Last week as I was preparing my Sunday School lesson I got to thinking about Noah. The Bible says, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," Genesis 6:8. It was a wonderful thing for Noah and his family that they did. No doubt about that. God's grace brought them through the destruction of the entire world and all its inhabitants, and through a brand new beginning in a world that was now hardly recognizable. I wonder about the emotional impact that great flood had on Noah, and more especially, on the womenfolk who were aboard the ark. God made everything new. The Bible says Noah found grace.
But the grace that brought the Noah family through that terrible apocalypse also required Noah to endure possibly a hundred years of ark building while the world mocked on. As a "preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5) he warned the world of God's coming judgment and had not one convert (except maybe his sons' wives). There was much work to do in gathering food for his family and all God's animals. He and his family endured an entire year of cabin fever in a closed-up boat, eating the same simple meals every day and cleaning up after a whole population of smelly beasts. When they got off the ark, they must have felt like they had traveled to a different planet. How lonely they must have been those first few years!
In my way of thinking, supposing I were Noah, finding grace in God's sight would have meant something different. God would have come to me and said, "Noah, you have found grace in my sight. I am going to completely destroy the world and everyone in it, but I will save you and your family. I am going to make an ark big enough for your family and all the animals I choose. Your neighbors will be respectful of your faith, and even though none of them will believe you, they won't bother you, either. In fact, I will cause them to help you gather food for your journey. The ark will have lots of windows, with strong awnings, so you can get some fresh air in there, and there will be a covered deck so you can go outside and get some sun after the first forty days. When you come off the ark, I will have made you and your sons beautiful homes and fields all ready to harvest. My grace will make things easier for you."
That's not what happened, though. Finding grace with God didn't mean an easier life, in fact, it meant a lot more trouble and difficulty and things Noah would otherwise never have experienced.
So here is what I have been thinking about. The troubles and difficulties I am seeing now -- are they actually part of God's grace in my life? I think they must be! Knowing that these things are part of the process of his grace should make my heart more grateful, don't you think? I know this. Every Christian knows this. But I feel like this is sort of a new realization, like this "bad" stuff really is God's plan for me, and not just obstacles for me to overcome in order to follow his plan. This IS the plan! I can trust him with this! Up until now, I think my understanding of God's grace has been all wrong. I''ll be chewing on this for a while.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8,9
For as Jonas was three days and three nights
in the whale's belly;
so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:40
Have you ever wondered how we get three days and three nights from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning? Tradition can really mess up the way we understand God's word. For a concise explanation, see here.
Another tradition we should examine is observing the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.
Why did "the church" adopt the "observing of times" in their worship? Did you know that the early Christians didn't keep an annual observance of the resurrection day? That observance was added to the church "calendar" many, many years later. See my earlier post on the word "Easter", if you are curious about the use of that word in the King James Bible, in Acts 12:4.
Don't be one of those to whom Jesus was speaking when he said, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. Mark 7:9
In Judges 13 begins the story of Samson. Like many other new parents, Samson’s mother and father desired to have the Lord tell them exactly how they were to raise this child. “God, what is your will? How shall we diaper him, Lord? Cloth or disposable? How should we spank correctly? Private school or public school, Lord? How can I teach him to respect and obey me? And, Lord, how shall I teach him to respect and obey YOU?”
The response the Lord gave to Manoah and his wife was, I am certain, not the kind of answer they were expecting to hear. Here is their conversation, in short, in Judges 13:12-14:
“How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him? And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware. She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe.”
The answer to the question, how shall we order the child was, in essence, that the mother was to keep herself holy and separated and obedient unto the Lord! The diapering method and the child’s training and discipline were not going to be nearly as important in the life of that child as the influence of a godly mother was going to be!
To me, this is a sobering truth. No amount of correcting, training, reading aloud, giving of advice, counseling, yelling, spoiling, caressing, or reasoning with my child will have a greater influence in his/her life than will my example as a mother who is wholly given to the Lord. How will my child know that I love the Lord who gave him to me? He will know when he sees me committed to reading (and obeying) my Bible. He will know when I consistently fall to my knees in prayer, rather than worrying or fretting. He will know when he sees that I am committed to learning and memorizing and acting upon God’s word. He will know when he sees that I am repentant –not making excuses-- when I do wrong. He will know when I bundle him up and take him and his siblings to church on a cold, sleepy morning. He will know when I accept a difficult situation as if it is from the Lord, and thank him for it. He will know when he hears me break out into singing God’s praises. He will know, because in my consecration to the Lord I draw my child to the Lord.
A six-foot shelf full of child-training books will not teach me to raise my children the way living a godly life will. “But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day,” Proverbs 4:19. The closer I get to the Lord, the more I obey his Word and seek his face, the clearer will be God’s will for my child’s upbringing.
Rather than fretting over whether God wants my girls to have music lessons, or how to get them to apply themselves to their schoolwork, or when is a decent hour for bed-time for my children, I am resolved instead to keep fellowship with God. His working in MY heart and in MY life is the answer to all my questions concerning the children he has blessed me with!
The doctrine of eternal security, or "once saved, always saved", is one that comes under fire often. Many people trust Christ for their salvation, only to be told later that it is possible to lose it. When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary, the sinless blood he shed there was the payment for sins. For all sins. For everybody's sins. For everybody's sins in the past, for all the sins that were committed on the day of Christ's death, and for all of the sins that would be committed in the future of humanity. When Jesus died, your life was still many years in the future. And yet, his death paid the penalty for every one of your sins! They were all covered at once. I can tell you that I KNOW I have been saved from ALL my sins (past, present, future), and I will give you some scripture that explains why. But before I do that, think about these things:
~When Christ saved you, did he give you everlasting life or temporary life?
~Which one of your sins did Jesus NOT pay for when he was crucified for you?
~What kind of sin is bad enough to make you lose your salvation -- murder? Skipping church? Gossip? Unbelief? Adultery? Being depressed? (We're commanded to rejoice, you know.)
~Where is the "peace that passeth all understanding", if every day I wake up fearing I might lose my salvation?
~Once you "lose" it, how ever do you get it back (IF you can get it back)??? No one in the Bible was ever saved twice!!
~No one who teaches eternal INsecurity ever believes that they have lost it, or that they could lose it.
~No one who asks the Lord Jesus Christ to save their soul ever does so believing he might forsake them in the future. That is not faith. You have to be taught that you can lose it, and that teaching does not come from the Bible.
One of the reasons this heresy, that one can lose his salvation, is now so prevalent is that the newer Bible versions have removed the good words "justification", "redemption", and "propitiation" from the text. These words have been substituted with other words or other phrases that do not give us any assurance that salvation, the free gift of God, is for eternity. I will be quoting here from the King James Bible. If you are not reading the KJB, I suggest you open your version, whatever it is, to the following references to see what you are missing.
Read:
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,"
Romans 3:23-26
"Justified" is a judicial term that means one has been declared righteous. Although you were once guilty, the penalty for your has been paid in full. You are no longer viewed by the Judge as guilty. Hooray!! Once a person has been declared righteous, he is never tried again for that crime.
To be "redeemed" means to be bought back. In the book of Romans, chapter 7, the apostle Paul says he was "alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and [he] died." Later in the chapter he says he was now carnal, "sold under sin". No longer spiritually alive, Paul had an terrible new master --sin! (See chapter 6.) In order to be saved, he must be REDEEMED. Bought back. And he was! The blood of Jesus Christ was the payment, praise God. There is no scriptural example of one who was once redeemed by the blood of Christ, and then sold back to sin again!
A "propitiation" is a price paid to appease one whose wrath has been incurred. John 3 says of those who are lost (have not been eternally saved), "the wrath of God abideth on them." God the Father ordained that his own precious, sinless Son would be that payment. Isaiah 53:11 says, "He [God the Father] shall see the travail of his [Jesus Christ's] soul and shall be satisfied." When I received the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior from sin, I was accepting him as the only offering that I could present to God the Father for the forgiveness of my sins. No other offering coming from me was good enough to appease the wrath of God! Remember when Cain was too proud to ask Abel for a LAMB? He gave his own offering, not the one God ordained. The offering God ordained was the blood of an innocent lamb. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God!
"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10 "The blood of Jesus Christ [God's] Son cleanseth us from ALL SIN."1 John 1:7
There are two verses that people often use to teach that one can lose his salvation. One of them is 2 Timothy 2:12, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:" But look at the context. He is speaking here of denying him reign in our hearts and lives. If we deny him first place, he will deny us reign in his kingdom! The Bible goes on to say, "If we [We who? We Christians!] believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself." It is God himself, and God alone, who does both the saving and the keeping. You can read Galatians for more about that. Whether or not we can do something to keep our salvation is the theme of that book!
The other verse people use to teach eternal insecurity is this one: "For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Hebrew 10:26,27 That's true -- there is no more sacrifice for sins. The sacrifice for sins was made ONCE AND FOR ALL (Hebrews 10:10) at Calvary . And God does judge us for sins, even after we have been saved. That is not to say that he condemns saved sinners to hell for their sins. That's impossible. (What were those sinners then saved FROM??) "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 1 John 2:1,2
Although those two passages appear to be saying you could lose the salvation that God gave you for eternity, there are many MORE verses that very plainly say you can not. Read and believe the following verses, which apply to all who have repented of their sins and received Christ Jesus:
John 10:28 We shall NEVER perish
John 10:29 No one is able to remove you from God's hand.
John 6: 37 God will in NO WISE cast out those that come to him.
John 6: 39 The responsibility for keeping us saved belongs to God, and Jesus Christ can lose nothing.
Johns 5:24 says the kind of life I now have is EVERLASTING.
Romans 8:38 says nothing can separate the saved from the love of God.
1 Peter 1:5 says we are kept by the power of God.
Jude 24 God is able to keep us from falling.
Philippians 1:6 says that the Lord will continue his good work in us until the day of Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:13 says my salvation was sealed by the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 2:8 says our salvation is the GIFT of God, and Romans 11:29 says the gifts and calling of God are without repentance -- that means he doesn't take them back!
There are many more verses in God's Word which assure us of our eternal salvation.
While it IS possible for the Christian to lose his assurance of salvation, his rewards, his joy, or his fellowship with the Lord, he cannot lose his salvation!
"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11,12 You either have the Son or you don't. If you have the Son, you are saved. Forever. God has put this promise in writing for us, and that's the key. If your final authority is the written word of God, you need never fear he will cast you away. Believe the Book!
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) Hebrews 10:23
“…that he might redeem us from all iniquity,
and purify unto himself a peculiar people…” Titus 2:14
The word “peculiar” brings to mind the thought of being rather eccentric and unique, maybe a bit strange. Are you peculiar? Most of us don’t like to stand out or have attention drawn to us, but it would seem here that the Lord desires that we be noticed.
Consider whether a girl or woman displaying these things would be considered by many to be peculiar in this time and place: courtesy, sobriety, modesty, hospitality, faithful church attendance, kindness, quietness, punctuality, a joyful countenance, and especially, a tongue that speaks naturally and gracefully of Jesus Christ. Even many Christians would consider a woman who exhibited these behaviors to be a bit different!
But the word “peculiar” doesn’t just mean unique. According to Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary, peculiarity has to do with belonging to another, to the exclusion of others. In other words, when you received Christ as your Saviour, you became the exclusive property of God Almighty. He owns you, and he only. That is a wondrously special privilege! Not everyone has that privilege. Belonging to the Lord makes us peculiar just by definition. But a lady who behaves in the ways listed above shows the world that she is not her own; she is owned by another – by Jesus Christ. Her being a bit “peculiar” tells the lost world that they do NOT belong to him. God has elevated her to a privileged place. If you are saved, he has elevated YOU to a privileged place. Let us strive to be peculiar in our words and actions, that others may see whose we are.
Have you ever felt lost in your Christian life? You knew who your Father is, but you didn’t seem to have any fellowship with Him, and you couldn’t “see” his working in your life any more? Has your flesh gotten the upper hand and drawn you away from the Lord? Have you ever gotten ahead of him and found yourself wandering around with no direction? This can easily happen when we take our eyes off the Lord, even for just a minute!
Recently I lost Emily at Kmart. She doesn’t normally wander away, but when she didn’t see me she thought I had left her. How many times have I told her, “I would NEVER leave you”? But, leaning on her own understanding, Emily went out the door in a hurry! When I looked up she was GONE. Without a trace! I called her name repeatedly, but she could not hear me! After tearfully wandering in the parking lot for a bit, Emily actually thought about asking the taxi man to take her home, or maybe she could walk home by herself. But more than she wanted to be home, she really just wanted her mommy! Shortly my daughter was discovered by a K-Mart employee, who took her back inside the store. Emily went along willingly and sorrowfully, knowing she was helpless and in danger of being run over or stolen away, and very sorry for not staying with her mom. We were tearfully but happily reunited a few moments later, and I spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from a near heart attack.
What a picture these circumstances lend us. If you have wandered from the Lord, there are some things you need to realize. First of all, God has promised that will never, ever leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5), so stay right in the place where you were last with him. Keep doing what you know he wants you to do for this moment, and the next, and the next, until he makes himself known to you again. When you don’t “see” him, don’t panic. He is still there. Just trust him and wait on him.
Second, as a wandering Christian, you are not “lost”. You are still saved. Unlike me, our heavenly Father is never an irresponsible parent (*blush*). If you are truly saved, he is holding you in both hands, never to let you go. (“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." John 10:28,29; “If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” Psalm 139:10) He knows where you are at every moment, even when you are far away from him! (“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." Psalm 139:7,8) He knows that when you are away from him, you are not only helpless, but you are in danger, too. You are in danger of losing your way, as Demas did (2 Timothy 4:10), in danger of wild beasts (“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” 1 Peter 5:8), and in danger of living without the blessings of God on your life. Are you aware how precarious your circumstances are?
Next, before you can get help finding the Lord again, you have to be willing to admit that you have left him! That is called confession. Real repentance will make you willing to turn around and go back to him. No one can make you go back to fellowship with Christ if you don’t want to, but aren’t you miserable without him? The Bible says the Lord Jesus calls his sheep by name. Can you hear him calling your name as you wander? He loves you and he left all to win your soul, just as the good shepherd left the ninety and nine to find the one little sheep that had left him. (“How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?” Matthew 18:12.) You belong to Jesus Christ!
Finally, what a joyous occasion it will be when you and your Saviour find each other again! He is a good God, a wonderful Saviour! The Bible says there is actually joy in heaven when a sinner repents! (“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth”, Luke 15:7) The whole population of heaven is excited about your return. There is nothing better than being restored to fellowship with Jesus, except not losing that fellowship in the first place. I was SO happy to have my dear child back, and Emily has stayed very close to me ever since. But we both would have been better off not going through that experience!
If you have never been saved, the Bible says you are in darkness, and you do not know where you are going. You may think you know where you are, but you do not know the way Home. If you have been saved and you are away from God, going Home might be the easy way out, but having your fellowship with Christ restored right now would be so much better! Be warned – getting back to him will take longer than it did to get away from him. But the results will be worth your trouble.
I hope you have never wandered away from your Father. But if you have, know that he loves you and he is earnestly seeking you. Turn around. Be willing to be led back to him. Not only will you have your fellowship with him restored, but you will also find safety, security, and JOY in him!
This man says he has been a Christian all his life, but that is not possible. Believing in God does not make one a Christian. Being born in a "Christian" nation does not make one a Christian. One is born into the family of God spiritually, not physically. This is why you need to be born AGAIN. Just like your first birth, you go from darkness to light in a moment. You'll know when it happens! Lost religious people can't be expected to share the gospel based on their love for the Lord. But if you have been saved from your sins once and for all by the blood of Christ, and you are not making any effort to tell others that they need to be saved also, check yourself. Who (or what) is your real master?
Strains of lovely music (and some not so lovely) fill our house daily. We are all enduring the rigors of violin and piano practices, which are often accompanies by dissonant notes, harsh screeches (made by either student OR instrument), and cries of frustration. Mistakes can be discouraging, but they are a part of learning! If you never make any mistakes, it means you are learning nothing new. If you are an expert at everything you do, you are not growing at all. Are you stumbling in your Christian life, discouraged by a lack of progress? Are you laboring over Bible reading, joy, time in prayer, forgiveness? Keep practicing! Don't be discouraged by those "dissonant notes", those failures to be expert. Trust the Lord Jesus to grow you in his time. The Bible gives us this conditional promise (Galatians 6:9):
"Be not weary in well doing,
for in due season we shall reap,
IF we faint not."
For all their hard work, my aspiring musicians are reaping well-executed difficult pieces, the delight of achievement, and the joy of moving beyond past lessons. Keep practicing, don't give up! And you, too, will reap the joy of getting better and better at what Jesus wants you to be. Don't be weary!
I was talking recently with a friend who was having a very difficult week.She had many complaints, but the biggest one was of her own attitude in the midst of all her trials.She was spiritually dry.Parched.Cooked.
As it just so “happened”, the Sunday morning message at her church at the end of that awful week seemed to be directed right at her.You know how that is, don’t you?She had been desperately thirsty for some encouragement, for some empowering from God’s Word, and she told me it was there that morning like water in the desert.
Water in the desert.We all know how important water is here in the desert Southwest.Just as water is vital to our physical survival, God’s Word is vital to our spiritual survival.It seems so amazing and refreshing to us when God seems to know (but of course he knows!) just what we need from his Word when our hearts are lonely, burdened, despondent, or frightened.
Do you remember Hagar? Hagar and her son Ishmael were cast out into the wilderness.While wandering the wild and desolate land they soon depleted their water supply. Hagar left her son to die, and then she lifted up her voice and cried. Here she was, wasted, far from home, far from her daily water supply.Sometimes we wander far away from God’s Word, too, don’t we?But when Hagar despaired, God, in his infinite mercy, heard her. The Bible says he opened her eyes, and right in front of her she saw a WELL! Water! Life!God showed Hagar the source of life, and he gave her just what her soul and body craved.He did not provide her with just a teaspoonful of water, but a lifetime supply!
What would have happened to Hagar if she had seen the well, but had not drawn out the water? How many times have you been spiritually dry, and neglected to open your Bible or receive the preaching of it? That God-given water was the saving of Hagar’s life and the life of her child.All she had to do was draw it out. The Word of God is the saving of our spiritual lives, as well. I am glad to be able to report that my friend took of the water of life freely that Sunday morning.She was spiritually revived and energized!Praise the Lord for his provision!
God’s Word is like a well for us.There is plenty there to satisfy our thirst! If, in your heart, you have been wandering in the wilderness, cry to the Lord for understanding, for comfort, for courage, for help as you read or listen.He loves you and cares for you just as he did Hagar and her son. He is ever ready to show you just the thing your soul is longing for!Don’t turn away from it, and don’t be satisfied with just a teaspoon of relief – keep going back for more.Get your fill of God’s life-sustaining Word!
Some time ago as I was reading through Psalm 119, I decided to make a note of all of the things I was instructed to DO with God's Word, either by example or by direct command. As I then continued to read through my Bible, I also continued to write these things in the flyleaf of my Bible. Too bad I didn't note the references. Do you have any additions?
“But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, that they perceived it not: and they feared to ask him of that saying.”Luke 9: 45
Have you ever been afraid to ask God about a particular passage of the scripture? I have. Soon after I was saved I began to hear preaching and to come across Bible literature about a lady’s wardrobe.It wasn’t just about modesty, for if it had been, I would not have been bothered.I thought I was modest. (It’s amazing how the Bible opens blinded eyes!) This stuff I was hearing and seeing had to do with women wearing pants, and how God designed women and men, and what the Bible has to say on the subject of a woman’s wardrobe.For some weeks I pondered and wondered.I searched the scriptures, looking for a verse that said my outward appearance didn’t matter. (It wasn’t there.) Then I began to argue with God.While I didn’t want to be a rebel against the Lord, I also didn’t want to submit to his will if it meant giving up my pants.What would my family and friends think? Wouldn’t people look at me strange if I only wore skirts?? How could I afford a new wardrobe?!
The whole question could have been solved much sooner for me, if I had just asked God the clear meaning of the passages I had read. But I was afraid to ask him! I think I already KNEW what God wanted me to do. So why was I afraid? Did I think submitting to his will was going to make me miserable?Did I think God wanted me to feel conspicuous? Was he going to destroy my comfortable LIFE?Did I think God just did not know what he was doing?After all, in our culture, women wear pants. If I gave in to this, what else was he going to demand from me? (Pants on ladies is not the subject of this post, so keep reading, and don't send me any hate mail.)
Since that time, other similar issues have come up for me, issues that I was afraid to ask the Lord about -- how he wants me to act towards or react to the unloveables in my life, what he wants from me now that he owns me, what kind of missions offering does he want me to give? The Bible has the answers to all of those questions. Certainly I have not gotten the victory over every fear concerning what God might ask of me, but I do thank the Lord for this promise:
“For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.” Luke 9:56
There is nothing that God could ask of me, that, if I obey him, will make my life miserable.Oh, I might be afraid to give up this security blanket or to be put into that uncomfortable situation or to humble myself, but I know now that on the other side of obedience there is joy and a peaceful conviction that I am in the will of God.
My husband knows a man who thinks maybe the Lord is calling him to be a preacher.This man is afraid to ask the Lord about it, because he is afraid of the answer. A call to preach would mean EVERYTHING that his family is comfortable with would change.They would have to move away, take a very serious pay-cut, and move into the spotlight as a preacher’s family. He would have to learn to speak in front of people on a very regular basis (oooh!), and come up with messages that he is convinced are from the Lord, to feed his church. The burden to pray would be great.The burdens of his church family would add to the burdens of his own family. His wife would be a preacher’s wife, and his children would become PK’s.His dreams and aspirations for this life would go up in a puff of smoke! Now that’s scary! Is God set out to destroy this man’s life and that of his family?No.God wants to save his life.God may be giving this man an opportunity to serve him right in the center of His perfect will. What an opportunity!What peace can be found when God’s answer is known AND acted upon.
What does God want for your future or your career (or lack thereof)? What does he want you to look like, and how does he wish for you to spend your free time?Are you afraid to ask him? If you are God's child, he has a wonderful plan for you. His plan for you is better than any of your own plans. Go his way.It may take a leap of faith to ask him what it is, but you won’t regret following him in it.
Tel Aviv municipal workers rummaged through a mountain of garbage after a resident of the upmarket Bavli neighborhood called to say that his son had accidentally thrown out a bag of diamond jewelry along with the day's garbage. He requested the city's help in finding the diamonds among the rubbish, which had already been collected by a municipal garbage truck. The truck reportedly emptied several tons of trash onto a vacant lot, and the man and municipal workers searched for hours through the refuse, before coming up empty-handed. The garbage was then reloaded onto the truck, and it would appear that the diamonds are now most likely buried at the Dudaim dump in the south of the country.
"Short" tipped me off to this recent story in the Jerusalem Post. What a thing! Imagine losing your diamond jewelry in the city dump because your child threw it in the trash! This writing is not about forgiveness, though it does lend itself to that topic. Rather, it is about losing and retrieving things that are valuable.
A man in Luke chapter 15 lost a sheep. He had 99 others, but even this 1% was a costly possession. He searched high and low for the wandering sheep, and finally, he found it.
A woman lost something more valuable to her than a sheep. It was a silver coin, one of ten. That woman moved furniture, shook rugs, picked up clutter, and swept her entire little house searching EVERYWHERE for 10% of her savings. Finally her hard work was rewarded!
A young man left home and took his inheritance early, throwing away 100% of it on parties and wild living. When he was done having a “good” time he was left with less than nothing! He didn’t even realize it was gone until he was sitting in pig slop. But it wasn’t his money that was truly valuable – it was the home and loving father that he had thrown away. The young man had to humble himself and forsake his pride to get those precious things back. All three of these people realized, at some point, the value of the precious item they had lost.
Sometimes we Christians lose things, too, whether inadvertently or purposely. Many have lost their purity, or their good reputation, or their honor. Some have thrown away their talent; others, a precious relationship. Thanks be to God that we cannot be so careless as to lose our salvation!
If you have lost something that you are now realizing was truly valuable, you will find it just in the exact spot where you left it. You may have to search or sort through a lot of trash to find it, but it is there. Have you lost your fellowship with your Father? He is right where you wandered away from him. He does not change; he does not move. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you,” James 4:8. Did you throw away a talent that the Lord gave you to honor him with? You still have it. Start again where you stopped using it. Ask the Lord to forgive you for counting that gift he gave you a small thing. What about a personal relationship? Did you know that you really can’t serve the Lord properly if a brother or sister has something against you? The Bible says to be reconciled. You don’t have to dredge up the past and hash over details. Just say, “I’m sorry. I have not done right. I know I offended you. I did not forgive you. Will you please forgive me for bearing a grudge?” It is amazing how powerful those words are. Your relationship with that person is still there, right where you left it. Do you value it enough to get it back? People are not for throwing away. Some things, such as purity, are gone forever when they are thrown away. But there is forgiveness with the Lord. You can be pure again in your heart. Forsake those things that have made you impure, and ask the Lord Jesus Christ to wash you in his blood. He is willing and able to cleanse you from “ALL unrighteousness"!
It is a wonderful thing that the precious things we have lost or thrown away don’t have to stay lost. They may be buried in a dump, but they are not irretrievable. Jesus Christ knows the exact place where they will be found again, and if you will ask him, he will help you to get your treasure back. Your story can have a happy ending!
We are getting ready to go on a little trip, and if I were the type of person to have stress (haha), I would be stressing out about now. I have a ton to do before we go, the least of which is blogging. I was saving this post for later, but I am going to do it now, and then I am going to pretend the computer blew up so I can concentrate on doing all the stuff I need to take care of. So enjoy, and have a nice time while we are away :o) Back in a while!
Mother’s Day is coming soon, and is a great opportunity for us to show and to tell our moms how much they mean to us.Of course, we ought not to wait for this once-a-year occasion to honor our mothers.If we are truly grateful we will tell them often how much they mean to us. However, because I recently wrote a birthday essay for my mom on what she means to me, this Mother’s Day my thoughts are not so much on my own mother, but on what kind of mother I am.
Lately I have considered Lot’s wife. Read Genesis 19. Here was a woman who had at least four daughters.Two of them were young enough to be living at home when the judgment of God fell on Sodom, and the angel of the Lord carried them away with their parents from the storm of fire.But where were the other two daughters?What kind of mother was Mrs. Lot? What could she have done differently while her daughters were growing up, to avert their tragic end?When they were little girls, did their mom show more enthusiasm about shopping than she did about going to the Lord’s house?Did it mean more to her to wear the world’s fashions than it did to have a beautiful heart for the Lord?Did she sow the world's music and attitudes and activities and philosophies into her girls’ hearts so that when the time came to leave, they could not uproot the pride of life from those worldly hearts?
The Bible tells us to remember Lot’s wife.Many believe Mrs. Lot looked back because she regretted leaving behind her possessions and her social life and standing.But I believe Mrs. Lot looked back because she had left her own children in Sodom. One day soon Jesus Christ is going to come in the clouds to "catch up" those that are alive in Christ, from the coming wrath of the Great Tribulation.Will your children go with you to heaven? Or will you have left their hearts and bodies in this old wicked world, full of themselves and the pride of life? If they are left behind in Sodom, you will look back with regret, too! Mamas, don’t expect your little ones (or your old ones!) to get a heart for Jesus just by being in church. You must live the Christian life before them daily. Sow the love of Jesus into their hearts! Sow obedience to his Word! Sow faithfulness and peaceful trust in the Lord! Read God’s Word together. Memorize and live scripture together. Pray for them and with them!
Before I ever had children, I prayed the Lord would not allow me to have any that would not be saved. That prayer cost me six babies and many tears, but not bitter ones. My babies are with Jesus Christ. Those were blessed, having departed before they could live after their mother’s example. But what about the four beautiful girls who are with me now? What kind of example am I giving them today? The Bible says, “As is the mother, so is her daughter,”Ezekiel 16:44. ..."Remember Lot's wife." When the Lord takes me home, may my daughters’ hearts be full of Jesus, and void of love for worldly things. And may the Lord make my heart and life today what my children need as an example, so that when he comes for me, they will rejoice and come along! With my children next to me, I won't be looking back at this Sodom, grieving for the girls I left there.
I am sitting here waiting for the kids to get ready to go… it promises to be a very hot day again today (105F?), so we are off to the lake for a dip.I used to think of “the lake” as a beautiful green spot with a tree-lined shore, and a nice big dock for sunning and diving.Well, my header photo gives you some idea of our lake – it is HOT HOT HOT.There is NO SHADE, not anywhere near the water, unless you are a spider.It is rock and dirt and a few scattered weeds, maybe a snake or two, God forbid.Did you know that some rattlesnakes swim?I hope they think the water is too cold today… Later in the summer, the kids won’t want to go swimming when it is this “cold” out.The evaporative effect of the desert is incredible, and makes you freezing cold when you are wet! I’ll post pics later.
Anyway, while I am waiting, I wanted to tell you what God taught ME in the children’s Sunday School lesson that I gave yesterday.We were talking about Mary of Bethany, how she poured that precious ointment on the head and feet of her Saviour and filled the room with the wonderful fragrance, then wiped his feet with her hair… It hit me as I was telling the story, that Mary was close enough to Jesus to walk away smelling like him. He told the disciples that she was preparing his body for burial. That fragrance in her hair must have reminded her constantly of his death and resurrection, for this took place in the last days of his life. How often did women wash their hair in those days?I would never want to wash my hair again, if its fragrance would remind me of my Jesus all the time!Would a woman be likely to cut her hair if she were in mourning?I wonder if Mary of Bethany cut her long hair off and kept it somewhere, to save that wonderful fragrance of Jesus…I think I would have wanted to.
And another thing, the disciples were unhappy with Mary for “wasting” all that expensive perfume, which might have been sold, and the money given to the poor.Did you know that nothing that God's children do for Christ is ever wasted?I know of a young woman who desired with all her heart to play the piano. She told the Lord that if he would give her opportunity to learn, she would play ONLY God’s music.The Lord heard her, and he taught her to play beautifully. She played only for him.When asked to play “Happy Birthday”, she would say, “No, I’m sorry.I promised the Lord that I would play only His music.” People said, “What a waste!She is making a foolish sacrifice. She could play for an orchestra or accompany someone famous, and make lots of money with her talent!!”Maybe she could, but they were wrong.Like Mary, she committed her most treasured thing to Jesus.That is no waste. And after what He has done for me, how can anything that I give to him be called a sacrifice??
Well, that’s what I learned.I don’t know if my little kids learned anything :o)
(If you go to MBC and are reading this, STOP! It will be in the newsletter :o)
The alarm clock beeps.Clumsily I grab at it, taking too long to find the button to turn it off.My mind is coming out of the dark, but I can’t get my eyes open yet.In a few minutes I roll out of bed.I know right where to reach for my old glasses, and I can find my drawer for something to wear. But until I put in my contact lenses, I really can’t see very well. For that reason, putting in my contacts is one of the very first things I do each morning.
One day as I was doing just that, it dawned on me that my Bible is also a corrective lens, without which I cannot see clearly to get through the day.Without my Bible first thing, I don’t recognize the stumbling blocks of temptation. I don’t recognize God’s presence in my moments.My steps are uncertain and fearful, because I have forgotten that light for my path. When I am looking through the lens of the morning news; or the inconvenience of getting breakfast for kids,when I wanted to do other things; or an aching body, the day’s image is completely distorted. What a pathetic condition, and yet, how simple to correct it!
It is important to start out each day looking through the right lens.The more Bible I put in, and the sooner I do it, the more clearly I can see.I can focus on the details of God’s working in my life and in the lives of others, details that I miss without his Word in my “eyes”. Join me as I purpose (again) in my heart, to daily (and early) use the corrective lenses God gave me for my spiritual sight.
This is the inconsistent journal of a pressured lump of coal
being ever soooo slowly conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm a child of God, preacher's wife, blessed mother of girls, frazzled homeschooler.
If you are new here, please read
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God,
and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him;
for we shall see him as he is."
1 John 3:2
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 12:2,3
