Bible, Easter, Jesus, The Kingdom

Keys to the Kingdom

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a key in a keyhole

This is not your typical Easter message but one I think needs to be heard (or at least read). When I sat down to write this blog I wasn’t planning on it being about Easter. I was just thinking about this month’s post about the Kingdom of Heaven. But the more I studied this month’s verse the more God began to show me that it is about Easter; and God’s resurrection power and his triumph over death. The verse for this month is Matthew 16:19 which reads “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth will be loosed in Heaven” (CSB). It is probably a familiar verse to lots of us. It is also probably a confusing verse for lots of us, too (I include myself in that group).

To fully understand this verse you need to understand the context it was spoken in. Jesus is hanging out with his disciples and asks them, “Who do people say I am?” They give him a few different answers, like John the Baptist, or Elijah, even Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Jesus then asks them who they say he is. Peter speaks up proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah – the Son of God. Just two verses down we come to our verse for this month. Peter could only have the keys to the kingdom once he understood who Jesus really is. The saying “I will give you the keys” was a Jewish expression that signified the rising of someone to great authority and power. There is a prophecy in Isaiah that talks about Jesus being given the keys of David, and whatever He opens can not be shut (see Isaiah 22;22). We know that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Davidic Kingdom that has no end. We also know that Jesus in his death and resurrection now holds the keys to death and hell (see Revelation 1:18). So the keys that Jesus is giving Peter here in this verse and then to all the disciples in Matthew 18:18 are the keys to eternial life. Peter and the disciples and even you and me (if you consider youself a disciple or student of Jesus) have been given the ability to help unlock eternal life for people by sharing the Good News and leading people to confession of Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. Are you starting to see how this lines up with Easter now?

Let’s unpack a few more words in our key verse to help us understand this better. We know the keys are figurative for power and authority, but what about this binding and loosing business? These two words were commonly used words in church lingo that referred to things that were lawful or unlawful for those in the church to do or partake in. They were medical terminology that meant what was lawful for a human body to do in a physical sense like food is lawful and even needed to sustain life, but certain foods were unlawful or poisonous leading to death. A person living around the time of Jesus would have understood this in the natural sense and been able to apply it to the spiritual sense. Think about all the laws that the Jewish person had to know and live by. The Pharisees and leaders of the Synagog were constantly declaring something lawful or unlawful. These words binding and loosing became Rabbinical idioms. Here is what they mean in the original greek. To bind means to declare, to be prohibited or unlawful, to put into chains. To loose means to unleash, let go, release what was once held back.

What I think this verse is saying first to Peter and then to all disciples in Matthew 18:18 is that we have been given the power to bind the enemy who blinded people from hearing and seeing the Good News. “For the god of this world has blinded the unbelievers’ minds [that they should not discern the truth], preventing them from seeing the illuminating light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ (the Messiah), Who is the Image and Likeness of God.” (Amplified Version). When we are sharing the Gospel we have the authority to pray and bind this spirit that keeps people from knowing God. We can also loose the mind of Christ over them.

We have the keys to the Kingdom of heaven. It’s our ability to share the love of God with those who don’t know Him yet, in a way that compels them into God’s Kingdom through salvation in Jesus, and confessing Him as Lord. So as Easter approaches we who are holding keys to the Kingdom of Heaven should bind the god of this world, loosing souls to confess Jesus as Lord. That could be as simple as inviting them to church with you, or taking someone out to dinner with the intent to share the full Gospel story. However you do it, let’s walk in the authority we have, and bind doubt and unbelief and loose salvation for thousands this Easter.

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The Kingdom, Uncategorized

Characteristics of Kingdom Citizens

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green trees near body of water under blue and orange sky during golden hour

February is almost over as I start to study the “Kingdom” verse for the month. My life seems to be going at a pace I struggle to keep up with. But I still have 2 days (thank you Leap Year) this month to get my blog posted about the word Kingdom in the Bible for this month.

This month’s verse is found in the Beatitudes from Matthew chapter 5. Because it is from a famous portion of scripture called the Sermon on the Mount we will look into that and what is maybe just as popular a portion within the Sermon on the Mount titled the Beatitudes.

Before we get to the verse at hand we need to understand what is happening in this section of the word. Jesus is speaking not to the crowds as some might think, but to His disciples. Matthew 5:1 tells us when Jesus saw the crowds He went up the mountain and sat down with His disciples. The Sermon on the Mount includes at points a larger audience, but this little section known as the Beatitudes only seems to include the 12 disciples. Matthew 5:2 tells us Jesus opened his mouth to teach them. In my opinion, if Jesus is teaching then it is a lesson worthy of our attention, and retention. The word for teach in Greek means to cause someone to learn and it almost always refers to teaching the scriptures.

Jesus then goes into rhythmic statements about those who are blessed. When I read these they are a little confusing and don’t seem to align with my Western mindset of what being blessed means. The specific Beatitude I want to look into is found in Matthew 5:10 – “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”(TLV). It is interesting to note that Jesus starts the list of Beatitudes with “Blessed are those who are poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 TVL) and ends with our verse 5:10. These are the only two from this list that mention the kingdom of heaven. Jesus also follows up this portion of the Sermon on the Mount with details about those who are being persecuted. No other blessed person does he go into as much detail about. I think Jesus wants us to understand that persecution will happen if you are a Christ follower. It may not be grand; but in some way, we all can anticipate persecution. Before we get too far down the road of persecution, let’s gain some understanding that will aid us in understanding this verse.

Let’s first look at the most common word in the Beatitudes which is blessed. The word blessed can mean a myriad of things. To the modern reader it can mean wealth, for non-believers it can mean luck, and to the ancient Jewish person it means happy. That is the most basic meaning of the word, but happy has much more depth in the Biblical sense than our American word. It means the happiness you feel when God extends His benefits to us. The mindset of persecution used to be that of one with honor, because it meant that you were able to empathize with the sufferings of Christ. It was understood that while you were not promised earthly vindication you were promised a great reward in heaven. Perhaps this understanding helps us make sense of those who are martyred and had a sense of peace about them in the process, like Stephen in Acts chapter 6. This knowledge of honor and approval of God coupled with a reward in heaven may make the momentary pain worthwhile.

Let’s look at some other words in this verse. Persecuted means to be pursued with haste, hunted down, overtaken, or troubled. Righteousness means judicial approval, and in the New Testament, it almost exclusively means the approval of God. Who as a follower of Christ wouldn’t want God’s approval on their lives?

The last word to look at is my theme word for the year Kingdom. It means a realm in which a King sovereignly reigns. It can mean the reign of Christ in the heart of believers, as well as a literal kingdom where Christ is King. The New Testament uses the word kingdom in three ways. 1. The kingdom of God in a believer’s heart. 2. Referring to the united body of believers as a kingdom ruled by Christ. 3. The future kingdom prepared for believers after death.

If we keep reading Matthew 5, verses 11 and 12 give us more insight into why you are blessed in persecution. To be persecuted for Christ places us among some of the great heroes of our faith. The prophets who were often mistreated and misunderstood but obeyed God’s command on their lives anyway. The Apostles many of whom gave their lives to further the gospel and of course our Lord himself. Remember Jesus is talking to the disciples all of whom were persecuted in one way or another. I think Jesus was giving them something to hold onto in those dark moments of persecution.

The idea of being blessed for being persecuted is a blessing that we won’t fully understand or receive in this life, but the anticipation of the promise that waits for us makes it bearable. God is faithful to his word. If you are persecuted, He will bless you; and a blessing from God is the best kind there is.

Heaven will be full of persecuted people, those who gave their lives, to those who were mistreated, insulted, and misunderstood. God will be there smiling telling us how pleased He is that we loved Him more than our own comfort and even our own lives. To those who have given the greatest sacrifice to God, we honor you here and can’t wait to meet you in the Kingdom of God.

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Jesus, The Kingdom

The Unshakeable Kingdom

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gray concrete triumphal arch surrounded by flowers

I am not one for New Year’s Resolutions. You probably already know that based on the fact that the first post for this year is almost halfway through the month. I do, however, lean into words or themes God gives me for the year. A couple years back I felt like the Lord wanted me to study the word steadfast love, or “hessed”, in the Hebrew. I wrote a blog about steadfast love (https://www.livethecrazylife.com/?s=steadfast+love) if you are interested in that. This year I feel led to study the word Kingdom specifically “The Kingdom of God.” In fact “The Kingdom” is a common topic for Jesus throughout the Gospels. Depending on which Gospel and which translation, it is mentioned over 50 times in Matthew, 17 times in Mark, and over 40 in Luke. John, on the other hand, has a much different style and approach in his Gospel only mentioning it 3 or so times. “The Kingdom” is mentioned in most other New Testament books and quite a lot by Paul as well. It is clear that “The Kingdom” is a major theme of the New Testament and should be for a believer as well. The problem is that word or phrase “The Kingdom” or “Kingdom of God” is so over used most of us don’t know much about what it actually means other than Heaven in the most broad sense of the word. My goal this year is to gain a deeper understanding of what the bible (mostly the New Testament, but I wont completely leave the Old Testament out) means when it mentions “The Kingdom” or “The Kingdom of God”.

I have decided to start with a verse from Hebrews that mentions “The Kingdom”. Hebrews 12:28 in the Tree of Life (TLV) reads “Therefore, since we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude – through this we may offer worship in a manner pleasing to God, with reverence and awe.”

When I am studying out a verse I look for key words, or words that draw my attention. I then look them up – usually on Biblehub.com. From there I will look into the surrounding verses to get context, and any verse that the verse I am studying either quotes or connects to in thought. I almost always read commentaries on the verse, look it up in other translations, and often ask a few close friends their take on the verse. It can be a long process, but it always is rewarding.

For this verse here are the words I looked up in the Greek:

Receiving – paralambano a compound greek word meaning para – come along side and lambano to take aggressively. You get the idea of joining with God (or rather God coming along side us) and us aggressively taking hold of something. From this you get the understanding that The Kingdom of God comes from God; but we have to be active participants in occupying it or advancing it. It also gives the idea of an on-going receiving – not just a one time thing. Which I find interesting and intend to pray through more and see if God reveals anything to me on that.

It would be hard to study on the concept of The Kingdom without looking into the word itself. In this particular verse the word relates the idea of God making men partners in His Kingdom to advance the interests of the Heavenly Kingdom. It is from the Greek word basileus which means the realm in which a king sovereignly rules.

I also looked up shaken, gratitude, offer worship, and reverence and awe. The phrase “cannot be shaken” is one word in the Greek: asaleutos – which means unmovable. It underscores the concept that The Kingdom is unshakeable because Jesus is always in charge and always triumphs. Gratitude means grace in the original language, which is a Greek word with so many subtle meanings. Overall it is the picture of one possessing greater authority leaning forward with arms open and palms extended out facing up as if offering something to one of a lower statute (God giving to mankind). The word worship isn’t fully in the original language but the word offer is which means I worship, or I serve. It implies one being hired for a technical task because they are well qualified. God hires us, so to speak, because we are well equipped or qualified to serve Him or worship Him in service. Reverence is a word picture that looks like someone carrying a priceless vase across a room. The person carrying the vase is aware of its value and is cautious, taking into account the seriousness of the job they are undertaking. And awe means Holy fear.

The author of Hebrews, while unknown, is one skilled in the Greek language, and possesses in depth knowledge of the Septuagint, and has a good grasp on the Temple sacrificial system. He is most likely referencing Daniel 7:18 (“But the holy people of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever—yes, for ever and ever.”) and the end of Haggai chapter 2:20-23 (Then the word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, “Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah, saying, ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. ‘I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations; and I will overthrow the chariots and their riders, and the horses and their riders will go down, everyone by the sword of another.’ ‘On that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,’” declares the LORD of hosts.) Based on these two verses, you get the understanding that God’s Kingdom is everlasting and God will shake and remove all other kingdoms one day.

The take ways for those who heard this message preached by this unknown speaker is the same as it is for us. Jesus is the one true King, He is coming back and His Kingdom will be the only Kingdom left standing. Through your faith in Jesus you will live one day in this Kingdom. God is going to shake and remove both spiritually and literally anything in our lives that is not rooted in Him. Our faith is not in governments, bank accounts, or job titles because all of those can be shaken and destroyed in a moment. God’s Kingdom – our home and future dwelling place for eternity and it’s King who is Jesus – is the only thing we can be sure won’t be shaken, broken, or taken away. We are to live here and now with a then and there, mindset, ever looking forward to the Kingdom that cannot be shaken.

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Bible, Jesus, overwhelmed, Prayer, Uncategorized

How you hear and how you read

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shallow focus photography of flowers

I have been reading in the book of Luke this past week. As I was reading I found myself wondering about so many different verses and their meanings that I started making a list of things to go back and research so I could understand better. One of those things was in verse 18 of chapter 8. But before I go there I have to tell you what happened Sunday on my way to before-service prayer.

I was leading prayer this past Sunday. So as I was getting ready I was asking God what He wanted us to cover in our prayer time. The scripture came to mind about the seed falling on soil and the thorns, or cares of this world, growing up and choking out the word. I felt like God said so many people want a thriving relationship with Me, but the cares of this world keep choking it out. I shared that with the prayer team. They agreed with the feeling of needing to pray over that and we prayed.

Monday morning I was reading in Luke, and low and behold I read chapter 8 which has the parable of the seed tucked into it in verses 5-15. Since the Lord had just been speaking to me about that, I read it slowly a couple of times. The seed in this parable falls onto 3 types of soil and some seed that never even makes it to the soil. The Bible calls that the seed that fell on the road and was trampled on. The soil types are rocky soil where the seed sprouts but can’t grow well because it cannot take root due to the rock. Then there’s the seed that falls on soil with thorns. It grows but becomes choked out by cares and riches and pleasures of life. It does not bear mature fruit, but it does seem to grow some kinds of fruit. Then the last is seed that falls on good soil where it takes root, doesn’t have to compete for nutrients, and it grows and produces fruit.

This is a familiar parable to most of us. The disciples ask Jesus to explain this to them a little more clearly and in verses 11-15 you get the explanation of the soil and the growth of the seed or lack there of. MacLarens Expositions of the Holy Scriptures explains this parable in a wonderful way that makes it clear and easy to understand. The seed sown among the thorns, as Jesus puts it in verse 7, isn’t seed that the sower sowed into a weed-filled field. Rather it looked like good ground, but the ground keeper seemed to have taken short cuts. He cut down the weeds or thorns but didn’t do the hard work of pulling them up before planting. And when the good seed and the weeds both began to grow the farmer let them grow together, skipping the hard work of weed pulling.

I get this. I love to grow a garden, but I HATE to pull weeds. It’s a lot of work, hurts your back, and sometimes you end up pulling up a plant you wanted to grow just to get the stinking weed. It’s often a daily chore and I don’t want to water and weed daily, but I do want the benefit of the vegetable or flowers or fruit in the end. I have found myself taking short cuts in this process. I have even found myself just letting the weeds grow among my plants, to be dealt with at a later day. A good farmer I am not. A patience person I am not either. A daily routine task person – nope not me either. So I really get this. And in the world of my back yard garden, it’s ok. I am not trying to grow enough food to fully feed my family for the year. It’s just something fun, and if it works, bonus! And if it doesn’t, no harm no foul.

But reading verse 14 of Luke 8 tells a different story. Spiritually speaking this is important because if we don’t deal with the weeds (or cares, riches and pleasure of life as Jesus words it) we won’t become mature Christians. We won’t produce mature fruit. We are under ripe and good for nothing. Harsh I know but true. The word “cares” in this verse can be translated “worries” or “anxieties”. You know those feelings of overwhelmingness and the long list of what if’s that we are supposed to cast upon the Lord. Well, left to themselves they will choke out our relationship with God. And the riches and pleasures of this life lead us to depend on ourselves and not God, making idols out of our abilities and making us like the Israelites of the Old Testament.

As true and hard as these verses are, the one that really got me was in verse 18. It reads “So pay attention to how you listen. For whoever has, to him more will be given. And whoever does not have even what he supposes he has will be taken away.” How you listen. Is there more than one way to listen. The word how in this sentence is an adverb; an interrogative particle of manner; in what way?; also as exclamation, how much!

In the Jewish culture to hear is to obey. They go hand in hand. If you don’t obey what was spoken then you didn’t hear to start with. Which is what I think is really happening in parable of the sower, and what the second half of verse 18 is saying. If you don’t listen well or with the intent to obey then you are the one who does not have, but what he thinks he has is taken from him.

MacLaren explains what we are to do with the word and the thorns: “for in every one of us there are the necessary anxieties of life, and every one of us knows that there is real and substantial good to a part of our being, in the possession of a share of this world’s wealth, without which no man can live, and all of us carry natures to which the delights of sense do legitimately and necessarily appeal.

So the soil for the growth of the thorns is always in us all. But what then? Are these things so powerful in our hearts as that they become hindrances to our Christian life? That is the question. The cares and the occupation of mind with, and desire for, the wealth and the pleasures are of God’s appointment. He did not make them thorns, but you and I make them thorns; and the question for us is, has our Christianity driven out the undue regard to this life, regarded in these three aspects – undue in measure or in any other respect, by which they are converted into hindrances that mar our Christian life? Dear brethren, it is not enough to say, ‘I have received the word into my heart.’ There is another question besides that – Has the word received into your heart cast out the thorns? Or are they and the seed growing there side by side? “

What a thought to ponder. What a place to stop and hear what God is saying. It is not wrong to have wealth, or to love your husband and kids, and be concerned for their well-being. But are we letting the word of God affect us in our habits of life. Do I pray when my kids are facing hard situations or simple worry and fret for them? Am I truly trusting God to keep them safe and lead them into the fullness of their personal relationship with Him? Or am I trying to make their walk with the Lord happen in the way I think best and in my own time table. Do I really believe that God will provide for me and my needs, or do I hold too tightly to my paycheck, planning for the worst?

This concept with hearing and obeying carries into how we read the scriptures too. Just a few chapters over from chapter 8, we find an expert in the law asking Jesus about eternal life in Luke 10:25-28. The man asks, “What should I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus answers him with this question, “What has been written in the Torah? How do you read it?” There it is again. The word how. Such a weird word to use in both of these situations. Or is it? Jesus isn’t asking the man do you know what the law says, but do you know how to apply it? It’s the same thing as in pay attention to how you hear. Pay attention to how you read. Are reading looking for loop holes, or ways to justify your actions or cause? Or are you allowing the Living Word of God to penetrate your heart and change you for the better. Are you listening to God and reading His word with the intention of allowing God to change your motives, your desires, your attitude? Or to check off doing devotions on some list in your head making you a good person?

So as you read your Bible and listen to your pastors, parents and other people of authority in your life, and of course Jesus speaking truth over you, pay attention to how you listen to them. Don’t justify or harden yourselves. Listen with the intention to obey, and read with the intention to see the invitation to walk with Jesus – not just follow the rules.

Quote taken from Expositions Of Holy Scripture, Alexander MacLaren, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/maclaren/luke/8.htm, accessed on 8/29/23

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Bible, community, Jesus, Uncategorized

Everyone one is someone to God — Serve them like they are

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It’s been a crazy few weeks. Busy with life, adult children doing their adult things, friends in crisis, summer rain and hail and more rain and hail. And just as discombobulated as the weather has been and parenting adult children can be, my spirit feels that way, too. I am all over the map for some reason. Trying to study Isaiah, while prepping/writing a study on grace with two amazing gals from my church, while prepping the fall studies and women’s events, to doing a study on prayer and one on the names of God. Yep a bit all over the place. So it shouldn’t surprise me that what I feel God speaking to me is all over the place. Live in my grace. Don’t strive, but learn to abide in me. Practice that abiding; oh, and serve others, too. And spend time with me….. Back and forth in this serve and do, but be still and just abide. It’s a like spiritual yo-yo in my life that swings from this to that while I’m trying to make sense of the path the string is following.

Yesterday and then this morning in Bible study, I feel like all the wild thoughts finally are beginning to connect and make sense. At least in my head. Yesterday, me and a few ladies from my church spent the day serving and learning about the homeless and the vulnerable in our city. My heart broke (as a wanna-be missionary). I wanted to quit my job, sell my house, and find ways to help these people who just need someone to give them a hand up. My heart is screaming, “I can do that! I can help refugees in our city. I can be their friend, their support, their contact to our world.” Then 20 minutes later, “I can help these women who are experiencing homelessness. I can be their house mentor,” Then an hour later, “Oh, I should text this friend, or pray for the new gal in Bible study…” (My mind still all over the place, trying to figure out how to serve, how to make an impact in this world, in my church, in my city to do something for God.)

Clarity came at the strangest place — a dumpster. Yep actually two of them. A pair of smelly, gross, graffitied green dumpsters. And then more clarity from John 13 in my Bible study this morning.

Part of our day serving the homeless was a prayer walk. It was the best part of the day for me. As we walked with the guide, we came to these two dumpsters, and he said this is one of his favorite spots in the city. On one side of an ally there was a fence with this strange tree, and on the other side there were the two dumpsters. He was a character and I just thought sure this is your favorite place. He went on to ask us about the graffiti, what we saw and thought. He then pointed out that those are all people – either names, nicknames or titles of people who just want to be noticed. They want people to see their name, their sign or symbol. Then he says that they take pride in “tagging” something and bragging to their friends about it. Here comes the profound part. Jesus knows their names – their real name and their street name. He knows the number of hairs on their heads and all about them. He then goes on to say Jesus is a type of “tagger” but in a different way. Like in the game of tag, when you get tagged you are it then you have to go tag someone else. If you are a Christ follower Jesus tags you with the Holy Spirit. The Bible says you are marked (Eph, 1:13) by God with His Spirit or like the NIRV says, “The Spirit marks us as God’s own.” And because we are marked by God, we are then called by God to go and share the good news of the Gospel with others so the Holy Spirit can mark them, too. Then the man leading the prayer walk asks us to pray for those represented on the dumpster and for those of us who have been “tagged” by God. We prayed. He then turns and looks at this tree which was behind us. He says, “Do you think those pink things are flowers? I used to think they were flowers, but then I learned they are seeds. Seeds help spread the plant, making more plants like this one.” He turns to walk to our next stop and says, “How many seeds does one tree need anyway…” Do you get it? We who are believers are loaded with the seeds of God’s love, we will always have seeds of grace, love, and mercy to spread if we abide in Him.

Now fast forward from a long day of outreach to this morning, in my house, a cup of coffee and my bible. John 13-17 is the scripture for this week. I get all the way to John 13:4 (supposed to read all 4 chapters, and I get stuck 4 verses in.) “So He gets up from the meal and lays aside His outer garment; taking a towel, He wrapped it around His waist.” I feel prompted by the Holy Spirit to look into what it means that Jesus takes off His outer garment? According to Biblestudytools.com (https://www.biblestudytools.com/john/13-4.html) it means He was laying aside His glory and dignity as Son of God, so He could appear in the form of a servant. Another site referenced the greek meaning in the words to take off. It isn’t just removing, but has a deeper meaning implying of Jesus laying down His life. And that in verse 12 when He puts His robe back on, it is referencing Him taking His life back up. (https://www.heartbeatinternational.org/a-servant-s-garment#:~:text=Jesus%20was%20about%20to%20express,laying%20down%20of%20his%20life.) Jesus then goes on to say at the end of John chapter 13, “I have given you an example – you should do for each other what I have done for you.” (John 13:15)

In between John 13:4 and John 13:15, in case you don’t know, is the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet. As He goes to wash Peter’s feet (ah Peter I feel you, always trying to be spiritual and sometimes missing the mark so badly) Peter stops Him and says, ‘no you can’t wash my feet that’s beneath you Jesus.’ Jesus kindly says, ‘You don’t know what I am doing, but you will understand after these things.’ Peter replies, “Wait, then wash all of me.” I can just see Jesus being so kind, so patient with Peter waiting for him to get it, and loving him while He waits. Then Jesus goes on to finishing washing their feet. The Bible doesn’t specifically say that He washes Judas’s feet, but it’s implied. In this touching story, Jesus takes off His outer garment, makes himself look like a servant, then serves both the (EGR – extra grace required) Peter and the betrayer Judas. He serves them all the same. According to John 13:1 He loved them all till the end. He served and loved the self-righteous and the sinner alike, then calls us to do the same.

It’s not about quitting a job, selling everything I have and giving it to the poor. It’s about serving others – whoever the others are. Those I like, those who wear me out, those who I don’t think are worth the time, those who sin against me – everyone in the middle of my life. It’s about serving because Jesus loved me and took off His outer garment to take up the cross for me. And in return I can take time to serve those around me right where I am. In my church, at my job, in my neighborhood and in my home. I don’t have to quit my job or sell my house. Instead, I have to learn to love well and serve right where I am.

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Bible, Easter, Holiday, Jesus, love, Minor Prophets, Studying the Bible, Uncategorized

The weight of sin & the Love of God

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decorative sculpture in park

It’s Easter week. I am a staff pastor at a local church, and I’m sick. Yep that’s what my week is like as I write this. Good news is I don’t really have a “Key” role in Easter Services. I am not the lead speaker, nor part of the worship team which takes some pressure off, but still not the best week to be sick. Although there never really is a good time to be sick, is there? We all have responsibilities and things we do that are important and being sick, like it or not, trumps all of that.

Sickness aside it’s been a rough couple of weeks. I have had a funeral to help plan for a friend’s dad, another friend’s son was taken to rehab for the 2nd time, one friend had vocal surgery and another major surgery in a week, car accidents, kids who broke their arms. and a school lockdown that ended in peace. That’s a glimpse of my world. It’s also what I love about being a pastor. I hate that things go wrong; people get sick, but I love that God allows me to bring help to those in need.

I am in the midst of a study on Amos with women at the church. This small book has so much to teach us – it is blowing my mind. This week we are studying chapter 2. Amos is giving his prophetic word to nations that are going to be judged for their sins. It’s actually more bleak than the last couple of weeks around my world. It seems so hopeless….BUT God. There is this one strange verse that author Jennifer Rothschild points out and expands on. Amos 2:13 reads, “Look I am about to crush you, in your places as a wagon crushes when full of grain.”(Holman Standard Bible). Sounds like God is mad, and He is; but there is more to these words than you read on the page. The wagon is symbolic of God, who is weighed down with the sins of His people. A heavy wagon crushes the ground it rolls over due to the weight it carries. Jennifer Rothschild draws the understanding that God allows Himself to get weighed down from our sins. He feels the weight of sin.

Since this is Easter week my mind immediately goes to the scripture from Isaiah, “He was crushed for our iniquities” (Is. 53:5) God allowed Himself to be crushed by the weight of my sin, and yours. I read the rest of the chapter and finished the rest of this week’s study, and then just sat with the Lord. Here in the book of Amos, God is mad at the sins of the Israelites. In fact He is so mad He’s going to crush them according to this chapter. But we know the rest of the story. While Israel is “crushed” for a season – they are taken into captivity, killed, and scattered – God didn’t fully crush them. He didn’t do what their sins deserved. And He doesn’t give us what our sins deserve either. Israel is gathered back together. They become a people group again.

God hates sin. God loves sinners. God does not ignore injustice, but God does not act in wrath. It’s a mystery and a marvel all at the same time. I mentioned my week at the start of this blog. I pointed out the lows, but here are the highs. I was part of a prayer team who saw tumors dissolve, blind eyes see, a life saved from death, tears of joy, peace and love. In the midst of all that is bad God is moving and blessing, and healing, and saving. God always feels the weight of sin. It grieves His heart so much so that He finally had enough. He broke heaven open by sending Jesus to live and then die for the sin of the world. I believe Jesus felt double the weight of sin. The actual sin itself, and then the effects of that sin on others. We live in a fallen world but there is hope. The weight of the wagon won’t crush us because God won’t let it. No matter what sickness you face, or addiction your family member is tied up in; no matter how dark the darkness gets, Jesus is and always will be the light of the world. Light ALWAYS displaces the darkness. No matter how heavy the weight of the wagon God is always there to take that burden. It’s the crazy beauty of Easter. Jesus died. All seemed lost, until it wasn’t. Jesus rose. Nothing can stop God. Nothing can alter the love that is too great to understand. No circumstance is too far gone for God to redeem.

As Good Friday and Easter Sunday come, take a moment and think about what God did for you. What He saved you from. Then praise Him. If He cares enough about you to send His son to die in your place, then He cares deeply about your situation. Whether it’s due to your sin or someone else’s, God sees it; and He will not let it crush you. He is God and He will make right every wrong, He has made a way for us to come to Him. No sin is too big to be forgiven and no hurt is too deep to not be healed. Because of Jesus we will rise.

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Bible, Lord of Hosts, Minor Prophets, Names of God, Studying the Bible, Uncategorized

A fig farmer & Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot (Lord of Hosts)

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silhouette of tree near body of water during golden hour

I am getting ready to lead a study on Amos. Not a popular book of the bible so you might be asking why I chose that study. That’s a fair question with many answers. One of my favorite Bible study teachers, Jennifer Rothschild, recently released her study on Amos which is what we are going to use.

I will be honest. I didn’t know much about the book of Amos prior to prepping for my upcoming group. I knew Amos is considered a minor Prophet and that it is a book that isn’t often taught from.

However, I have learned thus far that this small, seemingly insignificant book has much to teach us. I am going to highlight two things in this blog. First about Amos and what we can glean from him as a real person who lived and breathed and tried to figure life out with the Lord in the midst of a messy world, and two the name God chose to reveal Himself by over and over in the book of Amos.

Let’s get started with Amos. After reading through the 9 chapter book and doing a little research on the book and Amos the person, I discovered that Amos wasn’t your typical prophet. In chapter 7 verse 14 we read a very interesting statement given by Amos himself while he is speaking to Amaziah the priest of Bethel. Amos says, “I was not a prophet or the son of a prophet; rather, I was a herdsman and I took care of sycamore figs.” Amos to my knowledge is the only “non-prophet” prophet in the Bible. Let me explain what I mean by that. A prophet was someone who was a disciple of other prophets, attended the school of prophets (see 1 Samuel 19:18-24 & 2 Kings 4:38-44) or was part of the prophetic guild. It wasn’t a job just any person could apply for. You were born into it so to speak. What I love about this verse and the few verses before it is that God can use anyone for any purpose He wants. Amos lived during the time when Israel was divided into two parts. The Southern Kingdom known as Judah and the Northern Kingdom where Jerusalem was the capital. Amos mostly speaks prophetically about the Northern Kingdom during the reign of Jeraboam roughly 760 BC. Amos was a farmer, and a fig farmer at that. He was a faithful follower of the Lord. You could say he wasn’t a man looking for ministry. The Lord called Amos to prophecy during a time when things were relatively good because the priest Amaziah and the rest of the religious leaders of that day become too complacent in “the good life.” In fact verse 10 of chapter 7 says, “Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent work to king Jeroboam of Israel saying ‘Amos has conspired against you right here in the hose of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words. For Amos has said this: Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will certainly be going into exile from its homeland.” (Amos 7:10-11). The Tree of Life Bible says it this way in their introduction to the book of Amos, “Amos gives a stark and sober reminder to those who live in relative ease. God is far less interested in our activities or accomplishments as He is in knowing the character of our being.” Amos was an ordinary man living his ordinary life when God told him to go speak to different nations and tell them what God was doing and what God thought of what nations were doing. And the most amazing part is Amos obeyed. He had no formal training. He wasn’t from a prominent family. He was just simply a man who heard God’s voice and obeyed. I love that because it tells me that God can use me, and God can use you. God just is looking for a faithful obedient person. So let the small book of Amos remind you that you can make a HUGE impact in this world for the Lord by simply hearing His voice and obeying.

The second thing I would like to highlight is over and over in the book of Amos God is called – Adonai Elohei-Tzva’ot (Lord of Hosts). In chapter 5 verse 27 we read, “The Lord, the God of Armies, is His name. He has spoken.” This name for God – The Lord of Hosts – is used 235 times in the Bible.  It reveres Him as being over hosts of angelic armies who gather in His name and serve at His command. All creation is subject to the LORD of Armies. The best imagery used for this name is found in 2 Kings chapter 6. Elisha warns the king of Israel where the king of Aram was since the two countries were at war. The king of Aram gets so mad at Elisha for telling the king of Israel what he is doing that he sends a massive army to Dothan where Elisha is. In the morning Elisha’s servant gets up and sees this massive army that has surrounded them. In verse 16 of 2 Kings chapter 6 we read, “Elisha said, Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us outnumber those who are with them.” Elisha prays that God would open the eyes of his servant to see “that the mountain was covered with horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” (2 Kings 6:17)

The Lord of Hosts is a powerful name of God. It reminds us that He is Lord over everything and has armies of angels at his disposal to fight and war for us. Amos 4:13 says, “He is here: the one who forms the mountains, creates the wind and reveals his thoughts to man, the one who makes the Dawn out of darkness and strides on the heights of the earth, The Lord, The God of Armies is His name.” This majestic all powerful God tells Amos to tell the people turn from evil and live. This same God who controls the wind and waves calls to us, “Seek the Lord and live.” Amos 5:4.

The Lord of Hosts is for you, He loves you. He longs for you to live for Him, surrendered to Him. And just as He used Amos to tell others of His mighty deeds and His great love, He will use you, too.

Hopefully those two thoughts from the book of Amos have piqued your interested and you two will now go study this small but powerful minor prophet. If you do, please share what the Lord shows you in this book with me here in the comments.

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Christmas, cookies, Holiday, Recipes, Uncategorized

A Christmas Kiss to Eat

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I must confess I do like to bake. But somehow I like it even more in the winter and at Christmas. It’s just not fun to bake when it’s 100 degrees. But now its cool/cold-ish and I am baking away. It helps that I have a women’s Christmas event that I am baking for at my church too!

I avoid gluten but am not celiac so I can eat it. My mom however is and she doesn’t eat gluten at all. My daughter in law is dairy free and I wanted to make something for people whose allergies or health issues cause them to not eat certain foods. I found a recipe called Coffee Kisses. They were simple and cute as you piped the dough with a star tip and a piping bag into a beautiful swirl. The recipe was not gluten or dairy free, but I thought I would give the recipe a try and swap the butter for a vegan one and the flour for one that’s gluten free. Everything was working out. I got the dough piped out real nice and they looked perfect. I popped them in the oven and waited….

Here is what the first ones looked like after they baked. So flat!

What came out was super flat coffee crisps. My kids said they tasted great. I was disappointed. So I tweaked the recipe a bit more adding more gluten free flour to stiffen the dough and adding baking powder. The result was a dough that did hold its shape but wouldn’t go through the piping bag.

Since the recipe was called Coffee Kisses, I had the idea to shape the dough into the Hershey chocolate kiss shape and bake them. They turned out great. They for sure look homemade but that’s ok because they are. Once you drizzle a little chocolate on top they are perfect. The good news is now anyone can make these – no piping bag or star tips required. Just a mixing bowl a cookie sheet the ingredients and your own two hands.

For all my gluten free, dairy free friends out there I got you covered with this recipe that you WILL be able to make on your own!

Here’s the recipe:

2.5 cups gluten free flour (I used Cup 4 Cup multipurpose gluten free flour)

2 sticks and 2.5 tbsp vegan butter (I used Earth Balance)

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsps instant coffee

2 tbsp hot water

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla

and a few shakes of the salt shaker.

Directions

Mix the instant coffee in the hot water and stir. Blend the butter and the sugar until creamy. Since it is dairy free butter it isn’t as hard as regular butter so you don’t have to bring it to room temp to mix it! Bonus!! Once that is blended add 1 cup of the flour mix until blended, then add the coffee and water mix, the vanilla, baking powder, salt and the rest of the flour. Mix until well blended. I have a Kitchen Aid mixer that I used but a handheld mixer would work just as well. I did end up mixing the last bit of flour in by hand.

Pre-heat your oven to 325. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Then take about 2tsp of dough and roll into a ball. Pinch the top to form the peak of a the kiss like a Hershey kiss has. Place cookies spaced out evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 12 mins.

This is the shape of the cookies before they are baked.
And this is after baking them. They held the shape so much better than the first batch.

Once they cool melt 1/2 cup of chocolate chips or whatever type chocolate you want and drizzle over the top.

You can add 1/2tsp of coconut oil to the chocolate to help it drizzle better.

Serve these with a great cup of coffee.

Recipe will make 35-40 cookies depending on how big you make the kisses.

**Make sure your chocolate is dairy free or if you forget that like me leave some without chocolate for those who can’t eat any dairy.

Drizzled chocolate on this whole pan before I realized it’s milk chocolate!

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Christmas, Friendship, Jesus, Thanksgiving, Uncategorized

Getting to the feet of Jesus

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person foot on water

It has been a whirlwind of a week for me. Starting last Saturday. It was the wedding rehearsal day for my second oldest son. Which was fun, confusing (lots of discussing who walks in before who, and what word in the song do we start to walk out to kind of stuff.) All in all a good day, a little surreal but good.

Then Sunday morning (church day not the wedding day because both parents on each side are pastors and well, pastors have church services we do weekly) my daughter and oldest son alert me to a shooting in a town 20-30 minutes away. Five lives have been taken and 18 more are injured. My heart breaks. This shooting is yet another hate crime. Thoughts are swirling, Why God?, How God? And then to happy nervous thoughts. Yikes, tomorrow is the big day…

Then Monday, wedding day. Great day. Lots of emotions – all happy. Then Tuesday, back to work for Christmas decorating day. Then Wednesday, finally a lull in the week. Followed by Thanksgiving which has its own set of emotions. What I am grateful for and who do I want to smack for getting in the way while food is being put in the oven and taken out of the oven in crazy amounts. And now finally Friday. Black Friday. Why do we celebrate a day of being grateful and then call the next day Black Friday? Weird. Anyway, no Black Friday shopping here. Just a quiet house for the first time in a week – ’cause there are extra friends and family around because it was Thanksgiving and a wedding in one week.

I am sitting back in my office – which was turned into a spare room for said friends and family. Life is slowly making its way back to normal or as normal of the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas can get.

I’m working my way through a study on Jesus via the book of Luke. The author, Erica Wiggenhorn, does a great job of leaving you daily with deep thoughts to ponder. Today’s is based on Luke 5:17-26. For those of you who don’t immediately know Luke 5:17-26 (if you already knew what this section of Scripture is about, you ROCK, because I would not have known without having read it this morning), it’s about the paralyzed man with the amazing friends who go to great lengths to get the paralyzed man to Jesus.

When I say great lengths I mean like physically carrying the man on a mat to the house that Jesus was in, only to find one way, through the crowds, to get to Jesus. Determined, they carry the man up the stairs (outside) to the roof, cut a hole in the roof, create some sort of pully system so they can lower the man through the hole to the feet of Jesus. That all took thought, skill, muscle and teamwork. Once the man is in front of Jesus he is both healed and declared forgiven for his sins. He leaves carrying the mat his friends had been carrying him on all night.

The author of the study (Erica Wiggenhorn) poses the questions “Are you that kind of friend? Do you have friends like that?” My answer is I hope so to both. Then she takes it further, “Are you that kind of neighbor?” If your neighbors are some of your really close friends NEVER move, because that is not so common in today’s world.

Then she says “When we become people who readily admit our own desperation for Jesus, the door opens – or the roof is dismantled – for us to become people who will do anything to bring our friends to the feet of Jesus as well as to have their sins forgiven.” She goes on to say “Are you and I ready to become mat-carrying, roof- raising, believing-the-best-for-others kind of people. Will we allow Jesus to make us people with such faith and audacity that the world is left in wonder?” (Unexplainable Jesus, pg 72-73)

As I sit here this morning, once more in my office, in my quiet home, Jesus I want to be that kind of person to my friends, to my neighbors and to those I don’t know. I want to clear a path for people to come to the feet of Jesus because He can handle any situation we lay at His feet. He can make right any wrong. He can heal, and He can forgive sins. He alone can make whole what is broken in our bodies, in our hearts and in our world.

Friends, will you join me in being people who take others to Jesus? Someone who carries those who can’t walk to the feet of Jesus? Someone who won’t stop until the hurting, the broken, or the lost are at the feet of Jesus?

Over the next month as holiday madness ensues, let us remember our job isn’t to be the best host, give the best gift, or have the prettiest decorated house… but to help take those around us, friends, family, neighbors, and strangers to the feet of Jesus.

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Prayer, surrendering, Uncategorized

Learning to sway in the wind

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I had just finished my morning bible reading. Ezekiel 12. I began praying for a friend that they would be sensitive to the Holy Spirit when I looked up from the patio where I was sitting and saw a tall palm tree moving back and forth in the wind. God began to speak to my heart.

This palm tree’s tall trunk is maybe 8-10 inches in diameter, (maybe smaller I am bad with math and guessing dimensions). It’s slightly windy this morning. Nothing major. A nice ocean breeze. As I watched the palm tree move this way and that – unpredictable movements based on the wind – I began to think, “What keeps this tree from toppling over in heavy wind?” Let me explain how tall this palm tree is. I am on the 6th floor of a condo building. This tree’s palms are barely visible to me from where I sit. I would guess the full height of the tree is 8-9 stories tall. This tall skinny tree is swaying gracefully in the breeze.

God said that if I would learn to move with the wind of the Spirit when it starts to blow, the Spirit could keep moving and I would keep swaying with it changing directions when needed, never trying to control the Spirit. Just yielding to its direction.

I have only been in Maui for a few days but I have yet to see a palm tree laying on the ground uprooted because of the wind. I also haven’t seen one broken in two from bending to the wind. What I have seen is trees moving with the wind, swaying and swinging all the while making beautiful soothing sounds with their palms.

It is so peaceful, there is a bird chirping, the sounds of the palms swishing in the air, the sight of all kinds of palm trees dancing with the wind.

My mind began to wonder – what if we all gave up control and just moved with the Wind? What if I learned to live in a peaceful movement with the wind of the Spirit? What would it be like to sway and bend as the Spirt leads instead of fearing that I might bump into this palm tree or that palm tree or worse bend too far and break?

The Holy Spirit is gentle. I know that, yet I forget that. When I feel the Spirit move, I sometimes get tense and worried. What if the Holy Spirit prompts me to do something weird or embarrassing? Yet as I looked out at the palm trees around me the Lord began to show me the beauty I would produce if I yield more to the Holy Spirit, and that I look weird when I fight against the Spirit; not when I move with it.

The swaying of the palm tree is graceful, beautiful and even a little intoxicating. I could sit for hours in this peaceful place listening to the sounds of the wind and seeing the peaceful movement the wind creates.

The Lord began to say “Give up control. Yield to me. Trust my Spirit and move with wind of Heaven, and you too will create a beautiful sound. Others will watch and be in awe of my Spirit in you.’

So today I give back the control I never was meant to have. I yield to the Holy Spirit and commit to a life of swaying in the wind.

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Friendship, Jesus, overwhelmed, Prayer, Trust, Trustworthy

Overwhelmed – When the enemy tried to knock me out and God spoke

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man near carton boxes with many different words about stress

I am sure if you have been a believer for longer than a day you have experienced a season where the enemy seems to hit you out of the blue with spiritual warfare, and then the hits just keep coming from every direction. I don’t like battles. I am not confrontational by nature. I am a people pleaser who easily can put making others happy above my own happiness. I am not a cryer, but lately you’d think I was pregnant the way I cry at EVERYTHING. You get it if you have walked through a season like this in your own life.

It started a little more than 2 weeks ago. An event that shouldn’t have had that much effect on me did. It caught me off guard and sent me into a tale spin. While I was still trying to figure out why I was angry and hurt but this situation, the attacks piled up and took me by complete surprise. After 2 weeks of stress, funerals (yes that is plural), hurt feelings, mental self esteem negative thoughts, PT for a torn ligament in my arm, and fighting with those close to me, I found myself feeling like I was drowning by it all. I began to feel spiritually bi-polar – excitedly “preaching” to my husband one moment, then tearfully exclaiming to him I give up, I throw in the towel, I am done the next. The highs and emotional lows were crazy The tears come easier than I thought was possible.

I read a devotional book personally just for me every morning and every evening. Starting my day with God and ending with God has become a new habit in life this year. On one of the hard days, I was feeling so overwhelmed by, well, everything. Then God stepped in. I cried more but this time not tears of overwhelming hurt and frustration but overwhelming tears of how God was there speaking and loving me. That night I opened my night time devotional book and the title for that day was PERSEVERE. The verse 2 Timothy 4:5 – “Be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”Persevere

The first sentence from that day’s devotional reads, “Today, persevere. Do not give up, no matter what happens.” I laughed out loud. At my church we are in a series on 2 Timothy. I had been crying out for God to show up, and He did. Just not how I thought He would. I should know by now He never moves how I think He should or will. He didn’t show up and fix the problems although I am believing He will. He came and spoke to my broken heart. He came being more worried about me and the condition of my heart than the chaos around me.

I looked up a few key words from 2 Timothy 4:5. Sober means free from illusions, being tempered and self-controlled, the opposite of irrational. I had been staring at the illusions of the enemy. I had been irrational and definitely wasn’t exercising self-control.

Hardship means enduring painful hardships that SEEM to be a set back but are not. Lastly fulfill your ministry means the use of God’s power bringing the believer to maximum potential, matching their true knowledge of Him.

I finished reading the one page devotional and my spirit shifted. I cried again, but not out of fear; out of knowing God knew how I felt and had been there with me over the last few weeks. I fell asleep in a better frame of mind than I had started the day.

God didn’t stop there. My morning devotional — The same power that resurrected Christ from the dead lives in me. The verse. Romans 8:11. In the devotional she referenced Mark 12:18. The Sadducees were a group of religious leaders during the life of Jesus who were convinced that Jesus’s life ended in a dark tomb and that there was no resurrection. The author says “As I thought how sad it is to see life this way, I sensed the Holy Spirit whisper ‘You have areas in your life where you don’t believe in the resurrection either.” BAM God was opening my eyes and heart to see where my faith was lacking. Again tears of God’s overwhelming love for me.

Resurrection power

As if the two devotions were not enough God moved further. Two bloggers I follow posted last night and early this morning, one on don’t give up. The verse “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9, ESV). God was moving telling me He is here. He knows. He cares. He’s not done, so I shouldn’t be either.

Then God got real personal. I have a friend who has hurt my feelings deeply and the worst part is that she is unaware, and I believe at this point she is incapable of seeing or acknowledging this. The other blogger I mentioned posted “How to love well when a friend hurts you”. More tears. God knows. God is here, God cares, God feels my pain, and will move and do what only He can to heal my hurts.

I am so overwhelmed by the God I serve. The only person ever to cause me tears of joy – God.

It’s a tough world right now. Hurt and pain seem to be the normal. Anxiety and stress, being overwhelmed, is just the way life is. That my friend is the lie I had allowed the enemy to convince me was true. It is an illusion. God’s word – “be sober”. God wants me and you to live free from the illusion the enemy creates. God wants me and you to live in full resurrection power. God wants you and me to not give up. God wants you and me to live in unity with other believers. Stop living the illusion and start living the TRUTH. This is a challenge for you and for me. Are you up for it? I am!!

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Bible, forgiveness, complaining, slow to anger, The power of the Blood, Uncategorized

A Journey Through the Book of Numbers – Part 5: The long awaited conclusion

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statue of st mary standing on top of rock

Thank you for taking the time to read this series post. Today I am wrapping up the book of Numbers. There are two different things I’d like to talk about in this last post. Starting in Chapter 29 I will share about the Day of Atonement and then wrap of with Moses’ angry outburst at the rock which will take us back to chapter 20.

I see so much of myself in the Israelites. They whine, they complain, God moves on their behalf, they rejoice, and then they repeat that cycle over again. Maybe the time gaps between the rejoicing and the complaining grow a little longer each cycle but yet they go right back to being complaining whiny babies. It is so easy to see sin in someone else than to acknowledge in your own heart.

While I was reading through Numbers I came across a verse in Chapter 29 that seemed to scream stop studying this and learn from this. It reads like this “You are to hold a sacred assembly on the tenth day of this seventh month and practice self-denial; do not do any work.” Numbers 29:7. Practice self-denial. I don’t know about you but I am horrible at this. I mean H-o-r-r-i-b-l-e. We live in the land of ‘I want what I want when I want it’. And I have adopted that life style more than I would like to admit. And the not work part – what?? I am always working, either for the church, or doing house work, or doing something for the family, or working in the garden because it helps me destress from all the work. That’s just life in America right? That is the norm, right? I mean I know we take a Sabbath but if I am honest that just means grocery shopping and finishing whatever household things didn’t get done that week, and maybe reading the Bible and watching a show.

So I sat with that. Prayed about it, thought about it and then studied it. What I learned is how the Jewish culture, at least in Biblical times, prepares for the Day of Atonement. For those that aren’t familiar with it, the Day of Atonement is the one day the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies and offer sacrifices to atone for the sin of themselves and their nation. They did this every year along with all the other required sacrifices throughout the year.

The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, is the climax of a 10 day period where the Jewish people reflect and repent for their lives and actions over the last year. They spend from the 1st day of the month of Tishri which is Rosh Hashanah until Yom Kippur repenting and looking internally at the condition of their heart. These 10 days are called the ‘Days of Awe’.

The Torah states that on Yom Kippur the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies and call upon the name of Yaweh to offer a blood sacrifice for the sins of the people. A life for life sacrifice. Once again we see how the book of Numbers points us to our need for Jesus who was the High Priest who could legally go into the Holy of Holies and He Himself offered His life in place of mine and yours and every person who will accept Him.

However, in my studying I found that 40 days before Yom Kippur is the ‘Season of Teshuvah’. This 40 days is the period of time marked on the Jewish calendar that Moses was called to go back up Mount Sinai and he then received the second set of tablets of the 10 commandments. Moses went up to Mount Sinai no less then 3 times, each for 40 days at a time. The last time Moses went up was on the 1st of Elul and he descended 40 days later on the 10th of Tishri which is now Yom Kippur. This 40 days between the 1st of Elul and the 10th of Tishri represents the time of national sin and forgiveness obtained by Teshuvah before the Lord. Teshuvah means “turn towards God.” It is a time of soul searching and offering prayers for forgiveness.

I had decided that I would observe Lent this year. Just me and God. I wasn’t doing this for a study but because I personally need to reflect on where my heart was, spend some time with Jesus, and get prepared to celebrate Easter. (As I have said in other posts I struggle with the Holy Holidays turned secular like Easter and Christmas.) I wanted this year to be different and was believing this 40 days of Lent would help with that. I tell you that because they day I researched and learned of the Season of Teshuvah was on March 2nd, 2022 – the first day of Lent. We see that in the old testament God was setting up practices and applications for his people to see how wicked they had become, turn and repent, and accept that one sacrifice was sufficient to cleanse them of unrighteousness so they could continue in their relationship with the Lord. Jesus is our atonement for sin once and for all. He is that sacrifice that allows me, a sinner, to stand in the righteousness of Christ before the Lord. I was blown away at God’s goodness and provisions for maintaining relationship with His people.

What great lengths he went to, to show us His love that was always there for mankind. The day of self denial is the day you realize it isn’t you that makes you clean. You can’t be holy enough for God’s standards without the blood of a sacrifice. A life for a life. It is a day and a season to reflect on how much I need Jesus. I must deny myself, take up my cross, dieing to my wants and my ways, and follow Jesus and His ways. Because His way leads to life and mine leads to more work, more effort only to end up so off from the mark I was aiming at.

And Now on to Moses and why he didn’t get to enter the promised land. Chapter 20 recants the story of the Israelites once more complaining. This time it was a about lack of water. Which, by the way, God had already shown them many times how He controlled the water. He turned it into blood in Egypt. He parted the Red Sea so they could cross over to safety from the Eygptians. And He provided water in the desert when Moses hit the rock and water poured out. So why can’t they just believe God will provide? Hmmm. I see myself there. God has healed people I have prayed for. He has provided for me time and time again. And yet when it comes down to it, I freak out, complain, ask God why He is doing this to me, only to have Him show me His love and answers to my situation once again. Turns out seeing isn’t believing after all.

This time God tells Moses to speak to the rock and water will come forth. But Moses is human just like us. He gets mad just like us. He does things out of pride just like us. Instead of speaking to the rock He hits it twice and water comes forth. Moses disobeyed God and yet God provided for the people and for Moses. Don’t miss that. Moses sinned and God still moved despite that sin. But then we read that because Moses didn’t obey God he won’t enter the promised land.

I have always struggled with this. It seems so harsh of God. In fact, too harsh for the God who loves unconditionally. But the story doesn’t end there. The book of Numbers is not the last time we read about Moses. We read once more about Moses in Matthew 17:1-9 Jesus takes Peter, James and John up on a high mountain and He is transfigured in front of them. He shows them his glory, and who he really is – part of the Trinity of God. He Himself reveals His Holy-self to them. Verse 3 of chapter 17 reads ‘Suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.” Moses shows up on the mount of Transfiguration and is talking with Jesus. Moses is standing on a mountain in the Promised Land with Elijah and Jesus.

In the book of Numbers we read that God allows him to see the Promised Land. But years and years later Jesus stands with Moses in the Promised Land. God redeemed what sin caused Moses to lose. His ways really are better.

The book of Numbers reminds us of our propensity to sin. It also reminds us that God made a way to redeem us from our sins through the blood of Jesus. God’s heart is for us, it always has been and it always will be. And even when we think we have blown it so bad that God redeem our situation, He stands and talks with us as we experience His promises. God is faithful and more loving than we will ever know. And the book of Numbers reminds us of that, through all the ups and downs, sinning and repenting; God never gave up on them, and He will never give up on you.

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forgiveness, complaining, slow to anger, Jesus, Steadfast love, The power of the Blood

A Journey Through The Book of Numbers – Part 4 Grumbling and Complaining

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angry wife explaining problem during quarrel

In this part of the series on the book of Numbers we will be focusing on a major concept in the book – complaining, grumbling and discontentment. We won’t be so much looking at specific chapters because it seems someone is either complaining to Moses and Aaron, or grumbling against God, or both.

In chapter 11 we see the people complain openly before the Lord, and He responds with fire on the outskirts of the camp. Then a rabble in verse 4 (a reference to possible Israelites that married Egyptians, or Egyptians that fled Egypt with the Israelites) enticed the Israelites to continue complaining. The complaints didn’t just stay among them. That’s the thing about complaining and being grumpy – it affects those around you, and more often than not complainers get a following. One discontented person can cause those around them to become discontented which is what we see in chapters 10-14.

They complain about food, meat, water and even the promised land in chapter 14. Moses sends spies to see the land that God has promised to give them. Eight of the ten bring back a bad report saying the land has strong people with fortified cities, that they will never be able to conquer. Two of the spies remind the Israelites that God had promised them a land flowing with milk and honey, a good land a fertile land. They even bring the proof that the land is all that God had promised – a cluster of grapes they brought back had to be carried on a pole by two men (see 13:23). God had never lied to the Israelites. They even had visual proof of Him keeping his word. But the people focused on the wrong thing. The focused on the enemies of the land instead of the Lord’s promise to hand their enemies over to the Israelites.

It’s easy to look at this part of scripture and think, “Silly Israelites. Don’t they remember how the Lord delivered them from Egypt just a year ago?” But we all do that. God does something amazing in our lives, we celebrate, we praise, we rejoice, and then we go back to our lives. Sickness comes, heartache happens, and we wonder why the Lord has abandoned us in our time of need. One of the things repeated often in the Old Testament is to remember the great and mighty works the Lord has done in their midsts and for them. When we stop reminding ourselves and those around us of the great deeds that God has done, we fall prey to our old way of thinking about God. We see this happen over and over again.

If you learn nothing else from the book of Numbers remember this. God does not like having His character questioned. When the Israelites started saying that God had brought them out of Egypt only to die in the desert short of his promise, He responded. And each time His response got stronger. First, fire on the outskirts of the camp, then to a whole generation missing the promised land, to Miriam getting leprosy, plagues breaking out, and an entire clan being swallowed up when the ground below them opened up.

The complaining even got to Moses in chapter 20:10-12. The people had been complaining once more – this time because they had no water. Moses and Aaron sought the Lord, and He told them to go speak to the rock and water would pour forth. But Moses had had it. He took credit for what God wanted to do when He said, “Listen you rebels! Must we bring water out this rock for you?” God doesn’t like sharing credit, or His glory. So He told Moses and Aaron that they won’t go into the Land He promised. This sounds harsh and it is, but Moses was the closest person at this point to God. God spoke to him in ways unprecedented. Moses had allowed the hard-hearted bitterness of those around him to affect him. We do that, too. Just spend 2 hours with a whiny, grumpy toddler and see how patient and kind you are at the end of that 2 hours. Every mom has experienced this. It’s crazy how a toddler can turn a perfectly calm mom into a screaming maniac.

Our attitude matters. We who have chosen to make Jesus our Lord and Savior, are called to represent Him, and do it well. Verses like, “Do all things with out grumbling or complaining” (Philippians 2:14), and “Whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:23-24) are not just good advice. They are commandments to follow. Not just for our sake but also for the sake of those around us. How are we to make Jesus appealing to a lost world if we complain and grumble more than those without Jesus?

In the middle of the season of complaining that Israel is going through the Lord reminds them once more of His true character. Chapter 14:18 says “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and rebellion.”

In chapter 19 we have this weird section of scripture. In the middle of all the complaining and bad attitudes toward God that the Israelites had, God gives Moses and Aaron an outline of a purification ritual. It is not the normal sacrifice. This one uses a red heifer that has no defect and has never been yoked. There is much in these few scriptures that point to the need of redemption through blood. The red heifer was to be burned outside the camp. Jesus was crucified outside the city walls of Jerusalem. Cedar wood, hyssop and crimson string were also used in the ritual. Jesus was hung on a tree, they gave Him wine and vinegar from a sponge attached to a hyssop branch, and the crimson string represents His blood that was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

Once more we see the book of Numbers remind us that God had a plan for redeeming His people all along.

To read the last blog in the series click here.

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A Journey through the book of Numbers – Part 3 Camping with a Cloud and the 2nd passover celebration

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unrecognizable traveler standing on mountain top and admiring landscape

For this blog on the book of Numbers we will be focusing on chapters 8-10. If you haven’t read the previous 2 blogs on the book of Numbers, you can do so by clicking here for part 1, and clicking here for part 2.

In chapter 8 we see that God has given helpers to Aaron and his sons – the entire tribe of the Levites. The Levites have to be dedicated to be able to serve God and Aaron. Again in this chapter we see that God has claimed the first born of every male both human and animals alike. In place of the first born male of the Israelites God has taken the Levites.

Not everyone is called to be pastor or priest as Aaron was. But that doesn’t mean that pastors/priests don’t need people to help them. Serving at a church is a blessing to pastors. Whether you serve on staff or as a volunteer, it takes a “tribe” to do it. Every job of serving is a help and a blessing. From serving coffee, to greeters and toddler teachers, they are all helpful and needed. Just a little plug for volunteers.

Chapter 9 is the 2nd Passover. Or really the first time that they are to celebrate it as a remembrance of what God had done for the Israelites. This is an interesting chapter to me. God has specific rules for celebrating passover which left some of the Israelites unable to celebrate the passover. There are a few lessons to learn from this chapter. First, God is a god of grace. He is righteous and Holy, and because of that He make rules and regulations, but He is not ridged. He make allowances for those who don’t meet His holy standards. Isn’t this just another reflection of what God did by sending Jesus to take our place, and die in our place? We didn’t meet God’s holy standards, so He made a way for us just like He made a way for those Israelites who were ceremonially unclean and couldn’t celebrate passover.

The next things we learn is from Moses. The Israelites bring their concern about some not being able to celebrate passover to Moses and He answers them in verse 8 saying ‘Wait, and I will inquire what the Lord commands concerning you.’ Moses didn’t give a quick reply, He didn’t respond with his opinion either. He knew this was something only God could answer. It would benefit us all if we took a moment to seek the Lord’s answer to questions.

In chapter 10 we see the Israelites are on the move once more. God has the Israelites make trumpets out of hammered silver. This gives Moses a way to call either all the Israelites or just the tribe leaders. Remember there are over a million of them with women and children. When they break camp and travel, the Ark of the covenant is to go ahead of them symbolizing God leading them. In verse 35 of chapter 10 we read what Moses would say when the Ark would set out. “Arise Lord! May your enemies be scattered! May those who hate You flee from before You! Return, Lord to the myriad thousands of Israel!” This sounds like a good thing to declare and pray before moving the people of God. This is one of those times when looking into the original Hebrew words and finding their meanings helps give a brighter picture of what is actually happening. Arise is the word Kam and it’s a verb that means move into position to attack. Moses is calling God not only to lead them but to be in position ready to attack and defend the Israelites behind the Lord. The whole phrase is a little word picture showing that the Lord would rise up away from the Ark and go out ahead of the people and do battle on their behalf, and then return to rest on the Ark and stay with the Israelites. What a picture. God is with you, then He goes before you clearing your path fighting your battle and then returns to go with you. God is a God of relationship. He protects you and fights for you and when that is done He wants to be there right in your midst until He has to go and fight for you again.

The book of Numbers may sound boring by its name, but it shows us over and over God’s love and plan for redeeming His people and bringing them to the promised land live with them and among them. It points us towards heaven, our promised land, and reminds us while we are here traveling through this foreign land, among hostile people, God is with us. God is fighting for us, and leading us home.

To continue to the next blog about the book of Numbers click here.

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A Journey Through the Book of Numbers – Part 2 – God’s remedy for Jealousy

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yellow ceramic mug with water droplets in time lapse photography

In part 1 of this series I shared how God had revealed his plans for salvation in the first and third chapters of the book of Numbers. You can read that blog by clicking here. Now I want to look at chapter 5. The chapter I have titled “God’s remedy for jealousy”.

In the beginning of this chapter we have God telling the people how they make compensation for their sins. In verse 6 we see how they handle sins committed against another person. It goes on to say that person acts unfaithfully towards the Lord and is guilty. God is saying if you sin against someone it is as if you are being unfaithful to me your God, because I have chosen you to represent me to the earth and to be my people and I will be your God. God values people. He feels our pain and hurts as if they are his own. So when you sin against another person, it is as if you have done that act directly towards God himself. That thought right there should make us stop and think before we act. This is Becca’s theology so take it as you want. I believe God uses the word unfaithful in verse 6 of this chapter to link to verse 11-31 which is about potential unfaithfulness in marriage. God is a covenant God. A concept I feel is lost in our western modern culture. A covent is a binding promise. One you can’t just walk away from if you don’t like how things are going. It is for life, for good and for bad, it’s not an option to not fulfill one’s covenant vow. God made a covenant with you when you confessed that Jesus is your savior. He says He will be your God from that moment on. Whether you are good or bad, you now belong to Him. He may punish our sins, but He won’t stop being our God. Because of Jesus our sin cannot separate us from God, but it can invoke His jealousy.

Which leads us right up to verse 11-31. God understands jealousy. He calls Himself a jealous God – see Ex.34:14, Deut. 6:15, and Ex. 20:5 for a few examples. He wants our undivided love, our full devotion, love and affection for Him and no other god. So understand this emotion. God sets up a way for us to handle this emotion. If a man has suspicion that his wife has been unfaithful, he is to bring her to the priest who is to give the woman a test to see if she has been unfaithful or not.

Ok let me stop right here and address a few things – first, this is weird I get it. It is an odd way to work this out in a marriage. And it does seem very unfair to the wife, because there is not a test for the man. First we have to realize this is written in a time when men had many wives, thus making it hard for men to be considered “unfaithful” (Don’t blast me with anger on this topic, I don’t know why God allowed this in the Old Testament.) The culture when this was written is a male dominant culture we can all agree, but that doesn’t make the principal behind this strange ritual invalid. Just keep reading and keep your heart open to what the Lord is saying here, and remember I am a woman writing this so to all you feminists who want to shout unfair I feel you, but hang in here with me for a little while longer.

Here is how the ritual went. The man would bring the potential unfaithful woman to the priest who would have her stand before the Lord, take dirt from the tabernacle floor mix it with water, remove her head covering, and place in her hands the grain offering for jealousy. The woman is to take an oath saying if she has not been unfaithful this water will not bring a curse on her stomach; however, if she has it will bring a curse causing her belly to swell. The priest is to write the curses on a scroll and wash the words he wrote off in the water and have the woman drink it. The priest then takes the grain offering the woman is holding and burns it, then she is to drink the water. If she is guilty her stomach will swell, she will get sick and be unable to have children. If she is not guilty then she will be fine and the water won’t effect her. If she is found guilty she is to bear her own iniquity.

Alright here is what this says – God does not want a husband to linger in his thoughts of jealousy. He wants to quickly restore trust in a marriage. Application for today – take that feeling to God, men. Ask God who is truth and light to reveal truth and bring anything that is hidden into the light. I believe women who feel jealous about their husbands should do the same thing. Go stand before God and ask Him to bring light to the situation. And let me just point out right here that God does not say if the woman is guilty the man can divorce her. He simply says she is to bear her iniquity. If this is where you find yourself, that one or the other in a marriage has been unfaithful, seek out a Godly counselor, spend time in deep prayer, seek God like you never have before, and trust Him for healing.

For the woman, God is her defender. If her husband has wrongly accused her, God will let it be known. The word says righteousness protects the innocent. If she has done nothing wrong then God as her defender will prove that. And then she is to trust God to heal the jealous heart of her husband.

In this ritual known as ‘Sotah’ the name of God was dissolved into the water. In the Hebrew culture it was forbidden to erase the name of God. This is one reason that they don’t fully write out the name of God. But here we see God allows His name to be dissolved and ingested by the woman. God wants to rebuild trust in a marriage so much so that He allows His Holy name to be used in a way that is not allowed in other circumstances. In this ritual description in Numbers chapter 5, we see the phrase ‘before the Lord’ 4 times. The dirt from the tabernacle floor and the dissolved name of the Lord points to the presence of God. God wants us to take our feeling of jealousy to Him, if and when needed we will involve church leaders to help heal the marriage. God is personally invested in marriage as it represents His covenant with us.

Remember God calls Himself a jealous God. He understands feelings of jealousy and the hurt that follows. He also calls Himself merciful in Ex. 34:6. He is the defender of the innocent as seen in Psalm 18:1-2. God wants to be in the middle of our marriage, in the middle of the mess, in the middle of our jealous hearts. He wants to heal. He went to great lengths to prove this in creating a ritual just for this purpose.

Today we don’t have to take our spouse to the church and have the pastor or priest give them some weird concoction to drink, but we should take them before the Lord in prayer, and trust God to show us truth and heal us.

The remedy for jealousy is prayer, going before God, and asking him to show us the truth. Then trust Him to heal what is broken whether in our own heart due to our own issues, or in the relationship due to poor choices. God is merciful. He is a restorer. He is our healer. Trust Him with the process and know He understand.

To read the next post in this series click here.

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A Journey Through the book of Numbers – Part 1

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numbers projected on face

I have never done a series on my blog. So this is a first. And yes, I am starting with the book of Numbers. I know I know I hate math, too, but this book is amazing. I began reading it in prepping to lead a Bible study this summer by Lauren Chandler on the book of Numbers. The study is called With Us in the Wilderness . I haven’t started hers yet, just thought I would read through the book and use the First 5 App from Lysa TerKeurst to have a second source of info when leading this study.

Just in the first two chapters I was blown away by all God was speaking and showing me. The book of Numbers isn’t just a list of Numbers and census of biblical Israel. It’s so much more. So I will start with my insight from chapters 1-3.

Chapter 1 starts out with the Lord asking Moses to take a census of the people. Seems boring, right? But in everything God does there is purpose, and most of the time that purpose is mind blowing. All the tribes were counted but the Levites because they were to work in the tabernacle and had specific duties in moving the tabernacle. Then once everyone was counted Moses, by command of the Lord, tells the Israelites how to camp. Remember they had just been freed from slavery in Egypt and are now making their way to the promised land. Moving more than 1 million people through the desert wasn’t an easy task and didn’t just happen over night. We all know they camped in the wilderness for 40 years, but that was due to some discontented people we will talk about in later blogs. However, I think even if that didn’t happen it still would have taken some time. So the people had to learn how to camp, how to break camp, and how to fight.

God is intentional in everything He says and does. This census that Moses took led to teaching the Israelites the best camp formation for them. When they stopped and set up camp they were to do so in a specific way. The Tent of meeting or Tent of the Tabernacle was to be in the middle. One three sides of the Tent of Meeting were the Levites camps, leaving no Levites to camp on the east side of the Tabernacle. There, the largest group would camp – the tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. To the north the tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. The west side was Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin. And last the south where the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Gad camped. Because Moses took the census, He knew where to place the bigger tribes. Why is that important? Because God wanted Moses to keep the Tabernacle safe from an attack. With the tribes strategically placed, there were fighting forces all around the Tabernacle with an inner force of the Levites.

Ok so you might be thinking, so what? God protected the Tabernacle. Take a look at this picture from my Holman Woman’s Study Bible.

Do you see it? They camped in the shape of a cross. With the Tabernacle at the center. Pretty cool right. Even in the book of Numbers God is speaking to us about His plan for salvation. And that is just chapter 1.

We see again the concept of redemption in chapter 3. In chapter 3 we see God asking Moses to take a count of all the Levites, the tribe that is closest to the Tabernacle and the ones who are put in charge of caring for the Tabernacle, the sacrifices, and the offerings given to the Lord. In verses 12-13 of chapter 3, we read that the Lord has taken the Levites in place of every firstborn Israelite because every firstborn belongs to the Lord.

After Moses numbers the Levites we discover that there were 273 more men in the other 11 tribes than there were in the tribe of the Levites. An atonement price is set at 5 shekels of silver for those who out number the Levites. Verse 48 calls it a “redemption price”. Jesus is the first born male of God who is perfect without blemish who was sacrificed in our place. The book of Numbers helps us see that even in the Old Testament God had plans for redeeming His people. He was foreshadowing all that Jesus would one day do, while making provision for those who lived before Him. God is full of love and wants to have relationship with His people. From the Old to New Testament, that has never changed.

I can’t wait to share God’s remedy for jealousy in the next part of this series on the book of Numbers.

To read part 2 click here.

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Behold-look, Taste & See There is always hope.

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Psalm 34:8

As we moved from 2021 to 2022 a few words and a verse were rolling around in my head. They are my anchor for whatever lies ahead in 2022. Let’s face it; for me the last 4 years have been a roller coster of great times and some of the lowest times in my life. I am longing for everything to just level out in my life. No new surprises, less stress please, and just a season of steadiness with God. I am sure many of you feel the same, maybe not from 4 years of weirdness, but certainly from the last 2.

So as I began to look ahead to this year, God began to highlight the word BEHOLD in the Christmas story. Then He began to show me how many times He says behold in other parts of His word. The first place the word behold held my attention was in Luke 2:10. I know Christmas is over and it is weird to talk about a “Christmas verses” in January, but check this out. The word behold doesn’t translate directly to English. We use the word look. But when the Bible says behold it’s more like LOOK–STOP EVERYTHING AND PAY ATTENTION TO THIS RIGHT NOW!! Like someone is yelling and full of excitement or fear or both. It conveys an intense call to focus on something. So when you read behold, it’s like God is call attention to the very next thing said. In the case of Luke 2:10 it is the Good News of the Gospel that’s for ALL people. (I promise to stop yelling at you through text now, just trying to make a point).

The thought has been rolling around in my head, do I behold the Good News? Do I live with the truth of the Gospel front and center in my thinking and acting? If I am honest, I don’t. And God began to whisper “what if you did?” What if I took the whole truth of the Gospel into my life and lived like it was true in all situations? Would I still have pain and problems? Yes! Would pain and problems matter as much in light of the fact that, because of Jesus and what He did at the cross, this broken messed up world is not my permanent home? If I focus on the reality that one day there is a place where there will be no more pain, hurt, or even death, would it change my heart in the here and now? I believe the answer is yes.

Because of who Jesus is and what He did when He took the sins of the world upon Himself so that I could live in right standing with God there is ALWAYS HOPE. (Sorry last yell/typing I promise.) With God this world isn’t the end. Nothing is hopeless with God because nothing is impossible for Him. (see Mark 10:27 or Matthew 19:26.)

Enter the word hope. I mean what a word. Hope – it brings a smile to your face just saying it. It changes dark to light in your mind when you allow for even the slightest sliver of hope to enter. Hope means we aren’t stuck in our situations or circumstances forever. Hope means things can change. Hope means we believe what God said, and He said “I have overcome the world” in John 16:33. Hope means what we see here isn’t all there is to see! Ahh how I love that I can behold hope.

As I began this year with the plan to behold hope in all situations and remind myself of the hope that the Good News brings, God led me to a verse to focus on for this year. Psalm 34:8-9. ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good.” The word taste means to perceive, and the word perceive means to become aware of, or conscious of something; to come to realize or understand. The word see means to take head, to see, to experience, to advise ones self.

God is showing me that what I behold becomes what I believe. So if I behold the hope of the Good News and I taste, or perceive, God’s goodness and I see God’s goodness; and when I don’t see it I advise myself of the truth of God’s goodness; then this year, however it turns out, won’t matter much, if at all.

So instead of putting my hope in a new year to bring the change, the steadiness, the peace, I long for; this year I am beholding the hope of the Good News, and I am going to experience the goodness of God by tasting and seeing.

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What kind of sign are you?

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snow wood road traffic

Everyone is fighting for something these days. Whether it’s public safety issues like vaccines and mask mandates, to school curriculum content, to saving the earth. I think it is great that people are finally taking an interest in the laws and rules that affect their daily lives. My issue is not what you are fighting for but how you are fighting. Before you get all offended keep reading, and hear me out.

Two phrases keep rolling around in my head; one from the Bible and one from well known Bible study teacher Beth Moore. Beth asked the question in her Daniel Bible study “do you regularly wound the enemy?” That is a very thought provoking question. If I am honest my answer is no, not even close. I am a conflict avoider in the natural and most definitely don’t go looking for spiritual warfare. However it seems that spiritual warfare has found me. So the question stands ‘do I regularly wound the enemy’?

The second phrase is from Psalm 86:17 it says “Make me a sign for good, so that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. For you, ADONAI, have helped me and comforted me.” (TLV version of the Bible.)The word sign according the Lexicon means “a token for good.” In other words David is saying “Let me reflect goodness so that those that are not good will be ashamed.” Why would David pray that? I believe the answer is two fold. One so that his enemies would realize that they took the wrong side. And two that they might realize ADONAI is the one true God. The whole Psalm is about God who is slow to anger and full of steadfast love.

My question to you today is not where you stand on issues but rather how are you taking that stand? Are you allowing God who is slow to anger to show His steadfast love through you? Are you being a sign of the goodness of God as you fight for whatever it is? At the risk of offending you, have you asked God where He is at on the issue? Have you sought Him to see if this is the battle he wants you in? If you have, then I say go for it. If you haven’t asked Him, please do. So much more is at stake here, truthfully more than personal freedoms. How we represent God when we stand for a public issue has monumental effects. Are you allowing God to use you as a ‘token of good’? Or is it more about what you want? Are you allowing the steadfast love of God to influence your voice on the issue? Are you showing lovingkindness to those you are opposing?

Back to the Beth Moore quote. As you take your stand on your issue, what impact are you making in the spiritual realm? Are you regularly ‘wounding the enemy’? Or is he using you to wound others? My point in this blog isn’t that you stop fighting for what you feel is right. It’s that you do it as a believer who cares about the souls of those around you who don’t know Jesus, and that you are aware of the enemy’s schemes. You should be taking a stand for personal freedoms and injustice and school curriculum and all the other hot topics that are out there right now; but how you take that stand might be more important in the long run than what you are standing for. Matthew 16:26 says, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole word, but forfeits his soul?” (TLV version).

There is a way to fight that honors God. You can take a stand and still be used as a ‘token for good.’ You can regularly wound the enemy (not your opposition but your true enemy the devil) and voice your opinion. If you yield your heart to the Lord on the matter and ask Him to use you, YOU will be a light in the darkness, and make an impact. As you fight for your issues ask yourself, “Am I being a sign for good? Who or what am I really wounding here?” Then in the words of 2 Timothy 4:7, go ‘fight the good fight, finish the race, keep your faith.” Be a lasting sign for good.

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COVID 19, Jesus, Uncategorized, wisdom

Wise serpents, innocent doves, defenseless sheep, among ravenous wolves.

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sent among the wolves

Christians everywhere are asking and seeking the question how to survive this world. I get it. The speed at which COVID changed the face of the world was astounding no doubt. Personal rights and anxious thoughts mingle in minds everywhere. Yet the questions remains, how do we as Christians move forward “post” COVID? I want to know is there really a “post” COVID life? Will this thing ever end; will we ever return to the “normal life” we once knew? And what does God say about all this? What Bible verses do I cling to, to make it to the other side, whether that is the other side of COVID or the other side of eternity?

God woke me up at 2:50 in the morning to answer this for me; in my life where I am right now. What He told me in the early hours of the morning I believe applies to us all. He said be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I knew He was referring to Matthew 10:16 but at 3:30 in the morning what I didn’t know was what that really meant. Now thanks to the internet, my Bible and some good coffee (yes I am drinking coffee again, and at 3:00 in the morning none the less) I believe I understand just what God was speaking to my heart.

First, we need to understand some terms from Matthew 10:16. The verse reads as follows, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” From this verse we see that God is sending you, me, us out. What does that sending entail and what does it mean to be “sent” by God? The word sent is Apostello in the Greek. It’s a verb that closely connects the sender with the sendee. Meaning God is sending us but not without Him going with us which is extremely goodness since we are being sent as sheep among wolves. You see, sheep are innocent animals who are completely defenseless. And wolves, well they are ravenous animals with an appetite to devour sheep completely without even the tiniest shred of guilt for doing so.

The next word we must look at is wise. The word wise here means our personal perspective that regulates our outward behavior. We get our English word diaphragm from this Greek word. It denotes being savvy or shrewd.

Lastly we look at the word innocent. It is the Greek word akeraious and means unmixed, pure; not a destructive mixture because it is not tainted by sinful motives.

Now with those words as our anchors we must look and understand the animals in this verse. I am for the most part a city girl. The most I know of sheep is that they can cause you to sit in your car for a long time while they cross the road. A lesson I learned on a mountain rode in Peru. I know that in the Bible we are called the sheep and Jesus is the Great Shepherd. I really have no personal experience with sheep, other than the knowledge I have gleaned from others who do have that hands on experience. And according to Commentator Matthew Poole, sheep are feeble animals with no natural armor to defend themselves. Wolves I think I know even less about. I know they are or maybe were becoming extinct in Colorado where I live. I know that pictures of them howling at the moon are common place in southwest & mountain art. Basically I knew nothing of great value about them until today. I learned that they are a natural predator of sheep. Wolves are rapacious creatures. Second to last, the dove. The one animal I thought I knew the most about, after all a pair of them lives in the pine tree across the street from my house. I often watch them fly back and forth from my yard to their tree. I know they are symbols of peace which is refreshing after learning about the big bad wolf. I know they are faithful and loyal type animals based on the story of Noah. The dove is the bird that kept coming back to him on the ark after the rain stopped and eventually brought him an olive branch to show him new growth had started on the earth. Lastly, everyone’s favorite, the serpent. I don’t mind snakes as longs as they don’t mind me. I have the opinion that we can both live around each other as long as we never have to see one another or interact with each other. However, I was most fascinated with learning about them. They aren’t evil per se. In fact, according to this verse they have some good traits we can borrow from. The serpent uses various arts and stratagems for its own preservation. It does its best to protect its head, its most vulnerable body part when attacked. Interestingly the Bible says of the serpent from the Garden of Eden that it will strike Christ’s heel, and Christ will stomp its head. Our mind is where the enemy often strikes first. Just an observation.

Ok so now we know the meaning of some key words, and have new understanding of the animals in this verse. Let’s put it all together and understand what Jesus is telling us.

He is the one sending us, and in that sending we should always stay in close proximity to Him; because we are sheep and left to ourselves we WILL be devoured by our enemy. And let’s face it, like it or not we live among our enemy. The Bible describes the devil (our enemy)as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and as prowling around seeking whom he can devour. See Matthew 7:15 and 1 Peter 5:8 for references on these. We are called to do 2 things among the wolves where we have been sent; first be wise as the serpent; and second, be as innocent as the dove. Those two animals don’t go together in case you didn’t know that. It is a tension we are called to live between, a wonderful tension. Commentary Jamieson Fousset Brown calls it “unflinching zeal and calm discretion”. The wisdom of the serpent saves us from exposure to unnecessary danger, and the innocence of the dove from sinful situations. In Barnes notes on the Bible he says it this way, “Most people would foolishly destroy a serpent be it ever so harmless, yet few are so hard-hearted to kill a dove.”

So we live in this, “post Christian society” “post COVID world” with the wisdom of the serpent – avoid unnecessary dangers and the ability of an innocent dove to fly away from sinful traps. We live as sheep who fully trust the Shepherd to keep us from being eaten by the wolf. We don’t worry, and we don’t strike first. We don’t stir up trouble or strife, but if we can’t avoid it we keep our heart as innocent as we can while we watch where the Shepherd is leading us.

We don’t live in fear because we have a good Shepherd that we walk next to. We use the wisdom God gives us to maneuver around traps, and dangerous places; all the while keeping the innocent mindset that goodness does exist. And all people have the possibility of being radically saved.

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Jesus, surrendering, surrendering, Uncategorized

Surrendering the little things for God’s bigger purposes.

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No bowl needed!

God has been speaking to me about being set apart for Him. Truly living a surrendered life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To be honest He isn’t just speaking about this any more to me He is shouting, and it’s high time I respond. But what I am learning this that response is harder than I thought it would be. Let me explain a little and I bet you can relate.

To live a life fully surrendered to Jesus as King means He has total control over every area of my life. From what I eat to what I do with my downtime (hint scrolling on Facebook isn’t His priority for me) to when I wake up in the morning. These may sound like small trivial areas but they rule me. Because right now pride rules me. ‘I want what I want when I want it’ has subconsciously become my motto. It’s hot outside and a bowl of ice cream would surely cool me down. So what if it’s 10:00pm. I’ve worked hard this week. I deserve to veg out in front of Friends re-runs that I have seen so many times I know all the lines. I didn’t sleep good last night so I will just turn that alarm off and catch a few extra Z’s. Without meaning to, I have taken control of my life while proclaiming to live for Jesus. None of those things are bad in and of themselves, but they so easily can become my default that I leave no room for God’s plans.

It all started with a definition of humility (the opposite of pride) that I read in a book called The Daniel Dilemma by Chris Hodges. He says “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, humility is thinking of your self less.” It hit me like a ton of bricks. I think about myself a whole lot. I make excuses for myself a lot too. If I am honest I am running my life, not God, because I think about what I want more than I think about what God wants.

God wants all of my heart surrendered to Him. He wants to know that what He wants is higher than what I want. He made it loud and clear in my current Bible study Elijah Faith and Fire by Priscilla Shirer. In it she talks about what it costs to live a life where Jesus is on the throne in every area. She has you look up a couple of verses about putting God first and what it will cost you. And that is where God began to shout, “If you don’t learn to obey in the simple small tasks and set aside your desires for my plans, then you will NEVER be able to do it when it’s a BIG issue and real souls are at stake.”

Hebrews 11:15-16 reads (speaking of those amazing people from the Old Testament that we look up to in the “Hall of Faith”) “If they had been thinking of the country they left, they would have had opportunities to return. Instead they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

Did you catch that? ‘God is not ashamed’ meaning that He could be ashamed of them had they chosen the easier road, the comfortable path, the way of convenience, the self satisfying route. The word ashamed means fitting disgrace. Properly disgraced like someone who is singled out because they misplace their confidence. Shame that matches the error of wrongly identifying with something.

The next verse really brought this all home for me. We looked up 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. Verse 2 seemed to jump off the pages. “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” In Ellicott’s Commentary for English readers, he states that “We can scarcely realise now the stumbling-block which the preaching of a crucified Christ must have been to Jews and Greeks, the enormous temptation to keep the cross in the background which the early teachers would naturally have felt, and the sublime and confident faith which must have nerved St. Paul to make it the central fact of all his teaching.” And he also says: “St. Paul did not dwell on the miraculous in the life of Christ, which would have pandered to the Jewish longing for a “sign”; nor did he put forward elaborate “theories” of the gospel, which would have been a concession to the Greek’s longing after “wisdom”. “

You see Paul was a smart man, a highly educated man, a man who knew what he was talking about; but rather than allow his pride in himself rule, he put Christ first. He didn’t give in to what he wanted but rather what Christ wanted. He held to what God wanted rather than what the people around him wanted to hear. He didn’t give in to himself or seek the approval of man over God.

You see if I can’t obey Christ in the private, simple areas like eating and sleeping, how can I squash my selfish wants when people are watching? When people are judging? When people are waiting to approve of me? When the ways of the world are so much easier, and for a few moments seem better?

Priscilla Shirer calls this life a consistent pattern of sacrifice. Sacrificing what I want when I want it so I can have what God wants when He wants it.

I know it won’t be easy, but I know deep in my heart that the reward of knowing God is not ashamed of me and being positioned so God can use me to make a difference for Him in this life far outweigh the cost.

It’s time to count the cost and go for gold…Live fully surrendered to Christ.

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Bible, Jesus, love, Memorizing scripture, Prayer, Steadfast love, Uncategorized

Determined

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person touching rock

Only once before have I come across a word in the Bible that sends me on a wild chase through scripture to understand the word at its core. The first time was steadfast love – hessed. The Lord has given me a new word to study, meditate, search the truest meaning, and then apply to my every day life. Just as understanding hessed at depths I can’t explain I now carry that word along side a new word, sterizo.

I first encountered the word in a Bible study I am doing called Determined – Living like Jesus in Every Moment by Heather M Dixon. It is an in-depth study of the book of Luke, and an amazing one at that. One of the days in the study she leads you to study Luke 9:51 “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (NKJV)

Tucked in this verse we find the word that now has grabbed ahold of my heart and has become a tether from my heart to God. It really is the whole phrase “set His face” that means sterizo. It simply means to firmly fix; direct myself towards; give support to secure; to set ones face as flint; a Hebrew expression.

So me being me, I began to study this little Hebrew expression to fully understand. Along the way I unearthed some amazing facts about this expression and learned new things about flint rock. To put all that information in a nutshell, it means to have unwavering determination to accomplish a purpose or a task.

Using Jesus as our Biblical example it meant everything He did from the fall in the garden of Eden to His resurrection from the grave was about getting to the Cross of Calvary. It was always about becoming the sacrificial Lamb of God for you and for me. When He was here on earth He lived with that purpose in mind.

MacLaren’s Exposition’s found on Biblehub.com (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/9-51.htm) explains it this way:

“As we look up at that Cross we know not whether is more wonderfully set forth the pitying love of Christ’s most tender heart, or the majestic energy of Christ’s resolved will. The blended rays pour out, dear brethren, and reach to each of us. Do not look to that great sacrifice with idle wonder. Bend upon it no eye of mere curiosity. Beware of theorising merely about what it reveals and what it does. Turn not away from it carelessly as a twice-told tale. But look, believing that all that divine and human love pours out its treasure upon you, that all that firmness of resolved consecration and willing surrender to the death of the Cross was for you. Look, believing that you had then, and have now, a place in His heart, and in His sacrifice. Look, remembering that it was because He would save you, that Himself He could not save.
And as, from afar, we look on that great sight, let His love melt our hearts to an answering fervour, and His fixed will give us, too, strength to delight in obedience, to set our faces like a flint.”

Charles Spurgeon even wrote a message about this topic that he preached on Nov. 28th, 1880 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Newington. His whole message points to lingering with the idea that the Lord loves us so much that He spent decades of time determined to save us from our sins. It’s a long message but well worth the time to read it and ponder his questions in your own heart before the Lord.(https://answersingenesis.org/education/spurgeon-sermons/2738-the-redeemers-face-set-like-a-flint/)

For me, I want to learn to live with my face set as flint towards God every day. Determined to accomplish His purpose each day. Determined to spend time with Him daily. To linger in His presence. To have a heaven-minded agenda for my life lived out each day.

This word sterizo means seeking God daily. Being on purpose in my quiet time to learn His heart, His plan, His love for me all over again. It’s having a resolve to say no to things that are lesser than God’s best for me. It’s having courage to not participate in things that pull me off course from pursuing His heart.

I know it won’t be easy, but I know that with the aid of Holy Spirit and studying Jesus’s determination, I can do it. I can look to others in scripture like David, Daniel, and the apostle Paul who lived this life of a face set like flint on following the Lord.

It will at points be tirelessly hard, but oh so worth it. I wonder who else has a resolve in their heart, and has set their face like flint to follow after the Lord?

For additional scriptures on sterizo read:

Daniel 1:8

Gen 31:21

Deut. 11:18

Daniel 6:14

2 Kings 12:17

Isaiah 50:7

Luke 16:26

Luke 22:32

Romans 1:11

Romans 16:25

1Thessalonians 3:2

1Thessalonians 3:13

2Thessalonians 2:17

2Thessalonians 3:3

James 5:8

1Peter 5:10

2Peter 1:12

Revelation 3:2

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New Year Resolution, Prayer

A new year, a new journey

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The new year, a new beginning, a clean slate. As if all that 2020 brought is just gone and we can move on. Wouldn’t that be great. If 2020 brought us anything, it surely brought anxiety. A year full of unknowns produces anxiety at some level for us all. Some it hit hard, others barely felt it, but it was there – the big WHAT IF……..

What do we do with anxiety? How do we handle our own anxiety and help others process theirs? Me? I lead a couple of Bible studies on the subject. My only way to combat life’s issues is to see what the word of God says about it. The studies were good. I learned a lot. I hope those who joined me in the journey did, too.

And with the start of 2021 I honestly didn’t feel the heavy pull of anxiety that I had last year. It wasn’t even really something I had thought of until I started reading a book about prayer. It’s a challenge really to up your prayer life, stop praying the polite Christian prayers, ‘Lord bless our day, our food, our thoughts, be with us in all ways….’ start praying things like ‘not my will but your will.’ It’s a good book thus far.

Then I read this: ‘Search me, God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’ Psalm 139:23-24

It seemed to me to be inviting God to know my anxious thoughts. Inviting God to search them out and reveal them to me for what they are – sin, lack of faith, disconnected from truth. Ouch and wow all at the same time.

When I think of anxiety, verses like 1 Peter 5:7 “cast your anxieties on the Lord”, and Philippians 4:6-8 “be anxious for nothing but in all things pray” jump into my head. But never the idea of letting God examine my heart. More than examine, search it completely.

I am not down-playing anxiety at all. I have experienced it, been controlled by it, and even medicated for it. It’s no joke! And if you don’t know it through experience, then you don’t know. But that being said, my heart is wondering, my brain is swirling. Could there be something to inviting God into knowing, searching, and leading me through my anxiety?

I don’t have answers right now. I just know God is stirring something deep in me. Challenging me, maybe, to trust Him with knowing my anxious thoughts. Knowing deep parts of me I keep hidden from everyone – even myself at times. Maybe He is wanting to lead me to new freedoms that can only be found in the testing of God in my life. One thing I do know. This is where this year starts for me. Where it goes and how it ends I do not know. But I will start with this: God search me and know my heart.

Will you join me on this journey? Ask God to search you and know you. The you He knows may be different than the you that you know. But to be known by God is a good thing. To get deeply personal with God is a great thing. And being led by God, well, it can only lead to personal freedom with Him.

So let’s give it a try. I mean let’s be honest. It can’t be worse than last year, right? And maybe, no probably, no it will be, the best year yet!

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Bible, Jesus, Prayer, Trust, Trustworthy, Uncategorized

Jedidiah it’s more than a name!

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As is the case with many of my blogs, this one stems from a Bible study I have been doing called Get Out of Your Head by Jennie Allen. I highly recommend this study, in case you were wondering.

I have learned a lot over the last 6 weeks in this study, but the big take aways are these: I have a weird mind and thought life, and I think about myself way too much. Much more than I ever realized I did. That realization led me down a new path of unhealthy thoughts. Our minds are so complex.

Have you ever tried to trace your thoughts – where they come from or what makes you think that way, to where a thought is leading? The Bible actually has a lot to say about what we think on and how we use our minds.

Over the past few weeks I have realized I need to reign in my mind. It goes 100 miles a second and it’s all over the place. I do a good job hiding this for the most part, but ask my close friends and husband. I don’t stay focused on one thing for very long. Something I feel the Lord is wanting me to work on – that good old fruit of the Spirit called self-discipline. But that’s a blog for another day. What I want to focus on in this blog is Philippians 4:8, and believing lies versus truth.

In the study Get out of Your Head, the author points out that most lies we believe stem from 1 of 3 categories. I am helpless. I am worthless. I am unlovable.

I struggle with the last two. I used to struggle with all 3, but God helped me get out of the trap of the first. And I believe He’s helping me get out of the last two, as well. Here’s how. When you start believing a lie for truth, you have to go back to when you first started believing it and deal with what happened there that made your thinking go awry. Sometimes that involves repenting, and sometimes it involves forgiving someone, and sometimes you need to do both. In my situation I needed to do both. The repenting part was easy, but the forgiving part? Well that was harder. It involved forgiving myself as well as a few others. Then once you have done that you need to replace that lie with a truth from God’s word. This part sounds easy, and in theory it is. But if you want to 100% believe that truth in your heart and not just in your head, then it takes a work of God.

I struggle with seeing my self-worth. And for many of you reading this who know me you are thinking, “Why would she struggle with that?” Sometimes others see things you never see about yourself, and we are often harder on ourselves than others are or even then God is.

The other day I was praying honestly not about my self worth but about feeling like there is so much in the world that I was bringing to God to fix, heal, change, un-do; the list goes on. Then I stopped and thought, “I want God to do all of this for me, but what does God want me to do for Him?” So I asked Him. And He said, “Look up who Jedidiah is in the Bible.” That might have been one of the strangest things I have had God tell me. But when I looked it up, it changed me forever.

I am sure you are wondering who this Jedidiah is that you probably have never heard of in the Bible, right? Well the answer to that can be found in 2 Samuel 12:25. “…and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.”

Feeling confused right now? So was I until I looked at who God wanted to call Jedidiah and what Jedidiah means. Jedidiah is Solomon. And verse 25 is the only time he is called Jedidiah. That in and of its self isn’t to jaw dropping, is it? But it means “Loved by God.”

Right there in my living room, God told me all He wanted from me was for me to know I am His Jedidiah; that I am loved by the Lord. I just sat there in awe. I had just unloaded a huge list of big issues on the Lord, and all He wanted in return from me was to know He loved me.

I can’t say I am fully over struggling with my self worth. But I have a new truth that no one can take from me. THE LORD HIMSELF TOLD ME I AM LOVED BY HIM!! And if that isn’t enough to stop believing a lie and turn to truth, I found this other little gem in my study today.

We were looking up the original meaning of the words in Philippians 4:8. You know the “think of these things” verse. When I came to lovely, here is what I learned. Lovely in the original language here is “prosphile”, and it means worthy of personal affection, worth the effort to have and to embrace. Once more I heard God whisper, “You were worth the effort to have and to embrace, you are worth my personal affection.” I just sat at my desk stunned, humbled, and feeling special all at the same time.

Will there still be days when I will struggle with my self worth? I am sure of it, but that struggle won’t last but a moment because when the one who is Truthful tells you His truth about you, it changes you into a Jedidiah. And that reality silences any lies about my worth.

So I challenge you. What one of those 3 lies are you stuck in? How did you get stuck there? Once you know that, repent or forgive or do both, and then ask God to whisper His truth to you. Warning. It will change you forever.

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Bible, Jesus, Steadfast love, Trust, Trustworthy

The Non-Negotiable

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Non-Negotiable

My church is doing a series called Non-Negotiable. And a good friend told me she wished the blogger she followed would post more. So Kim, this one is for you!

The Non-Negotiable idea got me thinking about what things in my life are non-negotiable. I came up with a few, and then I started thinking, “What are my non-negotiable with God?” I boiled it down to one big one that I think is very applicable to life right now mid-pandemic (are we in the middle or the end or who knows where we are in this mess?) That aside, here it is – my big non-negotiable: God is always, always good and loving. There you have it. But allow me to explain. How we think about God determines a lot of how we live. If we think He doesn’t really care or that there is no God, we throw caution to the wind and “party like it’s 1999”. If we believe He is judgmental and always looking for us to mess up, we live in fear and strive for perfection. If we believe we have to earn His love, we spend our life trying to find ways to do better, to help more, to give more, never feeling at rest because there is always more to be done.

But if we live believing He is good and loving then we are at ease and feel free to be ourselves. But how do we process a God who is loving and good in the midst of death, financial ruin, chaos, riots, and strange viruses. Again, the answer is simple. Pre-determine that God is good and loving and kind.

I am prepping to do a Bible study on our thought life. Which has led me to read a book on the mind and how our brain works. I am by no stretch of the imagination a girl of much science. I still get amused at baking soda and vinegar volcanos. But science is fact. And according to many super smart scientists, what you think determines your actions and actually changes the chemistry of your brain. For more on this topic, do the study by Jennie Allen, Get Out of Your Head, or read the book by Dr.Caroline Leaf, Switch on Your Brain.

Ok, back to the point. God is good and loving. I said you have to pre-determine this. What I mean is before life takes a turn for the worse, you have to already know in your mind and in your heart this truth. It has to be decided on as a sure thing. If not, when things go bad, or life isn’t what you wanted or expected you will lose your footing and find yourself hopeless.

I have lived this truth out more than once in my life. The year 2015 was one of the harder years of my life. My son was sick and doctors couldn’t tell us why, but they did keep throwing around the C word a lot. We spent a lot of time and money to see every -ologist there is at Children’s Hospital; had surgery, did a biopsy all to find nothing really. On top of all that I had my 3rd foot surgery and was in a walking boot while pushing my 15 year old in a wheelchair into these appointments.

I lived it out again in 2018 when I lost a dear friend to cancer, watched another friend walk through divorce, our church staff changed dramatically, and finally the death of my dad.

And the last one – 2020. It started out rocky for me on a personal note that I’d rather not mention. Then COVID hit, my son missed his graduation, my daughter missed junior prom, SATs and ACTs were canceled making applying to college a little rough. And all the other issues you all have been experiencing right along side me this year.

Isaiah 50:7 says, “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me. I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like flint and I know I will not be put to shame.” Two things from this verse help us pre-determine God is good and loving. First the Sovereign Lord, meaning the God who is always in control. Nothing in our lives catches God by surprise, and nothing in our lives is waisted time or events. God uses it all. The second is set my face like flint – means set in rock, un-changeable, it also means pre-disposition.

The Bible is full of verses about God’s goodness and love for mankind. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says that He knows the plans He has for us, and those are good plans.

The best part is you can change the way you view God at any point. Changing how you view Him will change your disposition. If you believe He is good regardless of what is happening around you, then you can stand in the middle of a mess and say God is good and someway, somehow He will use this for good, even if I never see how.

Think about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from Daniel chapter 3. These men had set their faces and hearts like flint when they said, “O Nebuchadnessar we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescuce us from your hand, O king. But even if He does not we want you to know Of king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18

I don’t know what the rest of this year brings. I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know how God can use this, but I do know He will; and He is good and loving and that is non-negotiable to me. Will you make it non-negotiable to you?

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Bible, Jesus, love, Parenting, Prayer, Raising Teens, Uncategorized, wisdom

Real change is possible

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Love all people

Have you ever had God drop something in your heart that you weren’t sure what to do with? Then you start getting bombarded with others saying the same thing, only in their voice or through their walk with God. Well that’s where I am right now. So I say it is with much thought, prayer and confirmation that I write this blog.

We have been having great, sometimes intense, conversations in our house relating to recent events. We have discussed topics from social justice, to the danger of generalizations and totalitarian statements, to voicing your opinion on how to bring about social change. Parenting teenagers is harder than I ever imagined. It’s hard to parent through these issues because all my children have their own view point and a unique calling from God that brings with it a unique filter in which they view life events. Not to mention I want them to think for themselves, develop their own conviction with the Holy Spirit, and be who God created them to be – no mini-me’s!

All of those discussions, conversations, have me thinking and praying for wisdom, guidance, and how to respond (not to my kids, specifically, but to life events). Then, unbeknownst to them, people around me have been adding to these thoughts and prayers with God. And here is where I land.

Every person is God’s creation. Ephesians 2:10 applies to everyone. And because the creator is so great, everything He creates bears His greatness. Think, the Mona Lisa is famous and has great value because of the one who painted her. That is my base line of truth. If you are a believer I am sure you can agree with me here. Building from that, how can we make that truth not only known but lived out in our homes, communities, cities and nation? This is where I got stuck until I heard from God.

In my Bible study we were asked to read Exodus 2:24-25. “God heard their groaning and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.”

I am not saying I have a solution but I do have an action to take. God began to stir prayer in me. Specifically this prayer: “God hear the cry of those oppressed and suffering unfairly. God remember you sent your son into the world to reconcile the world back to you, to set the captive free. So God would you please look at my family, my community, my city, my nation, God; and would you become concerned with them?”

I know that prayer alone may seem like a weak stance; however, one of the pastors I work with had an amazing revelation from God on this. She said God told her “There is a Spirit of activation in the air right now. Activation in prayer. Wickedness twists the discernment of activation to activism. We want to see change, want to help, to do something. Activism looks like a lot but accomplishes little; while activation in prayer looks like little but accomplishes much! Do not forsake prayer!” Thank you Amy Martinez for sharing that powerful word.

Slow down read that again. As Christian we are called to act, but wisdom in how we act will be the difference between real change and surface level accommodations.

Prayer is powerful. Pray. Ask God the Almighty to move on behalf of someone or something. Only God can change hearts. So while it is a quiet action, it has a powerful punch. Let’s face it. People are not our enemy here. It is the one who comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. (John 10:10)

I read another blog this morning on this topic and he said:

“I believe God is asking us to look to Him right now, more than anything. It doesn’t mean we ignore issues. No. But unless we drink right now, we will only regurgitate the fear and hysteria of the media that sounds wise but is the twisting tongue of Leviathan which places a veil over those who aren’t discerning it. It’s a call to intimacy and seeking the heart of God when most are wanting to raise their hands to fight.

Nate Johnston Everyday Revivalists
Email: everydayrevivalists@gmail.com
Website: nateandchristy.co
Taken from the Elijah List email distribution.

I want to see things change. I want to live in a place where people are treated with kindness and care. I want to end senseless deaths in America. But I understand I can’t do that in my own strength and power. God is calling us to fight along side Him to bring about a change of hearts and mindsets and bring real justice. Will you join us?

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Bible, COVID 19, Easter, Holiday, Jesus, The power of the Blood, Uncategorized

A Sacrificial Easter

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Easter is in a few days. I’ve been feeling like I should write something about it, but I couldn’t figure out what. I just chalked it up to the fact that this year’s Easter is going to be, well, quite different from the ones in the past. Then I woke up this morning and thought, that’s it!

Yes, this Easter will be very different from every other Easter you have ever celebrated. There won’t be neighborhood egg hunts. There won’t be churches full of people. There won’t even be big family gatherings. No fancy Easter dresses, and no pictures with the Easter bunny. Different indeed.

But the more I thought about all that there won’t be, I began to think of all that there will be. There will still be the day that Jesus died on the cross (Good Friday as we know it); and there will still be the day that Jesus rose from the grave. Which is all we need for Easter. The things we are missing this year aren’t specifically bad. Maybe God is removing them so we can focus on Him and what He sacrificed at Easter.

If you’re like me, and I am going to guess a lot of you are, you don’t like sad things. I think it’s maybe our western culture. We don’t do well with death; especial an unfair one at that. So when we mention the cross we call it Good Friday and then skip over to the resurrection – the happy part of the story. So today I’m choosing to camp on the hard part of Easter – the sacrifice. Because without the sacrifice and hardship that Jesus was and did, there would be no Sunday celebration.

Stick with me here. We see it throughout the Bible. Sacrifices are common in the Bible. Maybe so common we skip over them, or maybe we think they are mean, or maybe we simple don’t understand them. But they are there. Specifically blood sacrifices. We see them applied to both forgiveness and healings.

The first sacrifice made was in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3:21 where the Lord made garments of animal skin for Adam and Eve. An animal gave it’s life, and bled to cover them. We see over and over animal sacrifices for forgiveness of sins. In Leviticus 14:3-7 we see a bird sacrifice for healing of a disease. We even see Jesus tell the man with leprosy after healing him to go show himself to the Priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing. (See Luke 5:14)

You see the cross and the Blood that Jesus shed and the beatings that He took were His great sacrifices for us. The stripes that he bore are our means to healing. We can proclaim that we are healed by the Stripes of Jesus (Is. 53:5 and Matthew 8:17). We see in Eph. 1:7 and Hebrews 9:12-14 that we have forgiveness and are made righteous by the Blood of Jesus.

So this Easter, as things look a lot different than what we are used to; let’s look at Easter in a way we maybe aren’t used to either. Take time to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus made. Take time to understand the power of the Blood. And then on Sunday praise Him from a new place of understanding. Shout praises to the one whose Blood truly makes us clean.

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Bible, Easter, Holiday, Uncategorized

The Simple Gospel

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The Gospel was not something I heard much in my world. I mean, I was used to hearing other words like sharing your faith, living for Jesus. But the use of the word Gospel just wasn’t around much, until recently. I just finished a Bible study by Christine Caine (which I would highly recommend) called 20/20. It’s about how we are all seen, chosen and then sent. Hence the word Gospel being used.

But it also came up in two different books I am reading that are completely different topics, but both both about God. All this use of the word Gospel got me thinking. I mean I am a pastor and I do know what it means, but maybe I didn’t know ALL that it means.

I am sure you are familiar with the word Gospel used as in the 4 Gospels of Jesus. AKA Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And I am sure you have probably known the word Gospel in the sense to share the Gospel with someone. But could you say anything else about that word?

The word Gospel is a rather simplistic word. According to Websters definition it means: the message concerning Christ, the kingdom of God, and salvation, one of the first four New Testament books telling of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ also: : an interpretation of the Christian message. Ok simple enough.

Right about now I am sure you are thinking why is this woman writing about this? It’s common knowledge and so far boring. Stick with me.

The Gospel I believe is more than the definition above. It should be a way of life. The first definition is concerning Christ, the kingdom of God and salvation. Yes the Gospel is the road you take to find salvation in Jesus Christ. But from there it is how you conduct your life.

“I received Jesus Christ by faith in His gospel. And it was in and through this gospel that I saw God. In my seeing God through the eyes of faith, illuminated and bright with the gospel’s light, sin could no longer compare to the King of Glory. I’d laid eyes on Someone worth dying for because His death had both lifted my own and ensured that I would be able to die to all that kept me from Life.” Jackie Hill Perry author and poet.

Jeff Vanderstelt stated in his book Gospel Fluency, “The Gospel doesn’t just bring about forgiveness of sins and save us from Hell. The Gospel of Jesus Christ empowers us to live a whole new life today by the power that raised Jesus from the grave.”

Now those are definitions that can get a girl excited about the Gospel. And as Easter is approaching in a little more that a month from now, I am thinking what would it be like if I lived out these two Gospel truths. What would my life look like in a month from now if I lived each day fully aware of the big and little sins that steal my heart away from Jesus but knowing I had the power of God inside me to overcome every time they speak my name? What if I lived fully believing that things don’t have to be the way they are; that by the power of God I can remove idols like TV and Facebook and those things that I go to for attention or to simply turn my brain off? What if I said no to them and Yes to Jesus’s power?

What if I looked at those sins in my life I dare not mention on the internet -the things I keep hidden; knowing that they don’t have any real power over me because the resurrection power of Jesus lives in me?

What if I started sharing my faith with my friends and family not because I don’t want them to go the Hell (which for the record I don’t) but because they are missing life while they are living?

What if the Gospel, a seemingly simple and boring word, became to me and others who read this what it was always meant to be? A powerful, awe inspiring word that leads us to be amazed at a God who is so much bigger than we know.

Will you join me for a month? Will you ask God to daily show you how He wants you live this day in light of the Gospel of Christ? If you do, please share in the comments how it impacted you and others around you.

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Advent, Bible, Christmas, Holiday, Uncategorized

The Season Of Advent

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Oh Advent how you make my soul relax, sing, and full of what matters most. Advent season starts traditionally on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and goes for 4 or 5 weeks depending on your religious affiliation. But I’d rather not focus on specifics of Advent but rather the intention and meaning of it.

The word Advent means “coming”. In general it means arrival of a notable person. But to me, Advent means so much more. I have done some sort of Advent calendar for years with my kids. There are so many creative ways to do the traditional Advent calendars on Pinterest. I think I have probably done most of them. But this year I decided to branch out even more in the world and season of Advent and do two Bible studies on the subject.

Both studies focus on slowing down and taking time to notice all the sensations of the Holiday Season. They both focus you on Jesus but in very different approaches. For the Christian, that is the purpose of any Advent activity – to focus on God, not ourselves, our wants, our desires. In the words of Ann Vankamp, “He begs us to spend the attention of Advent on the little, the least, the lonely, the lost.”

I shared a blog about Advent last year. You can read it here. This year, my intention in studying Advent a little deeper is learning to find God in every day, and honor Him with every day I live. I am focusing on the little things; slowing down and taking time to savor reading the Bible this season. Paying attention to needs spoken or unspoken by those around me. Taking them to Jesus and seeing how I can be used to help someone else encounter God in a deeper way. I have challenged myself with activities from both studies I am doing right now. If you are looking to do a study on Advent, I would highly recommend either of them. The Greatest Gift by Ann Vankamp and LifeWay Christian Resources women’s study called Advent – The Weary World Rejoices.

As I take time over the next few weeks to prepare my heart and my family for Christmas, I want to know that I am preparing for the right thing, the right reasons. Not a season of chaos, over-indulgence, stressful parties, and endless shopping; but rather on making a lasting difference in the people whose lives intersect with mine.

However you get ready for the Christmas season, I want to encourage you to make Advent part of your traditions. Take time to recognize what really counts this year. Slow down to notice those who really matter to you. Make space in your schedule for God to speak. Then make a resolve to follow through on what God speaks to you. Be courageous this Holiday season. Share what you really believe about Christmas. Take a step of faith and bless someone who can never bless you back; tell a stranger that Jesus loves them. Share your faith journey with someone, and invite them to start their own journey with Jesus. Be intentional about what has your focus and where you give your time. Don’t let the chaos around you determine how you respond to this season.

For traditional advent readings click here.

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Bible, Prayer, Uncategorized, wisdom

Life Lessons from the Book of Esther

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A while back I posted a blog about what I was learning from studying the book of Esther. Now I am on the last week of studying Esther with a group of amazing women from my church. And while I have learned a lot, the 3 big take-aways are: 1. God uses those in the shadows to affect the outcome of the start (see blog post We all have a part to play). 2. How we approach God in prayer when we are feeling attacked. And 3. the impact of seeing God’s hand in every situation we face.

Since I already explained what I mean by the first take away I will jump straight to the second and third. How we approach God in prayer matters. We can learn a lot on how Esther approached the king with the news that she and her people were set to be destroyed. She asked the king if she had favor in his eyes. We don’t have to do this. We already know we have God’s favor (see Psalm 84:11 or Psalm 5:12 for a couple of examples.) Esther wanted the king to see that he did indeed care for her, that he felt favorable towards her. Once that was established, she used that favor to her advantage. She exposed what the enemy had planned for her. Esther 7:5-6 says “King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, ‘Who is he? Where is the man who has dared to do such a thing?'” Esther said the adversary and the enemy is this vile Haman.” We have a King who favors us, but do we point out to Him in prayer who our enemy is? Do we expose the plans of the enemy to our King? Esther didn’t ask the King, “Please, if it’s in your will can you stop this attack of the enemy?” All she had to do was point it out and then let the King respond. When I am feeling attacked, I ask God to help stop the attack of the enemy. I don’t think that is wrong, but I think there is more power in exposing what the enemy is doing to me and then let the righteous anger of my King respond. The Bible says over and over He hears our cry; He rescues us. (See Psalm 34:17). So why not pray something like this? “God, do you see what the enemy is trying to do to me? The one you favor! Your beloved! How are you going to deal with our enemy?” God is our shield, our protector. We don’t have to ask Him to act on our behalf. We know He will. We just need to let Him know it’s more than we can handle, and we need Him to intervene on our behalf.

The 3rd lesson was pointed out to me in the Beth Moore study on the book Esther. She used original language to point out that the words “portion”, “favor” and “lot” in Esther are all connected in the original Hebrew. In Psalm 16:5, the Bible says, “Lord, you have assigned me my portion and my cup. You have made my lot secure.” In other words you have given me all things. You keep me secure in the midst of all things. Beth Moore’s words sum it up best – “No matter what life – or Satan himself – hands us, the favor God has on His children causes that “lot” to tumble out on the table in such a way that instead of destruction, the child will discover that her portion turned into destiny one trusting step at a time. When all is said and done, she will see that the portion God assigned her was good. Right. Rich. Full of purpose.” (It’s tough being a woman Bible study page 208)

So when life throws you a curve ball you weren’t expecting, remember God is working all things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. – Romans 8:28

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Bible, forgiveness, complaining, slow to anger, surrendering, surrendering

When God’s Way Seems too Hard – Remember Who You Serve

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glory to god book

I am smack in the middle of teaching on the book of Ezekiel. This week we are going over one of the hardest chapters of the book– and that’s saying something. Chapter 24. If you are unfamiliar with the book here’s a quick recap. Ezekiel is a priest and a prophet. He just turned 30 in the beginning of the book; he could now preform priestly duties on his own. Except he was captured by Babylon and taken into captivity. But captivity is where God uses him to speak, to lead, and to prophesy. This is the first of many things Ezekiel did that was not the way he thought life would go. That right there is a big lesson to learn in and of its self. God’s ways are not our ways. (Is. 55:8-9).

Ezekiel has spent 5 years trying to help the Israelite captives understand the consequences of their sins, as individuals and as a nation. They haven’t listened. Now, in chapter 24 the last time Ezekiel prophesies to the Israelites before turning his attention to the surrounding nations, we find this HARD thing God asks him to do.

God tells him “Your wife will die, and you are not to mourn her death.” This seems like a punch to the stomach from a God who is loving and forgiving, and kind and slow to anger. Questions like “How? Why? And really?” almost jump out our mouths as we read this. It doesn’t seem right, and for sure doesn’t sound like God. And yet it is God, and it is what He says.

How do we reconcile this with the God we believe in? To start we must look at what God is doing and not just what He is saying. I don’t for a moment trivialize what Ezekiel had to have thought and wrestled with. God has asked Ezekiel to do some very strange and not so easy things to get the attention of the Israelites. But this seems too much. Enter Ezekiel 24:18 – “So I spoke to the people in the morning, and that evening my wife died; and the next morning I did as I was commanded.”

I think Ezekiel is my favorite Old Testament person. He lived a life that shows what it truly means to put God first. Something we say but do we really do? He did. He is an example that it is possible to live with God being truly #1 in our lives; above job, above our comfort, above our family (kids, husbands, mothers and fathers.) Above it all.

So we know Ezekiel chose God first but why would God ask this of him. While God’s mercies are new every morning (Lam. 3:22-23) and He is slow to anger (Psalm 103:8 and Ex.34:6), He is also just (Deut. 32:4) and a God who is jealous over us (Ex 34:14.).

For me, understanding and accepting this hard side of God came when I read verse 13 of chapter 24. “In your filthiness is lewdness because I have cleansed, and you were not cleansed.” Stick with me for a moment. Ezekiel is a prophet who is called to physically act out what God is saying. He is the visual aid so to speak. Ezekiel isn’t who God is speaking to in verse 13. Verse 13 is to those who have taken God’s forgiveness lightly.

No one wants to admit it but we all have done that at times. Hanging on to that sin we have repented of, asked to be freed from, but won’t let go of. That one thing we cling to a little tighter in our left hand while holding our right hand out to God. In the word of this Old Testament Book the Idol we have in our heart that we hope no one (not even God) sees. God is asking Ezekiel to give up his wife for the sake of His Glory. And he does.

The other day I was visited by a religious group going door to door to share their “faith”. I watched out my window as adults (not teens, not even young adults, but men and women older than me) got of their cars, gathered, prayed and went out. One man stood at the end of my driveway for several minutes – head bowed, what I assumed to be praying. Then his partner joined him and together they walked up to my front door. I walked outside, explained to them that I am a pastor and secure in my faith, had no desire to debate my believes, and blessed them. Upon returning to my front door, I felt the Holy Spirit asking me what I am doing to make my God known to the lost world? Would I be willing to go to strangers, risk being yelled at, having doors slammed in my face all for the chance to share the gospel? Would I humble myself for the sake of someone else’s salvation. Would I put God above my own comfort? Would I be willing to walk through pain if it meant someone else would truly repent and turn from their wicked ways and be saved? What would I give up to spread the fame of who My God is to the world?

This hard chapter of Ezekiel reminds us that God is God and we shall have no other Gods before Him. Not my comfort, not my wants, not my spouse nor my children can have the space that God has in my heart. God may never ask me to give up my family for Him, but He does daily ask me to give up my ways and wants so that my heart is fully yielded to Him. So that my heart is humble and willing to pray for those who don’t yet know Him, to serve those who I feel don’t deserve it. To honor those who I want to discredit. To live a life that shows the world around me that God is first, and I have no other God besides Him.

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