to spontaneous giving. Yet I did. I went online, and a few clicks later I'd made my donation, and I prayed that we wouldn't need that money ourselves in the days to come, and also prayed that God would take that donation and multiply it where it was needed for GodTv. Now, I am totally telling the truth here that two days later, Andy comes home from work with a lump sum of extra cash in his hands. Some co-workers had taken in scrap for recycling and shared the money with him from taking it in. Andy came home with double what our donation had been.
God will bless a cheerful giver every single time. When you are focused on God, that giving is done cheerfully, because you know God is behind your motivation for doing so. If you're putting that twenty bucks in the offering plate, but seething on the inside because you really don't want to do it, you're in the wrong frame of mind, and you're not focused on God. We need to not be like Solomon and allow the ways and things of this world to distract us. We really don't need that fancy new car, that state-of-the art computer, the latest video game system or that really cool new camper. We need God, and he will provide the rest. Cross my heart. Focus on God, and all the rest will fall into place. Show him that you can be trusted with a little, and he will increase that little to a whole lot- because that's what he wants for you. He wants to bless you and provide for you, but he also wants to know that you're going to be responsible with what he does give you.
"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
"The weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents, not including the revenues from merchants and traders and from all the Arabian kings and the governors of the land. " 1 Kings 10:14,15
This amount, according to my footnote says that 666 talents is about 25 tons of gold. And here is more from a little later on in chapter 10.
"King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth. The whole world sought audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart. Year after year, everyone who came brought a gift—articles of silver and gold, robes, weapons and spices, and horses and mules." 1 Kings 10:23-25
God blessed Solomon richly and abundantly- so much so that silver was deemed worthless, because it was so plentiful. God followed through on the promises that he had made to David to prosper his family and bless them. But God has also issued a warning to Solomon.
"As for you, if you walk before me in integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.' "But if you or your sons turn away from me and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you and go off to serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them and will reject this temple I have consecrated for my Name. Israel will then become a byword and an object of ridicule among all peoples." 1 Kings 9:4-7
And wouldn't you know, what did Solomon do? He didn't heed the warning. In his lifetime, Solomon married 700 wives and many of them had come from foreign lands where they worshipped other gods. One of God's warnings to the people had been to avoid marrying with these people because they would turn away from Him and be swayed to follow these other gods. And Solomon did just that. Because he loved his wives, he allowed them to worship their gods, and he built altars and places of worship for them. And he turned his eyes away from his own God.
"So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." 1 Kings 11:11-13
What boggles my mind and really makes me think this morning is that Solomon was dripping in blessings. People came from the ends of the earth to meet this man who God blessed so richly. His people and his land prospered because of God's blessings upon his life, and Solomon simply turned away from that. I just cannot fathom why he would choose to turn his back on the God who gave him everything he had- including the wisdom for which he was famous. Yet, here in the verses, we see that he simply shifted his focus, and that, ultimately, was what did him in. Solomon shifted his focus away from solely on God, and shifted it to the 1000 women he had in his possession. And those women, in turn led him to the other gods that he began giving some devotion and worship to. We can learn from this.
We can do our best to remember Solomon. When good times are upon us and God is blessing us abundantly, we can remember what Solomon did, and keep our focus and our praise on God. We can continue to thank him and worship him for the blessings he has provided. I could see how it would be easy to let things and stuff get in the way of praising God. I could easily see how wealth could provide more and more opportunities to be away from the presence of God and away from that precious day of rest. You buy yourself a boat, and before you know it you justify taking a lazy Sunday to sail across the water. And you've enjoyed it so much that you do it again, and again, and again, and before you know it, it's been a month since you've been to church, and hey, there's that trip you've been meaning to take, what's a few more weeks away from church, and then poof. Just like that, God has taken a backseat. By remembering Solomon and his example, we can strive to do the opposite. We can strive to keep our focus on God.
What comes from Him can bless us abundantly, we just need to be prepared for those blessings. That is one of the reasons we go through times of change and growing, it's to prepare us for the abundance that God wants to bless us with. How we handle the abundance the first time around may set the stage for future blessings as well. When we're in dire straights, and we are blessed with a sum of money- what's the first thing we do with it? It used to be that we would take the opportunity to have the extra cash and go do something special. We'd go out to dinner or go buy something frivolous. We had our focus on ourselves, and what we could do with that money to make our lives better. But when we shifted that focus, when we had that sum of money and rejoiced first in the fact that we were able to put something in the offering plate, that's when we began to see that shift. We focused on God. We thanked him for providing that paycheck or that bonus or that surprise gift of cash, and then we gave a portion of it back to him. We also asked for an opportunity to pay it forward and that He bless the giver of that gift hundred-fold.
When you keep the focus on God, the money doesn't matter so much. (And this really wasn't where I intended to go today with the devotional, yet here it is.) This past winter as we watched the bills pile up and get bigger and bigger I just had to thank God. I had to thank Him for the lesson we were learning about debt, and I also thanked Him because I knew the means were coming to take care of them. Sure, a large part of me prayed for a miraculous answer, for the bills to simply go away. But no matter the means, isn't any of it miraculous? The fact that Andy's been prosperous at work has meant that those back bills have been disappearing one at a time. Not because of his hard work or my diligence at paying the bills, but because God provided for us. But first and foremost-the number one lesson that we have learned is that we have to keep God our focus, and keep God number one.
From every dollar that comes into the bank account, a portion goes back to God. God wanted to deal with us on that first, he wanted us to get into the routine of tithing. And this year, not only have we been tithing on the income, but also on the extras. Our regular tithe goes to church, our tithe from the extra income goes to other ministries that God places on our heart to support. When we tithe, we never, ever miss the money. But Erika, you're saying, it's easy to not miss the money when your paychecks are so nice. And that is so true, but. (Yes, there is a but.) Before we could get to where we are now, we had to start at the bottom. We started by tithing off those teeny tiny unemployment checks. We did not have enough coming in to make ends meet, yet we began tithing off that tiny bit. And as God saw that we were being responsible with what was coming in, he began increasing. We delighted completely the day Andy's first paycheck came in and I was able to call Andy and tell him how much our tithe check was going to be. We praised God with all our hearts that we were able to give back to him a portion of what he blessed us with.
And along the way, we've also learned about extra giving. And this, perhaps, is where we've seen the most growth. I know you know what I'm talking about today. You're sitting in church, and a missionary is visiting, and the church goes to take an extra offering, and there's one part of you that so wants to put that $20 in the plate, but you also know that's your last bit of money until Wednesday, and you'll need it for gas. What do you do?
Do you know that when you follow through on an act of blessing of this nature, it comes back to you? There was one week, not that long ago, where I felt that God wanted me to give to GodTV. We've been watching GodTV quite a bit, and the channel itself has been such a blessing. When we feel down and out, we just pop on GodTv and let whatever is on flow into our hearts and soul and it's almost like an infusion straight from God. But there was one day, I really felt strongly that I should give to GodTV. It was strange to me, because I was used to tithing, I wasn't used to spontaneous giving. Yet I did. I went online, and a few clicks later I'd made my donation, and I prayed that we wouldn't need that money ourselves in the days to come, and also prayed that God would take that donation and multiply it where it was needed for GodTv. Now, I am totally telling the truth here that two days later, Andy comes home from work with a lump sum of extra cash in his hands. Some co-workers had taken in scrap for recycling and shared the money with him from taking it in. Andy came home with double what our donation had been.
God will bless a cheerful giver every single time. When you are focused on God, that giving is done cheerfully, because you know God is behind your motivation for doing so. If you're putting that twenty bucks in the offering plate, but seething on the inside because you really don't want to do it, you're in the wrong frame of mind, and you're not focused on God. We need to not be like Solomon and allow the ways and things of this world to distract us. We really don't need that fancy new car, that state-of-the art computer, the latest video game system or that really cool new camper. We need God, and he will provide the rest. Cross my heart. Focus on God, and all the rest will fall into place. Show him that you can be trusted with a little, and he will increase that little to a whole lot- because that's what he wants for you. He wants to bless you and provide for you, but he also wants to know that you're going to be responsible with what he does give you.
"Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. 15To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16The man who had received the five talents went at once and put his money to work and gained five more. 17So also, the one with the two talents gained two more. 18But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
19"After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.'
21"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
22"The man with the two talents also came. 'Master,' he said, 'you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.'
23"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
24"Then the man who had received the one talent came. 'Master,' he said, 'I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.'
26"His master replied, 'You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28" 'Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25:14-30
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Giving The Glory To God
"While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. Then he said:
"Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David." 1 Kings 8:14-15
This morning's Bible reading took me to the book of 1 Kings. I'm not sure what led me there in the first place, but I picked up chapter one and read straight through to chapter 8. What struck me as I read is that there are a lot of details there that one may think is trivial. In those chapters, King David dies and the Kingship of Israel is passed along to Solomon. Solomon then proceeds to build a temple and his palace. The temple took seven years to build, and the palace thirteen. The whole time, 1 Kings is describing the details that went into building each one. Normally, I think I would have just kind of skimmed over the details. I mean, why is it important that we know that one room was 50 cubits long? And why was it important to note that the pieces to the temple were finished off-site, that no iron working tools were used on the actual temple itself? I honestly don't know, God does, and I'm sure those details are there for a reason.
But as I read through these details, I noticed something. I read a lot, and I recognized a pattern building. The tone of what I was reading was building a sort of suspense. As each detail was revealed, it was like another step closer to something really and truly exciting. It was not unlike driving down the road to a destination and seeing the signs off to the side that tell you you're getting closer- you get even more excited as each sign goes by, and the excitement and suspense begins mounting. And then you finally get to your destination.
As I read 1 Kings, chapter 8, I realized that I was about to read something really exciting, and then I had to read it twice. So I'll paste it again here.
"While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. Then he said:
"Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David."
It took Solomon seven years to build a temple and thirteen years to build his palace, but look who he gave the credit to. He didn't stand in front of the assembly of Israel and say "look what I did" or even "look what we all did, working together". He said "Look what God did." He gave all the credit and all the glory to God for seeing the project through to completion. He praised God for fulfilling His promise to David in front of the nation of Israel- any other king in that position would have praised himself.
There is definitely something to learn here and to take away from this. No matter how hard we work, or how long we work at something, it is not for us that we are toiling. We are toiling so that we can give God the glory for what He has allowed us to accomplish. We are giving God the glory for fulfilling his promises to us. It would be so easy at this point to look at Andy's success with work this year and say that Andy did well, Andy worked very hard and has deserved the rewards that has come along with that hard work. And while all that is true, the credit and the glory goes all to God. God is the one that provided the employer and the lucrative work that Andy's been doing all summer. God is the one who provided the energy Andy's needed to accomplish each day of work, and God is the one who provided the paychecks that have blessed us greatly.
The fact is, we are nothing without God. When we accomplish something great, it is through God that we accomplish it. God gives us those abilities and that drive to succeed at our tasks-no matter what the task is. It could be something as simple as baking a cake or something as complicated as building a house. Without God, we are nothing, and we need to give Him the glory for all we do and accomplish. We can thank God for Solomon's example, and take it to heart and remember that we are not seeking praise for ourselves, we are seeking praise for God.
"Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David." 1 Kings 8:14-15
This morning's Bible reading took me to the book of 1 Kings. I'm not sure what led me there in the first place, but I picked up chapter one and read straight through to chapter 8. What struck me as I read is that there are a lot of details there that one may think is trivial. In those chapters, King David dies and the Kingship of Israel is passed along to Solomon. Solomon then proceeds to build a temple and his palace. The temple took seven years to build, and the palace thirteen. The whole time, 1 Kings is describing the details that went into building each one. Normally, I think I would have just kind of skimmed over the details. I mean, why is it important that we know that one room was 50 cubits long? And why was it important to note that the pieces to the temple were finished off-site, that no iron working tools were used on the actual temple itself? I honestly don't know, God does, and I'm sure those details are there for a reason.
But as I read through these details, I noticed something. I read a lot, and I recognized a pattern building. The tone of what I was reading was building a sort of suspense. As each detail was revealed, it was like another step closer to something really and truly exciting. It was not unlike driving down the road to a destination and seeing the signs off to the side that tell you you're getting closer- you get even more excited as each sign goes by, and the excitement and suspense begins mounting. And then you finally get to your destination.
As I read 1 Kings, chapter 8, I realized that I was about to read something really exciting, and then I had to read it twice. So I'll paste it again here.
"While the whole assembly of Israel was standing there, the king turned around and blessed them. Then he said:
"Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, who with his own hand has fulfilled what he promised with his own mouth to my father David."
It took Solomon seven years to build a temple and thirteen years to build his palace, but look who he gave the credit to. He didn't stand in front of the assembly of Israel and say "look what I did" or even "look what we all did, working together". He said "Look what God did." He gave all the credit and all the glory to God for seeing the project through to completion. He praised God for fulfilling His promise to David in front of the nation of Israel- any other king in that position would have praised himself.
There is definitely something to learn here and to take away from this. No matter how hard we work, or how long we work at something, it is not for us that we are toiling. We are toiling so that we can give God the glory for what He has allowed us to accomplish. We are giving God the glory for fulfilling his promises to us. It would be so easy at this point to look at Andy's success with work this year and say that Andy did well, Andy worked very hard and has deserved the rewards that has come along with that hard work. And while all that is true, the credit and the glory goes all to God. God is the one that provided the employer and the lucrative work that Andy's been doing all summer. God is the one who provided the energy Andy's needed to accomplish each day of work, and God is the one who provided the paychecks that have blessed us greatly.
The fact is, we are nothing without God. When we accomplish something great, it is through God that we accomplish it. God gives us those abilities and that drive to succeed at our tasks-no matter what the task is. It could be something as simple as baking a cake or something as complicated as building a house. Without God, we are nothing, and we need to give Him the glory for all we do and accomplish. We can thank God for Solomon's example, and take it to heart and remember that we are not seeking praise for ourselves, we are seeking praise for God.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Fattening Up
"The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
But the soul of the diligent is made fat." Proverbs 13:4
This verse made me smile this morning because it's different. In normal life if you are a sluggard and do nothing, you get fat and your body becomes poorly. If you are diligent in being active and eating right, you become thin, your body does very well and is overall more healthy. But here in this verse we're talking about the soul. We're talking about the very core of you- what makes you you. It's very interesting to me to see the absolute truth here, and to see the exact opposite of our physical bodies in play.
If we go through life being busy with life and don't take the time to feed our soul, our soul will be become withered. It's also more than just taking a time out to do some Bible reading or going to church, it's also about taking the initiative to do just that. It's about actually taking care of those intentions instead of just letting them hang out there. And I know we all know what I'm talking about. Just this morning I was woken up at 5:15 am. That's over an hour before the alarm was supposed to go off. Just the same, the carbon monoxide detector decided at that moment to be low on batteries and beep. I got up and pulled out the bad batteries so it would stop beeping and allow the kids to sleep. Looked at the clock, and my very first thought was "only an hour to the alarm, maybe I should get up and read my Bible." Followed by "I wonder if I can get back to sleep- that's another hour I can sleep." And which do you think I chose? It's very kind of you to think I chose wisely and chose the first one. But the truth is that I crawled back into bed, closed my eyes, and then proceeded to toss and turn for the next hour. I didn't sleep a wink, and I also didn't get any extra Bible reading in. Basically, it was a complete waste of an hour. Even worse, I had the same thing happen this past Monday morning- although it was an early morning phone call and not the CO detector.
And in retrospect, I obviously chose poorly, and I wonder if it happens again will I rise to the occasion and grab hold of the opportunity to feed my soul? I wonder if I had gotten up would my day have gone better? In Monday's case, I woke with a cold, so the day was kind of a bust before it even began. In today's case, I'm already anticipating that I'm going to be needing an extra shot of caffeine or two to simply make it to the end of the day. Perhaps if I'd chosen wisely and got up and fed my soul instead, God would have just given me a natural energy boost to make it through the day productively.
It's easy for me to give God the end of my day. I'm home alone during the week, so I tuck the kids into bed and then I usually take the rest of my day to relax. I catch up on blogging or watch something. I've been working on learning some new skills with a needle as well, and I use that time for that. But it's nothing for me to stay up an extra hour or so to catch up on what God wants to tell me. It's easy to do that. It's so much easier to give up that hour of sleep at the end of my day. It's not so easy to give up that hour at the beginning of the day. So the question is: is waking up an hour early twice in one week coincidence? I doubt it. But am I going to take that step? Am I going to listen to what the Holy Spirit is pushing me towards? That is a tough one for me- so tough! I so want my soul to fatten, but maybe the end of the day isn't where I'm getting the best feeding. Maybe it's that morning one I need to really give me what I need. *Sigh* This is going to be a tough one.
But the soul of the diligent is made fat." Proverbs 13:4
This verse made me smile this morning because it's different. In normal life if you are a sluggard and do nothing, you get fat and your body becomes poorly. If you are diligent in being active and eating right, you become thin, your body does very well and is overall more healthy. But here in this verse we're talking about the soul. We're talking about the very core of you- what makes you you. It's very interesting to me to see the absolute truth here, and to see the exact opposite of our physical bodies in play.
If we go through life being busy with life and don't take the time to feed our soul, our soul will be become withered. It's also more than just taking a time out to do some Bible reading or going to church, it's also about taking the initiative to do just that. It's about actually taking care of those intentions instead of just letting them hang out there. And I know we all know what I'm talking about. Just this morning I was woken up at 5:15 am. That's over an hour before the alarm was supposed to go off. Just the same, the carbon monoxide detector decided at that moment to be low on batteries and beep. I got up and pulled out the bad batteries so it would stop beeping and allow the kids to sleep. Looked at the clock, and my very first thought was "only an hour to the alarm, maybe I should get up and read my Bible." Followed by "I wonder if I can get back to sleep- that's another hour I can sleep." And which do you think I chose? It's very kind of you to think I chose wisely and chose the first one. But the truth is that I crawled back into bed, closed my eyes, and then proceeded to toss and turn for the next hour. I didn't sleep a wink, and I also didn't get any extra Bible reading in. Basically, it was a complete waste of an hour. Even worse, I had the same thing happen this past Monday morning- although it was an early morning phone call and not the CO detector.
And in retrospect, I obviously chose poorly, and I wonder if it happens again will I rise to the occasion and grab hold of the opportunity to feed my soul? I wonder if I had gotten up would my day have gone better? In Monday's case, I woke with a cold, so the day was kind of a bust before it even began. In today's case, I'm already anticipating that I'm going to be needing an extra shot of caffeine or two to simply make it to the end of the day. Perhaps if I'd chosen wisely and got up and fed my soul instead, God would have just given me a natural energy boost to make it through the day productively.
It's easy for me to give God the end of my day. I'm home alone during the week, so I tuck the kids into bed and then I usually take the rest of my day to relax. I catch up on blogging or watch something. I've been working on learning some new skills with a needle as well, and I use that time for that. But it's nothing for me to stay up an extra hour or so to catch up on what God wants to tell me. It's easy to do that. It's so much easier to give up that hour of sleep at the end of my day. It's not so easy to give up that hour at the beginning of the day. So the question is: is waking up an hour early twice in one week coincidence? I doubt it. But am I going to take that step? Am I going to listen to what the Holy Spirit is pushing me towards? That is a tough one for me- so tough! I so want my soul to fatten, but maybe the end of the day isn't where I'm getting the best feeding. Maybe it's that morning one I need to really give me what I need. *Sigh* This is going to be a tough one.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Surrendering
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. " Jeremiah 29:11-13
What was that I wrote yesterday about just the right verse jumping out of the Bible at me? Lol. I am a take charge sort of person. I am not the first person to volunteer to take the charge, but if a task is presented to me or I am asked to do something, I'll run with it as far as I can take it. I also usually follow through on the task to the absolute best of my ability. So when something changes here at home, when we find ourselves moving in a different direction, I take that up almost immediately. I think about the last time we decided it was time to move. The day we made the decision, and before we'd even found a new home or gave our notice, I was already beginning to pack things up and make those all-important lists. Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm already planning the meal in my head. I am a planner, and I love it when a plan comes together.
Except that my plans are not always the same as God's plans. When Andy first took his job working for a company out of another town 45 minutes away, I decided instantly that one of the things that meant was that we needed to move to that little community. So I started looking up things online about that community. Obviously, we never moved there. God's plans were for us to stay right where he'd planted us. Even this past week, we went and checked out a church 30 minutes away. Before we even went, I had it half in my mind to be sure and check out the community we were in, because it may be God's will that we move to that community. I'm just so quick to jump the gun sometimes! I think that part of me is just so willing to do whatever God asks that I look for the possibilities before they even present themselves.
I'm starting to think though, that I most likely have no idea what God has in store for us. And what I need to do more than anything is use that patience that we've been learning. I just have such a natural sense of urgency, that when something needs to be done, it needs to be done yesterday. (Well, unless we're talking about housework, then I seem to be able to let that slide from time to time.) But God knows what He has planned for us, and He'll share that with us when the time is right. I need to trust that His timing will be best, and I just need to spend more time seeking Him in the meantime, learning more each and every day how to trust.
And actually, this means a second thing to me too. For me, it's much more than learning to trust in God, it's also learning to trust my husband. It wasn't too long ago that he was the baby Christian and I was the more mature Christian, and many of the decisions we made were based on a lot of what I had learned from the Bible or from God. In the last few years though, my husband has grown 100-fold in his walk with God, and I need to trust that. I need to trust that when he says that he really feels God speaking to Him, that it is what it is. I need to remember that God has placed my husband at the head of this household and that God will guide him in the important decisions we need to make. That doesn't mean that I can't question him or discuss matters with him, but it does mean that I need to be more careful about discarding some of the things that he says.
Reading this verse today is so exciting. Just look at it again! "For I know the plans I have for you!" And that comes straight from God Himself. Even better, look at the next part "plans to prosper you and not to harm you." I'm going to hold God to that one, as well as the next part "plans to give you hope and a future." I'm looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for us, and for our children. But until it is time for the future to be the now, I will settle for being patient and seeking. Otherwise I will drive myself batty.
What was that I wrote yesterday about just the right verse jumping out of the Bible at me? Lol. I am a take charge sort of person. I am not the first person to volunteer to take the charge, but if a task is presented to me or I am asked to do something, I'll run with it as far as I can take it. I also usually follow through on the task to the absolute best of my ability. So when something changes here at home, when we find ourselves moving in a different direction, I take that up almost immediately. I think about the last time we decided it was time to move. The day we made the decision, and before we'd even found a new home or gave our notice, I was already beginning to pack things up and make those all-important lists. Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm already planning the meal in my head. I am a planner, and I love it when a plan comes together.
Except that my plans are not always the same as God's plans. When Andy first took his job working for a company out of another town 45 minutes away, I decided instantly that one of the things that meant was that we needed to move to that little community. So I started looking up things online about that community. Obviously, we never moved there. God's plans were for us to stay right where he'd planted us. Even this past week, we went and checked out a church 30 minutes away. Before we even went, I had it half in my mind to be sure and check out the community we were in, because it may be God's will that we move to that community. I'm just so quick to jump the gun sometimes! I think that part of me is just so willing to do whatever God asks that I look for the possibilities before they even present themselves.
I'm starting to think though, that I most likely have no idea what God has in store for us. And what I need to do more than anything is use that patience that we've been learning. I just have such a natural sense of urgency, that when something needs to be done, it needs to be done yesterday. (Well, unless we're talking about housework, then I seem to be able to let that slide from time to time.) But God knows what He has planned for us, and He'll share that with us when the time is right. I need to trust that His timing will be best, and I just need to spend more time seeking Him in the meantime, learning more each and every day how to trust.
And actually, this means a second thing to me too. For me, it's much more than learning to trust in God, it's also learning to trust my husband. It wasn't too long ago that he was the baby Christian and I was the more mature Christian, and many of the decisions we made were based on a lot of what I had learned from the Bible or from God. In the last few years though, my husband has grown 100-fold in his walk with God, and I need to trust that. I need to trust that when he says that he really feels God speaking to Him, that it is what it is. I need to remember that God has placed my husband at the head of this household and that God will guide him in the important decisions we need to make. That doesn't mean that I can't question him or discuss matters with him, but it does mean that I need to be more careful about discarding some of the things that he says.
Reading this verse today is so exciting. Just look at it again! "For I know the plans I have for you!" And that comes straight from God Himself. Even better, look at the next part "plans to prosper you and not to harm you." I'm going to hold God to that one, as well as the next part "plans to give you hope and a future." I'm looking forward to seeing what the future has in store for us, and for our children. But until it is time for the future to be the now, I will settle for being patient and seeking. Otherwise I will drive myself batty.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Confidence To Move Ahead
"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." Hebrews 10:35-36
I read this verse this morning and it was as if it blazed itself right into my heart. I just love it when I read a word from the Bible and it's as if it was written just for me, just at that moment. I have lots of thoughts rolling around my head this morning, so I'll try and keep them in line so they make sense. But this verse this morning was like a much needed shot in the arm. When we made the decision a few weeks ago to listen to what God had been telling us and make big changes in the life of our family, we took a big step of faith. And since then, we've kind of been in an awkward place of questioning everything. And I mean everything. Part of us is worried that we'll make the wrong choices and the wrong decisions, and we're worried that the devil will do everything in his power to lead us astray.
One of the things that we'd hoped would keep going with this time of transition was our small group time. We cherish the families who come to our group and really value our time together. But wouldn't you know, as soon as we shared our hearts, other opportunities began coming up for members of our group. Our group has given up it's Sunday afternoons and evenings religiously for...hmm... I think it's almost four years. And just like that, other opportunities have sprung up for different people in our group and it looks like now our cherished group time has come to a close for now. And at first, we were really worried about that. We were worried that what was really happening was the enemy coming against our group and doing what it can to break it up. But then we really looked at what was happening, and it's not like people in our group are just going to sit at home doing nothing. They're going to be using the time for God, to take a new direction that wasn't available for them before. And that's a great thing. Where we started out worried, we now have confidence that God will use that time for each and every one of our group members to benefit them. We also have confidence that our time will be filled as well with something new and exciting- and we're looking forward to seeing what that is!
I guess at times I almost find myself just looking around a little wild-eyed and thinking to myself, what is really going on here? You know, I look at everything cross-eyed, waiting for something bad to happen because of the choices we've made. This past Sunday we went to a church that we really had high hopes for, and while we all enjoyed our time with the church we didn't have that moment of "this is the one" and I think we were all a bit disappointed with that. That means our quest continues, and if you've ever flipped open the yellow pages and looked at the church listings, you could see how our task might seem daunting.
But I have confidence. I have confidence that we are following God's timing. That when it's time for us to walk into our new church home, that they will be ready for us. I have confidence that we are in a season of growth and that one of the things we are growing is patience. And we will persevere! We will continue seeking His Word and spending time in prayer, and we will continue to seek out the church family that God has for us. We are still a part of the big church, and that in itself is a big boost to not be discouraged. We are all part of God's church, and that is a wonderful thought to dwell on. We are just looking for that little piece of believers where we can be put to good use for His Glory.
I have confidence in my God to us through to completion on this one. And in the meantime I will rest in Him and I will listen to what he has to say to me each and every day.
"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him." Psalm 62:1
I read this verse this morning and it was as if it blazed itself right into my heart. I just love it when I read a word from the Bible and it's as if it was written just for me, just at that moment. I have lots of thoughts rolling around my head this morning, so I'll try and keep them in line so they make sense. But this verse this morning was like a much needed shot in the arm. When we made the decision a few weeks ago to listen to what God had been telling us and make big changes in the life of our family, we took a big step of faith. And since then, we've kind of been in an awkward place of questioning everything. And I mean everything. Part of us is worried that we'll make the wrong choices and the wrong decisions, and we're worried that the devil will do everything in his power to lead us astray.
One of the things that we'd hoped would keep going with this time of transition was our small group time. We cherish the families who come to our group and really value our time together. But wouldn't you know, as soon as we shared our hearts, other opportunities began coming up for members of our group. Our group has given up it's Sunday afternoons and evenings religiously for...hmm... I think it's almost four years. And just like that, other opportunities have sprung up for different people in our group and it looks like now our cherished group time has come to a close for now. And at first, we were really worried about that. We were worried that what was really happening was the enemy coming against our group and doing what it can to break it up. But then we really looked at what was happening, and it's not like people in our group are just going to sit at home doing nothing. They're going to be using the time for God, to take a new direction that wasn't available for them before. And that's a great thing. Where we started out worried, we now have confidence that God will use that time for each and every one of our group members to benefit them. We also have confidence that our time will be filled as well with something new and exciting- and we're looking forward to seeing what that is!
I guess at times I almost find myself just looking around a little wild-eyed and thinking to myself, what is really going on here? You know, I look at everything cross-eyed, waiting for something bad to happen because of the choices we've made. This past Sunday we went to a church that we really had high hopes for, and while we all enjoyed our time with the church we didn't have that moment of "this is the one" and I think we were all a bit disappointed with that. That means our quest continues, and if you've ever flipped open the yellow pages and looked at the church listings, you could see how our task might seem daunting.
But I have confidence. I have confidence that we are following God's timing. That when it's time for us to walk into our new church home, that they will be ready for us. I have confidence that we are in a season of growth and that one of the things we are growing is patience. And we will persevere! We will continue seeking His Word and spending time in prayer, and we will continue to seek out the church family that God has for us. We are still a part of the big church, and that in itself is a big boost to not be discouraged. We are all part of God's church, and that is a wonderful thought to dwell on. We are just looking for that little piece of believers where we can be put to good use for His Glory.
I have confidence in my God to us through to completion on this one. And in the meantime I will rest in Him and I will listen to what he has to say to me each and every day.
"My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him." Psalm 62:1
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
What To Do While Waiting
"My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
and store up my commands within you,
turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,
and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God." Proverbs 2:1-5
While we are in a time of waiting here, it could be so easy to do just that. To sit and wait. To go about daily life as normal, just patiently waiting for the day that God would say to us to go, and then show us where to go. I know we do that with our regular every day stuff. We look at the calendar and say there's less than 100 days to Christmas, and while we know that in our minds, and we also know that we like to give people gifts, yet we tend to not go out and buy our gifts until the last minute. We do that with the summer even. We enjoy the lazy days of summer and then all the sudden there's only a few weeks left, and there's a huge list of things to do that we never got around to. We're so content to just wait for the next thing to come along. But this time, it's going to be different.
This time, while we are waiting to see where God wants us, we are going to do our own work to get to that point. Rather than wait for God to come to us we are going to spend some time going to him. We're spending a little more time in His Word, praying that His words will hold meaning in our lives. We're spending a little more time in prayer, not so much praying for ourselves, but for the many people that the Holy Spirit has placed on our minds to pray for. We're going to make the choice to not spend our Sunday afternoons watching football and instead focus on our children and spending time with them. Basically, we're taking action while we're waiting, instead of simply waiting. And everything that we are doing, everything that we are making our focus, will help us as we turn the next page. Spending time in God's Word could never be a bad thing, and the more time we spend in it, the more God may reveal to us. We want to store up his commands in our hearts so that we can reflect that to those around us.
And maybe by being proactive about this, other areas of life will naturally fall in. I can't tell you how many times I'll look at a clock and think to myself that I only have so many minutes left before I have to do this or that, so then instead of doing something productive, I'll sit at the computer for those 10 or 15 minutes. Do you know how much other things I could get done in 10 minutes? I can clean my living room top to bottom in 10 minutes. Do I do it? Of course not, that would be productive. I would like to be more mindful of those little nuggets of time that I am wasting away. And the first step, at least for me, is to give some of those nuggets of time to God and ask Him to help me use them wisely.
Anyway, it's a good thing to do as long as we're waiting anyways, right? And if I can just take that mindset and make it mine, I think I'll be in better shape because of it.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sharing The Excitement
"For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." Acts 4:20
Joy and excitement are contagious! Did you ever notice that? Last night we got to spend some time with some friends that we haven't spent a whole lot of time with lately- life happens and people get busy, and that's okay. What was extra special about spending time with these friends was that they shared with us that they are expecting a little one for the first time. Oh my! How exciting is that! And as they shared their news and some of the details, we very quickly were caught up in their excitement and spent a bit of time being excited with them. Happiness is so contagious!
Even yesterday, as we went to a new church for the first time, we were excited about simply checking it out, the message was great, the kids had a nice time in children's church, and when we left we felt like we were energized, we'd received something great from that church. On the way home we passed a large Lutheran church that was attached to a school, and Andy and I noted to each other that it looked new and nicely done. Fast forward a few hours and Abigail decided to ask me about that church attached to a school. She asked why they were attached, and so I told her a little about it. She got very excited- and her eyes lit up and she looked at me and asked "so they get to learn about God- even in school?" And when I said yes, she very excitedly said "Cool!" and went back to her watermelon. That really made me think for a minute. And I'm still thinking about it.
Over the last several weeks as we've made decisions and discussed plans, Andy and I have made no secrets with our kids, but I think we don't realize how much they just listen to the things we say and talk about. And we've also made no secret about being excited about discovering God's plan and place for us, and by golly if I don't think my kids are catching that excitement! They are eager to learn more, and they also know that we're looking to them to help us decide which church we are going to call home for the time being. It was pretty cute yesterday to discover that both kids have what they call "head lists" putting churches in order of their favorite to least-favorite.
The thing is, when God is such a focus and a feature of our life, we can't help but talk about it-whether we're talking to a neighbor or our children. And as we talk about the things that God has been working with us on or that we're anticipating, we get excited, and people want to know more. Our kids want to know more about God, our friends want to know more about how we place our faith in God, and our neighbors want to know more about this God. God is so exciting to us, that this verse in Acts speaks right to the core of how we are feeling, that we cannot help but talk about what we are experiencing. God is so gracious and amazing and even though I know right now that we are in a time of learning patience, I can be excited about that patience, because that means that we are learning something important that we'll need in the next stage of life for us. It's exciting! And I pray with all my heart that the excitement is contagious and that we get even more opportunities to share what God is doing in our lives. Because that's what it's all about ultimately, doing what we can to help bring more believers to Christ. Now that's a plan that I can get behind!
Joy and excitement are contagious! Did you ever notice that? Last night we got to spend some time with some friends that we haven't spent a whole lot of time with lately- life happens and people get busy, and that's okay. What was extra special about spending time with these friends was that they shared with us that they are expecting a little one for the first time. Oh my! How exciting is that! And as they shared their news and some of the details, we very quickly were caught up in their excitement and spent a bit of time being excited with them. Happiness is so contagious!
Even yesterday, as we went to a new church for the first time, we were excited about simply checking it out, the message was great, the kids had a nice time in children's church, and when we left we felt like we were energized, we'd received something great from that church. On the way home we passed a large Lutheran church that was attached to a school, and Andy and I noted to each other that it looked new and nicely done. Fast forward a few hours and Abigail decided to ask me about that church attached to a school. She asked why they were attached, and so I told her a little about it. She got very excited- and her eyes lit up and she looked at me and asked "so they get to learn about God- even in school?" And when I said yes, she very excitedly said "Cool!" and went back to her watermelon. That really made me think for a minute. And I'm still thinking about it.
Over the last several weeks as we've made decisions and discussed plans, Andy and I have made no secrets with our kids, but I think we don't realize how much they just listen to the things we say and talk about. And we've also made no secret about being excited about discovering God's plan and place for us, and by golly if I don't think my kids are catching that excitement! They are eager to learn more, and they also know that we're looking to them to help us decide which church we are going to call home for the time being. It was pretty cute yesterday to discover that both kids have what they call "head lists" putting churches in order of their favorite to least-favorite.
The thing is, when God is such a focus and a feature of our life, we can't help but talk about it-whether we're talking to a neighbor or our children. And as we talk about the things that God has been working with us on or that we're anticipating, we get excited, and people want to know more. Our kids want to know more about God, our friends want to know more about how we place our faith in God, and our neighbors want to know more about this God. God is so exciting to us, that this verse in Acts speaks right to the core of how we are feeling, that we cannot help but talk about what we are experiencing. God is so gracious and amazing and even though I know right now that we are in a time of learning patience, I can be excited about that patience, because that means that we are learning something important that we'll need in the next stage of life for us. It's exciting! And I pray with all my heart that the excitement is contagious and that we get even more opportunities to share what God is doing in our lives. Because that's what it's all about ultimately, doing what we can to help bring more believers to Christ. Now that's a plan that I can get behind!
Saturday, September 20, 2008
To Be Child-Like
"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." Mark 9:37
"When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Mark 10:14
Children are truly the most precious gifts from God. Jesus made a name for himself in the New Testament by always seeking out the children, by allowing them to spend time with him. One of the things that I love about my children, and other children is their sense of wonder. Once upon a time I was a manager for an educational toy store, and it was always a treat to watch kids walk into the store for the first time. It was a good-sized store, and all toys and games, and every possible thing a child could play with. As they made their way through the store, you could just see the excitement and the joy as they touched and played and explored everything there was to explore. Even better though, were the adults who set aside their adult-ness for a time and got down on the floor and played with their kids. That Dad who threw dignity aside and plopped right in the middle of the carpet and drove cars and trucks with his son. Or that Mom who ran to the back of the store to meet Angelina Ballerina and give her a hug. Shoot, that was one of the benefits of working at the toy store- we had permission to play with anything at anytime. We all had yo-yo's in our pockets, and during down times we could frequently be caught working on a few tricks.
The Disney corporation makes a big promotional campaign about how adults at their theme parks become like children again for a time while they are there. And how true that is! When we were at Disney, we so enjoyed the time meeting princesses and riding rides and exploring Mickey Mouse's house. It was a wonderland, designed for the whole family to enjoy. We talk often about going back soon to explore again with our growing children.
But how much more is Heaven going to be. :-) It's going to be so much more wonderful than even Walt Disney could have imagined. And when we are in Heaven we will all be as children.
So maybe we need to take a little more time to spend with children. Their excitement and wonder is contagious, and it's also interesting to note that in my son's mind, God can and will do anything and everything. Yet as adults, we lose that. We lose that faith that God can and will do anything and everything. We worry about asking praying with the right words, or worry about asking in just the right way. I think it's about time we started thinking more like a child. Go to our Heavenly Father with that sense of wonder, that sense of joy, and ask our petitions, knowing full well that he will grant us that which makes our hearts happy.
"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" Matthew 7:9-11
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